Dinner for One

Cooking for one person isn't as easy as it sounds.  It is difficult to find recipes that make only one or two portions.  It is difficult to buy food in one single portions.  Both of those challenges create another challenge - leftovers.  I am often eating leftovers from the same meal once a day for 10 days or more.  Needless to say, I make those recipes about once a year.

For the past year, I have been working on improving my culinary repertoire.  Overall, I have been trying to upgrade from my usual fare of pasta, quesadillas, and cereal.  I try to come up with meal plans that are healthy, varied, fast, and require little advanced planning.   Usually they turn out pretty good, and sometimes they are epic failures.  

Tonight I made  a winner!

(Note to self:  Your pic would be much prettier

 if you wipe of the edge of the plate next time!)

Cajun shrimp with garlic stir-fried asparagus and sliced tomato.  From the time I took the frozen shrimp out of the freezer until I sat down to eat was about 15 minutes.  

Here's what I did:  

Take out a serving of flash frozen raw shrimp.  Place in colander under cool water to defrost.  This takes about 3 minutes.

While the shrimp are defrosting, wash and trim asparagus, and start a bit of olive oil heating in two separate pans.

Remove the shrimp from water and mix up the best shrimp seasoning mix ever:  

Mix the shrimp with the mix. (If you are just cooking for one, you can save about half of the mix and use it on chicken later in the week.)  Let marinate for a few minutes.  If you are the plan ahead type, you could let it marinate for 30 minutes in the fridge.  I am not.  Mine marinates for 3-5 minutes.

Next, I start the asparagus in one pan with about half a teaspoon of minced garlic, salt, and pepper.  Stir it every once in awhile.  

Then dump the shrimp into the other warmed pan.  Spread them out so all are laying flat on the surface of the pan.  After the shrimp start turning pink around the edges, flip them over.  Cook for another minute or two, and then serve.

Taste the asparagus to make sure it is heated through, and then serve.

The directions say to add butter to the shrimp mix while it is cooking, and it is oh so good that way.  If you are being more frugal with calories, you can just use the olive oil for a healthy fat.  Also, the directions say to broil the shrimp.  I just pan fry them.

The only thing that would have made this meal better would have been a crusty bread, and a nice glass of wine.  In both cases, I am trying to save those calories for occasions when both the food and the company are worthy of the splurge.  

What are your favorite fast and easy recipes?  Send me an email at dancingdaylily@gmail.com, and I will let you know if I try them.