Mexican Shrimp Stew

Although it is spring, you wouldn't know it if you looked outside here in North Idaho. It is 45 degrees and has been raining all day! It feels like a soup day! I made this soup for my sisters over the weekend, they both loved it and even had seconds! It is pretty spicy, if you don't like the heat you can omit the chipotle peppers.

Spicy Shrimp Stew

2 tsp. Olive oil

1 Onion

2 Stalks celery

4 Carrots

2-3 TBSP. Chipotle chile's in adobo (it is tricky to find these clean, but it can be done!)

2 tsp. Cumin

2 tsp. Chili powder

4 Cloves garlic

4 C. Chicken Stock

1 14.5 oz can Fire roasted tomatoes

1 Tbsp. Lime juice

Salt and Pepper

1 LB. Shrimp (I used medium raw)

Cilantro and avocado for garnish

Pre-chop all your veggies into even chunks. Heat the oil in a large pot, add the veggies, garlic, spices and chile's. Saute over medium heat for about 6-8 minutes or until the carrots just start to get soft. Add the tomatoes and stock. Cook until the veggies are soft, an additional 15-20 minutes.

Peel and rinse the shrimp and add them to the stew along with the lime juice. Cook for about 4 minutes until the shrimp are pink and cooked through.

Serve into bowls and top with cilantro leaves and avocado chunks.

Pork Thyme

I was in a rush and trying to use up some of the random stuff I had in my fridge. I knew I wanted to use the crock pot, but I didn't have all day in fact it was 3:00 I wanted to be eating by 6:30. So here's what I came up with. I have to say it was really good. I had my sister over for dinner and she loved it!

Crock pot Pork with Apples

1 Onion-diced

4 Cloves garlic- minced or pressed

2 Apples-diced

1 lb Pork loin or chops-cut into 1/2 inch cubes

2 TBSP Dijon

1 C. Chicken stock

Salt and pepper

1 tsp Thyme

1/2 tsp Fennel seed

1 Head cauliflower- riced in food processor

Seer the outside of the pork in a little olive oil with onions and garlic in a saucepan. Don't worry about it being cooked all the way, just get a nice crust on the pork and bring out the flavor of the garlic. Put in the bottom of a crock pot.


Make a sauce by mixing the broth, spices, and mustard together. Pour over the Pork and onions that are in the crock pot. Cook on low for 2 hours. Add the apples and cook for 1 hour more.

Serve over the cauliflower rice.

Garlicky Egglant Maranara

I saw this recipe on Rachel Rays daytime talk show and with few tweaks it was squeaky clean and tasty.

1 head garlic
2 red bell peppers
1 eggplant
1 28oz can fire roasted tomatoes
1 large spaghetti squash

Take the garlic and cut off the top just far enough down to be able to see the tops of the cloves. Wrap it in tin foil and place on a cookie sheet. To the same cookie sheet add the peppers and the eggplant cut in half with the cut side up. Season the eggplant with salt and pepper. On a separate cookie sheet cut the squash in half and put cut side down add about 2 cups of water to the pan. Put both pans in a 450 degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour.

At this point if the pepper doesn't have nice black charred spots put it over the flame on your stove turning frequently. Cut off the stem and scrape out the seeds.

The eggplant will look like this when its done. Spoon out the insides of the eggplant leaving the purple skin.

I used my handy dandy food processor, but you could use a good blender to puree all the ingredients together (excluding the squash!). Take the garlic out of the foil and squeeze the root side, the cloves will have liquefied and turned into a paste. Add the garlic, fire roasted tomatoes, eggplant insides, and the bell peppers and blend until it is smooth. Scrape the squash into spaghetti like strands. I cooked some ground beef and put it right on top of the squash and sauce.