Ah, Bang Bang Shrimp. If you have ever been to Bonefish Grill, then you know what I am talking about. I know this because I guarantee you that when you walk into a Bonefish Grill, you will see a plate of Bang Bang Shrimp sitting on everyone’s table. It is that good. For those of you who have never been to Bonefish Grill and don’t know what the heck I am talking about, Bang Bang Shrimp is this amazing appetizer that they serve. Delicious, crispy shrimp that is covered in a creamy and spicy sauce. SO good! The Hubs and I never order appetizers when we go out to eat, but rest assured, when we go to Bonefish, we order this shrimp.
I’ve been wanting to make it at home for some time. So, I hit up the interwebz in search of a good copycat recipe. I found a few that claimed they were the best and closet recipe to the original. Even before looking at the recipes, I knew that there are two major problems with Bang Bang Shrimp: 1. It’s fried, and 2. It’s covered in full-fat mayo. Both of these things had to go. So I took a recipe I found and attempted to lighten it up by baking the shrimp in the oven to avoid the frying process and I also used reduced-fat mayo made with olive oil.
So, is this recipe a perfect copycat? No. Don’t get me wrong, it was good. Hubs loved it. But, I didn’t think the sauce tasted exactly like the Bonefish version. It was close, but not exact. This could be because of the low-fat mayo I used or the brand of the other ingredients that I used. I’ll make it again though! If you are going to eat this as a meal, I recommend serving it with veggies and/or steamed rice!
– 1/2 cup reduced fat mayo (I used the kind made with olive oil)
– 1/4 cup Thai sweet chili sauce
– 3 drops Sriracha hot chili sauce (or to taste)
– Optional: Chopped scallions for garnishing
Directions:
1. Combine the mayo and Thai sweet chili sauce in a large bowl. Add the sriracha to taste. Set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut the tails off of the shrimp. Combine the eggs and milk in a bowl, whisk together. Combine the panko, cornstarch, and salt in another bowl. Spray a oven-safe baking rack with non-stick spray. Dip each piece of shrimp into the egg and milk mixture and then dredge in the panko and cornstarch. Arrange the shrimp in a single layer on the baking rack. Spray the top of the shrimp with non-stick spray. Bake for about 10 minutes. Gently flip the shrimp over and spray the other side with non-stick spray. Bake for an additional 5-10 minutes or until the breading has turned golden brown on both sides. Add the shrimp to the bowl with the sauce and stir in until the shrimp is evenly covered in the sauce. Be careful not to knock off all the breading. Serve!
I was a little hesitant to post these recipes since now that Halloween is over and most of you are probably done digging into pumpkins, but you know what? Pumpkin season is not over! So, for those of you who are still planning on cutting into pumpkins (or butternut squash!) for your cooking and baking needs, this is for you!
After carving our massive pumpkins, I had a good 4 cups worth of pumpkin seeds. Since we already had enough sweets in our house, I didn’t want to make these sweet, so I hit up my spice cabinet to see what I had. Since I had so many pumpkin seeds, I figured it would nice to try more than one recipe, so I made two different kinds: Rosemary Garlic and then Spicy! For both recipes, I recommend that after rinsing them, lay them in a single layer on a towel to dry over night.
– 1 tbs. rosemary (you can use dried or fresh, but fresh would be better. Sadly, I only had dried at the time…)
– pinch of pepper
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a bowl, add the pumpkin seeds and then all of the other ingredients. Stir ingredients together until the pumpkin seeds are well-coated. Spread onto an even layer on the baking sheet and bake for about 45 minutes, stirring the seeds with a spatula every 15 minutes.
Spicy Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Ingredients:
– 2 cups rinsed and dried pumpkin seeds
– 1 tbs. olive oil
– 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
– 1 tsp. sea salt
– 1 tsp. cayenne pepper
– 1 tsp. red pepper flakes
– Optional: 1/8-1/4 tsp. chili powder
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a bowl, add the pumpkin seeds and then all of the other ingredients. Stir ingredients together until the pumpkin seeds are well-coated. Spread onto an even layer on the baking sheet and bake for about 45 minutes, stirring the seeds with a spatula every 15 minutes.
Happy Halloween!! I hate when Halloween falls on a weekday, especially a Monday! Even though I have to go to work, I am looking forward to a evening of fondue, handing out candy, and watching the Ghost Hunters live investigation. The Hubs and I carved our pumpkins this weekend. We try to do more elaborate patterns every year. I think we really outdid ourselves this year. Not surprisingly, I did an owl and Hubs did one of his favorite actors, Vincent Price. Here’s a picture!
