I'm Supposed to Cook

I actually like to cook. There's a weird sense of satisfaction that comes with preparing a meal at home and knowing it's so much better for you and way less expensive than a restaurant meal. Now this comes from a person who, for the last few years, has eaten the majority of her meals in restaurants. I'm not even joking. There were weekends when hubs and I would eat out three meals a day. Why? Laziness. Convenience. Lack of planning ahead. And we happen to live in an area with a crapton of great restaurants. Oh, and we just plain love food. a lot.

One thing I know for sure is that restaurant food has so many hidden calories. When we were attempting to  "be good" a server we became friendly with told us that they dip the steaks in butter before serving! No wonder they're so much juicier than the ones I make at home, right?

So now that it's summer, I've been experimenting a little in the kitchen. Jeff is a meat & potatoes kind of guy so sometimes Im pretty choosy about what I cook because I want to be sure he enjoys it too. {Am I a good wife or what?} Today Im sharing one of the recipes I made recently that we both really loved. It's this Spicy Baked Shrimp {recipe}

I'm seriously picky when it comes to shrimp. It has to have that firm texture that pops when you bite into it, and when it's cooked this way it totally does. I start with a bag of frozen, uncooked EZ Peel shrimp from Sam's, defrost and peel and then just follow the recipe pretty much as written. I did leave out the cayenne pepper, mostly because I didn't have it - and it was spicy enough for me without. I entered the recipe into a calorie calculator and found that if you divide it into four servings, each serving has 344 calories. Not so bad! I served it with my famous roasted broccoli and some frozen polenta from Trader Joes and the whole yummy satisfying meal came to 469 calories.

I made it again last night with some green beans and low fat Rice a Roni and it was just as yummy. It heats up pretty good for lunch the next today too. This recipe is also quick and easy so I can see it being a good go-to once school is back in session. Give it a try and let me know what you think!