A Lucky Morning and Gorgeous Day

Today started off great!  I got a ride to work today and parked right next to the best spot ever.  Too bad someone else got there first.

For those who don't know, 919 was the address for the house I lived in my senior year of college.  Oh the memories!  It was a long day of meetings at work, but at least the morning started off with a happy walk down memory lane.

I brought the peach bars to work today and they were a hit!  One of my co-workers said it was "like heaven" and he went back for a 3rd and 4th helping.  I would definitely, call that a successful recipe!

Since I was working at my downtown office today, I took full advantage of the beautiful weather and walked home from work.  Today it was only 80 degrees and the perfect weather for my 1.5 mile walk.  Walking home was a great way to unwind from my long day of sitting in meetings.

Once I got home, I started prepping my dinner.  Tonight, I was making Yucatan Shrimp Cocktail Salad.

The recipe was full of awesome, crisp veggies (exactly what I was craving)!  The veggies included (going clockwise) tomatoes, cucumber, scallions, celery, and poblano pepper.

As usual, I didn't completely follow the recipe.  The recipe can be found here.  The changes I made:

1. I halved the dressing and amount of shrimp, so that there were 2 servings instead of 4.  Perfect for leftovers tomorrow!

2. I didn't measure the amount of vegetables.  When it comes to vegetables, I don't think you can have too many.  I put in as many as I wanted (definitely lots of tomatoes because they are my favorite) so that it was a complete and filling meal.

3. I used a poblano chili instead of a Anaheim chili.  I only did this because they did not have an Anaheim chili at my store and the man said it was a good substitute.

It was the perfect light, refreshing, summery meal!  Lucky for me, I enjoyed it sitting on my balcony.  A great end to a good day!

Quick and Delicious Dinner

For some reason, the summer weather makes me crave seafood.  I rarely cook seafood for one main reason: I live in a small studio apartment and don't want it smelling like fish all night. However, one good "no smell" fish is shrimp. Here is a great summer shrimp recipe:

Cilantro Lime Shrimp (1 serving size)

Ingredients:

1/2 pound shrimp

olive oil or oil spray

2 small garlic cloves crushed

handful of cilantro

lime

salt and pepper (to taste)

Instructions:

-Heat a pan with olive oil on medium heat.

-When hot, add shrimp and season with salt and pepper.

-When one side of shrimp has cooked, turn over and add garlic. Saute until cooked.

-Remove from heat. Squeeze lime juice and toss with cilantro.

It's a great light recipe that is perfect for a summer dinner.  I ate it with steamed vegetables, but it would also be great over pasta.

If you want to change up the recipe, substitute basil and lemon for the cilantro and lime.