Aren’t they cool?! I also wanted to do one other thing this weekend: Make these sugar cookies! Yeah, sure, I wanted the cookie cuz, well, it’s a cookie, but what I really have been wanting to do is try my hand at royal icing. It was a little time consuming as I had to pipe one thing, wait, come back, pipe more, wait for that to dry, etc. But, it wasn’t has hard as I thought it would be. I still have a long way to go with my decorating skills. These were actually supposed to be jack-o-lanterns, but after trying to pipe and paint a face (even Hubs tried!), it looked like a 5 year-old decorated them so I decided to leave the rest as just plain ol’ pumpkins! Working with royal icing is a little tricky and it requires some time, patience, and some baking tools you may not already have in your kitchen (small piping tips, piping bags, etc.). If you are short on time or don’t want to using royal icing, feel free to whip up some buttercream frosting or you can always use store-bought frosting and decorations!
While you may be over pumpkin-shaped things, this sugar cookie recipe is a great basic sugar cookie recipe to have in your arsenal for any occasion!
Sugar Cookies
Makes approximately 3-4 dozen depending on your cookie cutters
Cookie recipe from Allrecipes
Ingredients for the cookies:
– 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
– 2 cups white sugar
– 4 eggs
– 1 tsp. vanilla extract
– 5 cups all-purpose flour
– 2 tsp. baking powder
– 1 tsp. salt
Directions:
1. Cream together the sugar and butter in a large bowl until smooth. Mix in the eggs and vanilla extract. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to a 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut your dough into shapes using the cookie cutters of your choosing. Bake on a lined or non-stick cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 6 minutes or until cookies start to turn a light golden brown on the edges (bake longer for a crispier cookie). Let cool for at least 15 minutes before frosting.
Ingredients for the royal icing:
– 4 cups powdered sugar
– 2 tbs. meringue powder
– 6 tbs. water
– Optional: almond extract (I added a couple of tsp. of this to mine to give it a better flavor).
If you have never worked with royal icing before, I highly recommend that you all check out Brown Eyed Baker’s tutorial on how to work with royal icing. I got both the recipe and directions from Michelle’s site. Her step-by-step tutorial was extremely helpful!
I’m not going to provide specific directions as they will vary depending on the cookie you are trying to decorate. But, to make my pumpkin cookies, I made a large batch of the royal icing, reserving about a cup to be used as the stem and vine. The rest I dyed orange using gel food coloring. While the icing was still thick, I scooped some into my piping bag (and also reserved about 1/2 cup for the lines on the pumpkins) and using a #3 tip from Wilton, I outlined my pumpkin cookies. I let that dry for a few minutes. Then, I added a few more tablespoons of water to my icing to thin it out for flooding. Following Michelle’s instructions, I then flooded each pumpkin with the orange icing and let them dry for a few hours. Then, I just piped on the lines and the stem. Let them dry for another hour before eating.
Notes:
– You can find meringue powder at craft stores in the baking section.
It’s Friday AND it’s Halloween weekend! It is bittersweet for me. On the one hand, it means that it is time to carve pumpkins, hand out candy, eat candy, and watch the Ghost Hunters Live investigation. And on the other hand, it means that after Monday, I have to take down the Halloween decorations. Where did October go?!!
Today I bring you another great recipe from my bridal shower book! This recipe for herb-scalloped potatoes comes to you from my B.F.F., Crystal! Crystal and I have been friends since we were freshmen in high school. She was my maid-of-honor and I am so excited because she is getting married in January and I get to be her matron-of-honor! I don’t eat potatoes very often because of the carbs, but these potatoes sounded too good to pass up! They are a little time consuming to put together (it took me almost 30 minutes to prepare), so if you are going to make them, make sure to plan ahead! These scalloped potatoes are really flavorful with all of the herbs and are much healthier than their cheesy cousin!
Herb-Scalloped Potatoes
Serves 4-6
Ingredient:
– 3 average-sized potatoes (I used Idaho), scrubbed and sliced into 1/8-inch disks
– 1 can chicken or vegetable broth
– 1/2 cup skim milk
– 1-2 tbs. olive oil
– 3 garlic cloves, minced
– 3 tbs. flour
– 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
– 1/2 tsp. dried basil
– 1/4 tsp. dried rosemary
– 1/4 tsp. paprika
– 1/2 tsp. salt
– several pinches of black pepper
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease (or spray with non-stick spray) a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Layer the potatoes in the pan, allowing them to slightly overlap. Lay them across the short way first overlapping them a little less than half of each potato slice. In each subsequent row, overlap the potatoes by about one-quarter of each potato slice.
