Shrimp Zucchini Boats

 

Shrimp Zucchini Boats

One of my Facebook friends posted a pic of some stuffed zucchini that she made. The pic looked so good that my mouth was starting to water. I asked my friend what was in her stuffing. Her stuffing contained: shrimp, breadcrumbs, red bell pepper, onions, garlic, thyme, oregano, Tony's, and Italian cheese blend by Kraft. My FB friend got the recipe from food.com. I checked out the site but I'm more into allrecipes.com. It is my go to site for cooking. I lucked up and found Seafood Stuffed Zucchini Recipe

I didn't follow the recipe exactly but rather used it as a springboard for my own creation. My end result was delish!

Ingredients

• 3 zucchini, halved lengthwise
• 1 pound raw shrimp (peeled)
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 slices of bread
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• 1 teaspoon seafood boil
• dried oregano
• dried basil
• ground black pepper
• salt
• 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheese blend

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. With a large spoon, scoop out the centers of each zucchini half, reserving the meat.
3. In a skillet combine the reserved zucchini meat, raw shrimp, garlic, seafood boil, oregano, basil, black pepper, and salt. Cook on medium heat until the shrimp turn pink.
4. In a small bowl add slices of bread with a little liquid (about 2 tablespoons) from the skillet. Smash the bread and liquid together with a fork. You want to make sure that both slices are soggy. 
5. Stir the soggy bread and breadcrumbs into shrimp mixture in skillet.
6. Arrange the zucchini halves in a medium baking dish. Generously stuff the halves with the shrimp mixture.
7. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown. During the last 5 minutes, add cheese to the top of each zucchini boat.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies (PB&O Cookies)

So I have been experimenting in the kitchen today. I wanted some peanut butter oatmeal (PB&O) cookies but vegan style. The end product was delish! I used the "Wheat-free Chocolate Chip Cookie" recipe from Veganomicon as a springboard for my own creation. Here is my recipe for PB&O cookies:


1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds
1/4 cup coconut milk*
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup oat flour**
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey***
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla

*If you don't have coconut milk in your fridge, then any dairy free milk such as almond or soy should work just fine.
**I make my own oat flour. I dump an entire containter of old fashioned oats in my blender. I blend it together until it looks like flour. Then I dump my oat flour back into the original container. I store it in the fridge.
***If you are a hard core vegan, then use agave nectar :)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix together ground flaxseeds and milk. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl,  sift together flours, baking soda, and salt.

Make a well in the large mixing bowl. Add brown sugar, sugar, honey, peanut butter, canola oil, and vanilla into the well. Mix everything together.

Drop the dough by the tablespoon onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. You should be able to make about 18 cookies.

Bake for 10 minutes.

Remove cookies from the oven to cool for about 5-10 minutes before enjoying!

Why vegan?

Why vegan? Why not vegan? I'm convinced it is clean and healthy eating. I've done my own research using various resources (vegans I know, books, documentaries, blogs, etc.) Books such as Fast Food Nation and Forks Over Knives really have me convinced that a plant based diet is the way to go. Unsanitary and inhumane conditions on farms and meat factories makes me sick to my stomach. Eating something that once had a face and a mother is wrong. I have not totally given up all meat and dairy. This morning I ate oatmeal and drank coffee. Lunch I ate a veggie sandwich from Jimmy Johns. It was so good! Next time I'll have to tell them hold the cheese and mayo but double up on the sprouts, cucumbers, and avocado spread. For dinner, I ate chicken strips with a spicy peanut and spinach sauce over udon noodles. I put the strips on the side of the noodles (the vegan dish I was trying). I liked the dish! I gave my two boys, ages 2 and 3, the non-spicy version of the pasta. The youngest ate some while the oldest turned up his nose. I figured since they like peanut butter, then they would like the sauce. I was so wrong. They did eat 2 chicken strips each. My plan is to try some vegan dishes during the week and slowly kick to the curb the processed junk. NEWAY OMG I just had a nasty mental image of Mc Donald's chicken nuggets. I will NEVER eat or buy from them again. Recently there was some pics on Facebook floating around about MCD chicken nuggets and one of their burgers. I'm making a stink face as I type this. The nugget and burger meals had been sitting on an office counter for several months. The food didn't even look shriveled up or moldy. Then there was a pic of processed chicken nuggets before they are actually formed into nuggets. The stuff looked like some roman candy or a laffy taffy. Gross! I can't even look at those pics again! Gross! I have to stop typing and drink some tea to treat my nausea. I will have to have a Part 2 of this blog titled Why vegan? Bye Bye!

How it started

In mid 2011, my husband and I "went vegan." We knew this was the best way to eat healthy, eating foods straight outta nature's backyard. No meat! No dairy! It was my husband's idea. Not mine! I wasn't on board right away. I'm thinking, "No cheese? Eggs? Seafood? Poultry?" I was worried. What would we eat everyday? Fruits and veggies all day! Really? My husband doesn't cook or bake. He did before we got married, but that is another story. He suggested we buy some cookbooks. I was a bit excited because that gave me a good reason to shop on Amazon. I LOVE SHOPPING ON AMAZON! I'm always checking out their daily deals at least once a day! NEWAY So after a night of reading several comments about too many vegan books. I decided on The Vegan Table and The Joy of Vegan Baking both by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. I also bought Veganomicon (I feel like I say the title wrong every time the word comes out my mouth.) We were probably vegan for a few days if that. The vegan thing didn't last long. I cooked using some of the recipes from the vegan cookbooks. We tried and failed. We get an A for effort! Right? Some recipes were winners and too many were just nasty. The cookbooks were put on our bookshelf to collect dust. I was beginning to love the idea of eating vegan, but the reality of vegan eating was too big of a challenge that I wasn't ready to tackle. My husband would agree. We were not ready but how do we get there? I feel like we should get educated on eating a plant based diet, try eating a few plant based meals during the week, and slowly stop buying and eating crap! Crap = cow's milk, processed foods, meat from animals of all kind, etc. This is my plan. One day I will fully commit myself to eating a plant based diet but not today. I'm not quite ready. I want to use this blog to chronicle my adventures and misadventures of eating a plant based diet.