Pan Seared Jumbo Shrimp with garlic sugar peas & couscous

Drool! This is my pan seared jumbo shrimp, served with garlic sugar peas and whole wheat couscous. This shrimp recipe is one of the first recipes I learned from my mother. It's delicious, healthy, fancy and EASY all at the same time.  All recipes here serves 2, although you may have some couscous leftover

Pan Seared Shrimp~
You'll need:
1 pound of 10-12 count shrimp thawed (the count indicts how many shrimp is in a pound, so the lower the count the bigger the shrimp!) (they were on sale at Whole Paycheck, I went in for tomatoes and spent $60, crazy)
1 green onion
1/4 cup soy sauce (I used reduced sodium but not necessary)
Olive oil or cooking spray

Prep time: 10 minutes; cook time: 4 minutes
Peel the shrimp and de-vein it. To de-vein shrimp, you take a knife and run it down the back of the srinp about a quarter to half way through. Not more than that because you're not butterflying it.  You'll see a dark vein, use your fingers or a toothpick to remove the vein. Wash the shrimp and dry.

Mist pan with olive oil or cooking spray. I have a spray bottle of olive oil that I use instead of cooking spray.  You just want the pan coated enough so the shrimp don't stick. Heat on medium, let the pan thoroughly heat up.  Place the shrimp in a single layer in the pan. Should give you a nice sizzle sound.

Cook on one side for 2 minutes, check the pan side of the shrimp to make sure that it's getting that beautiful brown seared color. During the cooking time, thinnly slice green onion.  Flip the shrimp to cook on the other side, single layer again.  The shrimp should only need about 1 minute, check again to make sure it's getting that nice brown color. Add soy sauce, let it cook down for 30 seconds. Remove from heat, add green onions.

Garlic Sugar Peas~
You'll need:
1/2 pound sugar peas
4 cloves of garlic
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt to taste

Prep time: 5 minutes; cook time: 4 - 7 minutes
Wash peas, de-string them. Not even sure if that's a word but basically you snap the ends and pull. Break or cut them in half. Crush garlic with a pound from the flat side of your knive and finely chop.

Heat olive oil, cook garlic for 20 seconds, add peas. Cook for 4 - 7 minutes depending on how crisp you like your peas to be. Longer you cook the more done they will be. Salt to taste.

Couscous~
You'll need:
1 cup whole wheat couscous (I used Trader Joe's)
1 cup stock (I used beef bouillon) or water (boring)
2 dashes worcestershire sauce
1 green onion

Prep time: 2 minutes; Cook time: 5 minutes
Wash and rough chop green onion. Bring stock to boil, add worcestershire sauce.  Add couscous and green onion, stir well. Turn off heat and cover. Fluff when ready to serve.

Here is another drool worthy shot of the shrimp...

Garlic Pepper Chicken w/ tomato basil salad and sliced baked potato

It's certainly been a while since I've posted anything, rest assured I've been cooking! I made this simple yet amazingly delicious lunch for the fiance and he requested that it be a blog post.  So here it is: garlic pepper chicken with tomato basil salad and a sliced up baked potato.

Sorry for the lack of close ups. I forgot take some. Either way, these recipes are easy and fool proof (probably). The following serves two.

Baked potato ~
I put this recipe first because it takes the longest. While it's cooking you can prepare everything else.

You'll need:
- 2 medium sized baking potatoes
- Rosemary (fresh or dry)
- Olive oil
- Chives

Prep time: 10 minutes. Cooking time: 40 minutes
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Wash potatoes, dry. Start slicing the potatoes but not all the way through. Chop up rosemary if fresh. "Stuff" rosemary between the slices of the potatoes. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 40 minutes.  Half way through, baste the potatoes with the oil in the pan.  When serving top with chopped chives.

Garlic pepper chicken ~
You'll need:
- 2 chicken breasts
- Garlic pepper
- Paprika
- Salt
- Olive oil for cooking

Prep time: 10 minutes. Cooking time: 10 minutes
Use a meat tenderizer and pound the chicken to about 1/2 inch thick.  Season both sides with garlic pepper, salt and paprika to your liking.  On medium heat, pour some olive oil in the pan, you don't need a lot, you're not deep frying the chicken.  Cook chicken 5 minutes on each side.

<--- My choice of garlic pepper. My friend LO also enjoys it on cottage cheese.

My choice of salad dressing. Who doesn't love some garlicky goodness? --->

Tomato-Basil Salad ~

You'll need:

- 3 good sized tomatoes

- 2 tablespoons of a vinaigrette type salad dressing

- half a small handful of sweet or regular basil

- sea salt to taste

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cut up tomatoes into small cubes. Thinnly slice basil. Toss together in with salad dressing and sea salt.  You don't need very much salad dressing since you don't want it to take away from the flavors of the tomato and fresh basil.

A note on tomatoes: I try to only buy my tomatoes from farmers markets or Whole Foods. Farmers market to support local economy. Whole Foods because they pay one extra penny per pound and the money goes directly to the tomato pickers, making sure they receive a decent wage. http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2011/09/08/how-the-modern-day-tomato-came-to-be/?iref=allsearch

OK, off my soapbox, time to enjoy lunch!