Hello! I’m slowly dusting off the cobwebs of this blog. Sometimes you just get bogged down with LIFE and ANXIETY and self hatred a little bit and tests and assignments and you need to take some time for yourself to cry.
Let’s hope I can keep my shit together this semester in terms of my blogging commitment abilities. I guess we’ll start off my return with a lil seafood dish. Shrimp!! Aka prawns. Tbt to when my pretentious ass studied abroad in Ireland and went to a prawn festival. I waited over an hour in line to get some prawns and goddam I felt like they were sent from heaven directly. My love affair for shrimp stems back to when I was a teeny tot and all I could reach at holiday parties were the shrimp rings on the coffee table (thanks, Nonnie) so I really try to eat them whenever I can.
First and foremost, I’d like to thank my mom for being a complete angel and loading me up with food every time I go back to school. She quite literally filled my mini fridge freshman year with Greek yogurt for snacking. This time, she made sure I had an abundance of frozen seafood to take back to school. So as I’m walking through the downpour of rain after my three hour class, I was dreaming of some warm pasta and the shrimp in my freezer.
I thought it would be pretty boring if I just ate regular pasta (I had just made zoodles the night before (that’s another post)) so I searched through one of my favorite foodie Instagram accounts. I saw an easy recipe for a vegan pesto, and DAMN was I happy I decided to make it. I’m telling you I could have eaten a whole bowl of the pesto it was THAT GOOD.
I have to admit this is my first time cooking uncooked shrimp, and I’m still learning the right temperature and time mixture.
Also, I should say stop reading now if you don’t have a food processor or blender. You’ll be really sad to see these pics and not be able to make anything. Seriously, save a few weekends worth of bar money and invest in a food processor.
So ANYWAY, here we go:
The Kale Pesto recipe can be found here. I actually tweaked the recipe a little bit. Instead of thinking about wasting a whole lemon (that’s 79 cents thank you very much) for one sauce #brokeaf I used half of a lemon. I also used two cups of kale #KALE and a handful of spinach. I think garlic and parsley could be avoided altogether if you wish (I didn’t have parsley) BUT I think garlic is a huge key to the dankness of this recipe.
Ingredients w/ Total Estimated Price:
- Desired number of jumbo/tiger shrimp – $ varies by amount bought
- Single serving of spaghetti – $2 a box
- 2 cups of kale – $1.50 per bag
- Handful of spinach – $1.50 per bag
- 1/4 cup of almonds – $3-$4 per bag
- 1/2 cup of olive oil –$2 per jar
- 1 clove of garlic (I used a jar of minced garlic and I feel it gave it the real flavor it needed) – $2 per jar
- Half a lemon
- Dash of salt
Instructions:
- Fill small sauce pan with water, heat till boiling
- Place pasta in sauce pan and cook for 1o minutes
- Heat medium sized pan to medium heat, cover pan with olive oil
- When the pasta has been cooking for 5 minutes, place shrimp in the medium sized pan
- Cook shrimp for about 2-3 minutes on each side until pink
- Pasta and shrimp should be finished around the same time
- While the pasta and shrimp are cooling off, make the pesto
- Once cooled, peel the shrimp
- Plate!
If I could make any recommendations, it would be to watch your shrimp. Don’t overcook, but don’t undercook either. Shrimp should be pink with red tails when ready.
Total Estimated Cost: $5-$7
Total Cook Time: 15 minutes
CATDOG COOKS 