Coconut and Pineapple Sweet Chili Shrimp

TGIF friends!  Hope you all had a great week and I'm sure you are looking forward to the weekend :-)

I've had people ask me how I stay on track with healthy eating during the week or how I know what to cook for dinner.  Meal planning guys!  I know it's extra work but seriously, if you can make time for this at least once a week it will help you out tons.  I will post more on how I do this in another post.

I'm not a recipe developer.  I wish I had the time and talent to do that!  There are some recipes I have been able to make up but mostly I just find dishes online or in cookbooks that look yummy.  Most of the time, I find a recipe I like and adapt it to my liking and to make it healthier.  I'm also not a professional photographer as you can see by my pictures. haha  But I'm working on it!

So I've made this coconut and pineapple sweet chili shrimp a few times now.  It's super easy, tasty and I usually already have the ingredients in my kitchen.

 

        

    

Coconut and Pineapple Sweet Chili Shrimp

Serves: Two adults and a toddler

Ingredients

1 pound shrimp (15-20) peeled and deveined

3 TBS coconut cream - I found this at Trader Joe's

3 TBS sweet chili sauce

1-2 TBS pineapple juice

1/2-3/4 cup of chopped pineapple -depending on your liking

Squirt of srirarcha - optional

Instructions 

1. Mix coconut cream, sweet chili sauce, pineapple juice, and srirarcha together in a bowl.  Toss in shrimp and pineapples to coat. 

2. Saute the shrimp and pineapple mixture in a frying pan- no oil is needed since it is saucy. This will only take 5-10 minutes since shrimp tends to cook very quickly so be sure to watch it.  Nobody likes rubbery shrimp right? hehe 

Notes

This recipe is great for grilling too!  On a skewer, alternate shrimp and pineapples on it.  Grill a few minutes on each side and then brush with the sauce.  I didn't feel like grilling so I threw everything in a frying pan.

If you aren't worried about your carbs, this is so yummy over rice!

I always like to have a side of vegetables with every dinner since I'm not always the greatest at eating my veggies at lunch or breakfast.   In my meal plan, I wrote to have this Asian cabbage slaw but since I didn't get a chance to go to the store I had to find a plan B.  I know this sounds familiar right? lols   I looked in my fridge and found plan B....fennel!  Fennel is from the carrot family and is actually rich in protein, fiber and vitamin B.  I kept seeing this veggie in Trader Joe's wondering how the heck do you eat that?  Then one day, TJ was offering this as their sample of the day and I loved it.  It has this licorice or sweet kind of taste, sounds weird but it's really good.  I like it and I don't even care for licorice.

  

Roasted Fennel

Serves 2 adults and a toddler

Ingredients

1 fennel bulb

olive oil

sea salt

pepper

fresh parmesan

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Lightly oil the bottom of a glass dish.

3. Cut the stalks and feathery green stuff (fronds) off the fennel.  You can use the fronds as a garnish if you want like I did, it's edible!  

2. Leaving the core together (which helps keep your slices intact), stand the bulb up and cut the fennel in half vertically from top to bottom.  

3. Arrange the fennel in a dish and sprinkle with sea salt, pepper and fresh parmesan shavings. 

4. Bake until fennel is fork tender and the top is golden brown for about 40 minutes. I would check after 30 minutes though since oven temps tend to vary.  

Notes

This is also great for grilling too!  Prepare it the same way but instead of baking in the oven, place it over a grill.  I also like to squirt a little lemon on this but I didn't have any.

I apologize I don't have any measurements for this.  I basically just eye ball everything when it comes to quick dishes like this.  But if you need measurements I will try to take some in the future :-)