Spicy Chili Pepper Shrimp

This is my version of a recipe from Harris Teeter's yourwellness website. Their version is called "Fanfare Firecracker Shirmp." Most of my changes we done to work with the spices I had on hand, and it turned out wonderful. Next time I think the only thing I will change from my version, is to skewer the shrimp and cook them on the grill.

These are delicious hot or chilled. Top them with a little fresh chopped Cilantro and lime wedges for serving.

SEASONING MIX

2 TBSP Sharp (hot) Paprika

2 TBSP Paprika

2 TBSP Granulated Gsrlic

1 TBSP Curry Powder

1 TBSP Ground Cumin

1 tsp Crushed Red Pepper

1 tsp White Pepper

2 tsp Chili Powder

1 tsp Cayenne Pepper

1 tsp Kosher Salt

(seasoning mix makes enough seasoning for 3 lbs of shrimp, seal unused portion in a jar with a tight fitting lid)

Place all seasoning ingredients in a fry pan, heat over medium heat, stiring constantly for 1-2 minutes (just until you can smell the chili oils being released.).

Wash, peel and devine shrimp, leaving tails intact.

Spread shrimp on paper towels and blot to remove excess moisture.

Place shrimp in a plastic zipper bag, add 3 TBSP of spice mix. Shake to coat.

Refridgerate for one hour.

Heat 1 TBSP butter and 1 TBSP oil over medium heat.

Cook until done. Shrimp cook quickly don't over cook. They should be done in about 3 -4 minutes.

Serve sprinkled with fresh chopped cilantro and lime wedges.

Enjoy!

Pork Ribs

Slow cooking on low heat makes these ribs fall off the bone tender.

You can really use whatever spices you prefer.

These are the ones I most commonly use - as well as chili powed (not pictured).

Thyme

Garlic (minced or powdered)

Oregano

Onion Powder

Cayenne Pepper

Kosher salt

Smoked Paprika

Cumin

Coarsley Ground Black Pepper

Chili Powder

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.

Wash the pork ribs and pat dry with paper towels.

If there is a membrane still attached to the back side of the ribs, pull it up on the edge and remove.

Lay the ribs on a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil.

Sprinkle your spices liberally over both sides of the meat.

Cover the ribs tightly with the aluminum foil.

Place on a cookie sheet and bake 2-2 1/2 hours until done and meat is tender.

Break into serving sized pieces (you shouldn't need a knife).

You can eat them as is or top with a low carb BBQ sauce*(see note).

 I actually prefer to bake the ribs in advance and then refridgerate them. Then I either cover them with barbecue sauce and place in a 350 degree oven until heated through, or I throw them on the grill to reheat them. Either way they're delicious.

Enjoy!

 *A good low carb barbeque sauce recipe is this one by George Stella No-Cook Low Carb Bourbon Barbecue Sauce.  I  leave the Splenda and the Sugar Twin out completely. We prefer a less sweet sauce and the Heinz lower sugar ketchup already contains a good amount of Splenda.

Macadamia Encrusted Baked Fish

This was delicious! We can't wait to have it again.

INGREDIENTS

2 8oz fish filets ~ I used Grouper but you could use any white flaky fish such as snapper, mahi mahi, cod

CRUST INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup Macadamia nuts, chopped

1/2 Tablespoon each of  chopped fresh oregano and marjoram (or use 1/2 teaspoon of each dried)

2 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 small clove garlic, diced

1 Tablespoon Macadamia Nut Oil (plus a little more for oiling the pan)

1 teaspoon lemon juice* see note

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Chop macadamia nuts coarsley.

If you don't have one of these handy dandy chopper thingies, you might want to invest in one. I got mine at the grocery store for $12.99 and I can't tell you how much time it has saved me over the years.

Put all of the crust ingredients into a small bowl and mix well.

Line baking pan with a sheet of parchment and oil lightly.

Place fish filets on the parchement.

Evenly coat the filets with the crust mixture, pressing down with your hands.

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes depending on the thickness of your fish.

The fish is done when it flakes easily with a fork and the topping is lightly browned.

Serve and Enjoy!

Life is good!

Note: the original recipe called for 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1/2 tablespoon of lemon zest, my better half doesn't care for lemon so I omitted the zest and cut down on the lemon juice - if you like lemon, you may want to add it ~ I simply served my portion with lemon wedges on the side)

George Stella's Low Carb Key West Crab Cakes

These crab cakes were actually better than traditional crab cakes since they were all meat, no bread fillers. We had them with George Stella's Waldorf Cole Slaw on the side. It was a great combination.

Ingredients

• 1 pound blue crabmeat
• 1 tablespoon small diced red bell pepper
• 1 tablespoon small diced green bell pepper
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 1 tablespoon heavy mayonnaise
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
• 2 tablespoons canola oil (I used a combination of butter and olive oil instead) 

Mix everything together in a large bowl and refridgerate for a minimum of 1 hour.


Preheat a frying pan with a small amount of butter and olive oil on meadium heat. Using your hands make palm sized balls of the crab mixter and place in preheated pan. Cook about 2-3 minutes until browned.

Flip and cook another couple of minutes.

Enjoy.

 George Stella's orignial recipe can be found here.


NOTE:  This entire recipe nets out to approximately 8.8 grams of Carbohydrate. I made large crab cakes and the batch made 9 - each crab cake in my case would be under one carb. George Stella makes tiny 1 TBSP crab cakes and he makes 18 per batch. So, they net out to even lower net carbs per cake (his website says zero per cake but we can see that that is not really true). It will all depend on how large you make your crab cakes, and how many you eat. Just divide the total 8.8 carbs into the number of cakes you made out of the batch, to figure out how many carbs per cake in your batch.