It’s funny. To me, anyway. Not laugh-out-loud funny or anything, just a little chuckle funny.
When a Friday Night Dinner is looming, and I have Mini-Me and The Hubs coming over for my latest *SANE concoction, I pore over cook books and scour the internet, lie in bed mulling over ideas at 2 am, write shopping lists, worry about whether there’ll be enough food, and whether the recipe will work, and whether it will taste good. And I’ll come up with a Plan B (and sometimes a Plan C) in case Plan A (and then Plan B) goes sideways at the eleventh hour. Then, once Friday night arrives, I’ll spend hours in the kitchen cooking, along with a large dollop of worrying. When it involves guests I take this cooking lark very seriously, you know.
So earlier this week I did all the poring and scouring, the mulling and writing and worrying. On Thursday night Mini-Me let me know that Friday Night Dinner would be impossible because of the *huge* project she is finishing up. So, given that there was now no Friday Night Dinner, I didn’t go grocery shopping. And Friday night I did what I normally do when I am flying solo and need an impromptu plate of food - I stood in front of the ‘fridge, flung the doors open wide and peered inside. After 23 seconds or so of staring, I gathered a few items from whatever was lurking within and threw dinner together. I ad-libbed, if you will. Pretty much how I do on those podcasts. No recipe, no plan, no preparation. It was a 10 minute meal from ‘fridge to finished, made with whatever I had on hand. I do this all the time when I am home alone.
Here’s the result of last night’s last minute romp through the ‘fridge.
Prawns with Leeks and Lemon Pepper. So fast, so tasty, so filling, so *SANE.
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 large leek, sliced
- 4 oz mushrooms, sliced
- 12 oz prawns, pre-cooked, de-veined, tail-off
- ⅓ cup 2% Greek yoghurt (DO NOT USE non-fat! It will not work!)
- Juice of half a lemon
- Lemon pepper
- Heat the coconut oil in a large skillet.
- Saute the leeks gently over a medium heat, stirring often, for about 5 minutes until the leeks are tender.
- Add the sliced mushrooms to the skillet and cook for 1 minute.
- Add the prawns and heat through.
- Add the 2% yoghurt to the skillet and toss the prawn mixture until it is evenly coated in yoghurt.
- Stir in the lemon juice.
- Season liberally with fresh ground lemon pepper and spoon onto plates.
*SANE™, inSANE, SANEity – terms used in Jonathan Bailor’s book, The Smarter Science of Slim.
by carrie
Ed - That looks pretty darn good for being just thrown together!
carrie - It was so tasty, too! Thanks for swinging by, Ed.
Dawn - Hi Carrie – I live in Asia with no access to greek yogurt! :( Any suggestions for a substitute? Thanks!
carrie - Dawn – that is an awesome question! Thank you for bringing it up and sharing your situation – it helps to be made aware of the different challenges you face. Assuming you can buy regular yoghurt, you can easily make your own Greek yoghurt.
Check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strained_yoghurt
Claire Lucas - I LOVE this recipe, as does my boyfriend. It’s become a regular for me, I make it at least once a week. So easy to throw together after a long day. Thanks again Carrie.
carrie - I love this one too, Claire – one of my favorites. It has leeks in and takes 3 minutes :-) JB loves it because it is seafood – one of the best sources of protein around.
Claire Lucas - Well that’s great to hear! I don’t eat meat so rely very heavily on seafood, fish and Greek yoghurt.
Lindsey - Oh my goodness, this is by FAR the best SANE recipe I’ve made yet. Thank you for this wonderful creation!
carrie - This is one of my favorites too, Lindsey!
Serena - Why did my yogurt congeal?? I used 2%milkfat?
carrie - Hi Serena – I would imagine that it was either too hot or heated for too long. It would have tasted great still, just not looked so pretty :-(
Sarah - Was a bit dubious about the coconut oil, and don’t get me wrong, I often use coconut oil when cooking Thai dishes, but it added a very strange taste to this dish, not great….
carrie - Sarah – that is so weird. Maybe it’s a brand thing (like olive oil) where they all taste a bit different. I cannot taste the coconut oil at all with the brand I use.
Serena Hunt, RDN CDN - Thanks Carrie! It did taste delicious, but definitely not pretty like yours! I’ll be more careful of the temp next time :)
carrie - Serena – glad you still enjoyed the flavor!