Shrimp and Quinoa with Sun-Dried Tomatoes: Dinner from Trader Joe's!

Some nights I am too lazy - I mean, BUSY, to cook something that requires a recipe, but I really want some “real” food. On those nights, a frozen dinner just won’t do. This is a recipe I discovered when I was trying to clean out my fridge at the same time that I was trying to get out of cooking anything that required thought. As it turned out, it was really good!

All ingredients can be found at Trader Joe’s, too – so if you live near one, it’s a one-stop-shop!

The Recipe
Serves 6

1 package Trader Joe’s quinoa (about 2 ½ cups)
1 1-lb package Trader Joe’s frozen, cooked shrimp (any size), tails removed
1 jar Trader Joe’s Julienned Sun-Dried Tomatoes (undrained)
2 Tbs olive oil
3 Tbs dried basil
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese (for topping)

Prepare the quinoa according to the package directions. (This will require about 15 minutes of unattended cooking time.)

While the quinoa cooks, thaw the shrimp. (I put them in a bowl of water and put the bowl in the microwave on the “defrost” setting. Works like a charm.)

Add the cooked, thawed shrimp to the quinoa, along with the jar of tomatoes, the olive oil, basil, salt and pepper. Stir well to combine.

If you’re feeling dedicated, serve over cooked vegetables (green beans or broccoli would be good). When I want comfort food, I just spoon some of the shrimp/quinoa mixture into a bowl, top it with Parmesan cheese and eat it. YUM. Good-tasting and good for you! Woo-hoo!

(Yeah, the picture isn't great. It tastes better than it looks, though! ;D)

What I Ate for Dinner - Trader Joe's to the rescue!

I did NOT feel like fixing dinner the other night. I stood in front of my freezer, contemplating my options, which basically boiled down to either cooking something or eating a TV dinner. Neither option seemed particularly appealing.

And then, peeking out from behind some frozen ground beef, I saw it! Trader Joe’s Shrimp and Vegetable Stir Fry! It’s a self-contained meal with shrimp, veggies and a salt-and-pepper mixture, and all you have to do is stir-fry it.

But. I didn’t feel like expending the effort to get out a pan.

Yes, I was feeling JUST THAT LAZY. Shut up.

BUT! I figured that it had similar ingredients to a TV dinner, and THOSE are microwaveable, so why not the stir fry?

As it turned out, it takes a LOT longer to zap something that isn’t meant to be zapped. Altogether it took about 10 minutes in the microwave, and the veggies did come out a little weird. Also the shrimp were a little tough. (I didn’t care. I didn’t have to stir-fry.)

Having said that, I drained the water off and it was perfectly fine. (I will note here that when you stir-fry this stuff, it’s FANTASTIC. Microwaved . . . slightly less fantastic. But still good!)

The picture at the bottom is an entire package. So figure on one package serving 2 moderate adult-sized portions. Since the whole package is fairly low-cal, I ate the WHOLE FREAKIN’ THING, and it was YUMMY. MMmmmmmmm . . .

Wait, what? Where was I? Oh! Oh, yeah.

I almost always add some sort of extra sauce to it: oyster, plum, hoisin, peanut, whatever. But in truth, it’s really good as is, and it’s relatively inexpensive! (No, I don’t remember how much I paid for the package. Wouldn’t that be nice? *sigh*)

Shrimp: Two Ways, One Method

I really love grilled shrimp, but in the winter I'm not going outside to mess with the grill. So I figured out how to bake them in the oven! Below are 2 separate shrimp recipes, but since the prep and cooking method is exactly the same for each, you can actually make them at the same time. I've been known to buy 1 pound of shrimp, and do 1/2 of each pound a different way. ;)

Proportions given are for 1 pound of shrimp (about 21-25 count) per recipe, which should feed 4-6 as an appetizer or 2 hungry adults as an entree. I cook these with the peel on, but deveined - usually sold in the grocery as "easy-peel shrimp."

Recipe #1: Spicy Shrimp and Tartar Sauce

1 pound large raw shrimp (21-25 count)

3 Tbs unsalted butter, melted (Do NOT use salted butter - the seafood seasoning has salt already in it.)

1 Tbs seafood seasoning (Old Bay or equivalent)

1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray 2 cookie sheets with non-stick spray.

Toss all ingredients together in a bowl. Lay the shrimp out on the baking sheet, and bake for 10-12 minutes, turning halfway through.

Finished:

Tartar Sauce:

Edited to add: the first recipe below is MY recipe. Underneath that one I added my mom's. As it turned out, I was trying to make her recipe, but I was using Kosher pickles instead of regular dill ones. Kosher ones have garlic, LOL. Both recipes are good, but for these particular shrimp, I'd use the second one - my mom's. :)

The second tartar sauce recipe below is my mom's recipe, which she invented by reading the back of a bottled tartar sauce jar and playing around with proportions and extra ingredients until she liked it. (She did it when I was too young to remember, so growing up I had NO IDEA you could just buy tartar sauce in the store. I thought it always had to be made from scratch!) I like it because it's not sweet at all; it's a savory sauce with a lot of dill.

Mine

1 cup mayo

2 tsp dried minced onion

2 tsp dill weed

2 tsp dill seed

4 tsp Kosher dill pickle juice

1 Kosher dill pickle spear, chopped as finely as you can.

Mix ingredients together and allow to chill for 2 hours. (The longer the better: you want the dried spices to soften up a little.)

*Note: I like my tartar sauce VERY dill-flavored. If you want a subtler flavor, use half the amount of dill weed, dill seed and pickle juice.

Mom's

1 cup mayo
2 tsp dried minced onion

2 tsp dill weed OR dill seed (or 1 tsp each)

3 tsp dill pickle juice (NOT Kosher - don't make my mistake, LOL!)

1 dill pickle, chopped finely (again - NOT Kosher)

Mix together and allow to chill for 2 hours. The longer the better, for the same reason as above. :)

Recipe #2: Lemon-Caper Shrimp with Almost-Aioli Dipping Sauce

1 lb large raw shrimp (21-25 count)

2 Tbs capers

1/4 cup olive oil

Juice of 2 lemons (about 1/4 cup

sprinkle of salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese for dusting

Almost the same method as before, with one additional step: preheat the oven to 350F, toss everything but the cheese together in a bowl and lay out on 2 baking sheets. Spoon the leftover sauce at the bottom of the bowl over the shrimp. Then sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top and bake for 10-12 minutes, turning once (halfway through).

Finished:

Almost-Aioli Dipping Sauce:

1 cup mayo

2 cloves minced garlic

1 tsp capers

2 tsp caper brine

2 Tbs lemon juice (about 1 lemon, squeezed)

1/2 tsp pepper

4 Tbs grated Parmesan cheese

Mix together in a bowl and allow to chill for an hour or so.

I serve both of these dishes over salad (sometimes with a piece of garlic bread), but they'd also be fantastic over lightly buttered pasta. You could even serve them up over rice pilaf, with a small salad on the side.