Wednesday, August 4, 2010

More Shrimp, Y'all

As Kat had mentioned before, I really don't like shrimp. I want to, just like I want to like beets, edamame and tofu, but I just don't like them. I think it's their rubbery texture. It doesn't matter if it's perfectly steamed or coated and fried, I just can't help but feel like I'm chewing on baby fingers. But I didn't think it was fair to make Kat cook all the shrimp recipes (because that would mean her house would be having shrimp until the end of this little experiment), so I ended up with a couple in my pile. Luckily, with Paula Deen's recipe for Potato Soup with Shrimp, I was able to make my portion shrimp-free.

I used skim milk and fat free half and half, opted for reduced fat cheese and a leaner turkey bacon. This recipe included a little bit more prep work. There was lots of chopping and pre-cooking. I worked diligently while my kitchen assistant looked on....

I cooked enough shrimp to add to my boyfriend's bowl and mixed it in at the end. Here's my serving, sans-shrimp and topped with turkey bacon and reduced fat cheddar cheese.

It was very tasty! Cody said his shrimp version was OK. But he has a very succinct rating scale: Good, Bad or OK. And in the 4 years we've been together, only and handful of recipes I've made for him have earned a "Good" rating (surely, it couldn't be my cooking!?!). So I'm taking that to mean this was something he'd eat again if I made it.

Here's the stats:

Nutritional Information (OLD) Nutritional Information (NEW)
Servings Per Recipe: 6 Servings Per Recipe: 6
Amount Per Serving Amount Per Serving
Calories: 669 Calories: 449
Fat: 31 g Fat: 16 g
Sodium: 1875 mg Sodium: 943 mg
Fiber: 4 g Fiber: 2 g

Kat and I were talking today about the original serving sizes and we think they're way off. Her recipe says it serves 6. I cut the recipe down by 75%, so I should have ended up with only 1.5 servings but I ended up with 4 very reasonable servings. I left the servings the same in the table for the sake of comparison.

My ratings:

Taste: Seconds, Please!

Waist: (if you have limit your serving to 1 to 1 1/2 cups, instead of using the original serving size) Tighten Your Belt a Notch!

What foods do you wish you liked??

Shrimpy Potato Soup

1/4 c tub margarine
1 small onion
2 tbsp whole wheat flour
2 medium carrots, diced
8 medium Russet potatoes, cubed
4 c skim milk
2 chicken bullion cubes
1 c fat free half and half
1/4 tsp pepper
2 c water
1 lb shrimp
chopped turkey bacon
shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese

In a large sauce pan, melt the margarine and saute the onion and carrots until both are slightly tender, about 5 minutes. Whisk in the whole wheat flour and cook for 1 minutes. Add the potatoes, milk and bullion cubes. Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are very soft and some of them have begun to turn to mush. Add the half and half and pepper.

In a small saucepan, bring 2 cups water to a boil. Add the shrimp all at once and stir well. Cook 2-3 minutes or until they all turn pink. Remove from water and chop into big chunks.

Add the shrimp to the soup and stir well. Top each serving of soup with turkey bacon and cheese.




2 comments:

  1. I have a hard time with things like clams and mussels...raw fish too is hard for me to stomach...no sushi for me!

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  2. That looks really good! I was the same way about shrimp for years, but there's a restaurant near me that makes an appetizer called Shrimp Cargot, which is essentially shrimp covered in garlic butter and melted cheese. Anything's good covered in melted cheese (albeit not healthy), so that convinced me to finally eat shrimp.

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