2. Pour about 3/4 of a cup of the broth over the potatoes, reserving the rest for later. Pour the milk and drizzle the olive oil over the potatoes, making sure to coat each one (I think I needed 1 1/2 tbs. of the oil).
3. Scatter the minced garlic over everything and then sprinkle 2 tbs. of the flour over all of the potatoes. Drizzle as much of the remaining broth as you need in order to moisten all of the flour (avoid washing away the flour when you pour the broth). Sprinkle the last tbs. of flour, the herbs, paprika, salt and pepper. Cover loosely with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 15 minutes.
Notes:
– To make these potatoes vegan-friendly, use vegetable broth and unsweetened soy milk.
– If you aren’t too worried about salt, you may want to add just a pinch more than a 1/2 tsp. I don’t usually like for things to be too salty, but I needed just a tiny pinch more salt :)
My good friend, Amanda, and I have been talking about having a fall-themed baking party since September. First, we said we were going to make like 4 or 5 things. Then a few weeks ago, it turned into 3 things. Then, two weeks ago, it was just two things. Come Saturday, the day of our baking party, it was one thing. Grad school gets in the way of all our fun! Not only did we only end up making these cupcakes, but we took a shortcut by using boxed cake mix and kicked it up a bit. Some people don’t like to admit to using box mix, but I am not one of those people my friends. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy making my own cake from scratch, but when you are short on time, why not use a box mix? We didn’t end up getting together until the evening and had two other important things on our agenda: 1. drink lots of wine and 2. watch trashy TV.
So, all in all, our baking party was certainly not the baking extravaganza that we had hoped it would be, but these cupcakes came out pretty good!!
Apple Spice Cupcakes
Makes approximately 12 cupcakes
Ingredients for the cupcakes:
– 1 box spice cake mix
– 1 1/3 cups water
– 1/3 cup vegetable oil
– 3 large eggs
– 1/2 cup sour cream
– 1 tsp. vanilla extract
– 3 apples, peeled and diced into small bite-size pieces
– 1 tsp. cinnamon
– 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
– pinch of salt
– 1/2 lemon
Ingredients for the frosting:
– 1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
– 4 cups confectioner’s sugar
– 1 tsp. vanilla extract
– 1- 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon (add more if you want to really taste the cinnamon)
– 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine the cake mix, vegetable oil, eggs, water, sour cream, and vanilla extract. Mix until well-combined. In a separate bowl, add the diced apples, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon juice. Mix well. Add the apple mixture to the cupcake batter. In a muffin tin lined with baking cups, distribute the batter evenly amongst each cup. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool for at least 15 minutes before frosting.
2. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and cream cheese. Add the vanilla extract. Add the confectioner’s sugar 2 cups at a time until it is well-combined with the cream cheese. Add the cinnamon and mix until it is thoroughly mixed in with the frosting, but try to avoid over-mixing the frosting.
Notes:
– I used Duncan Hines box mix for this recipe. If you use a different brand, I recommend following the directions for that specific cake mix, then add in my additions of the vanilla, sour cream, and apples.
– Most cake mixes say that the mix will make 24 cupcakes, but because you are adding the apples to this, you have to account for the fact that they are going to release moisture while baking, so you need more of the dry mix to account for this. This recipe should give you about 12 cupcakes.
– The frosting recipe might make more than you need for just 12 cupcakes, but I wanted to give these a generous frosting so I made sure to have extra!
Ah, Monday. We meet again. Oh, how you torture me with your long work day. All I wish is for you to go by quickly so I can go home, get in pj’s, and watch The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills…
We had another pretty lazy weekend and I am not complaining! With only a week to go until Halloween, there has been quite a lot of great scary movies on! I’m not usually a fan of scary movies, but when October comes, I just get sucked in. But, really, I mostly just like the classic horror films, like Halloween. Obviously, the first is the best one, but for whatever reason, I always watch all of the sequels every year, including the one with Busta Rhymes where he says things like, “Happy Halloween, B#%&@!” I mean, the movie is so stupid, but I can’t look away. ‘Tis the season!
Now, enough rambling and onto this BBQ shredded chicken…In continuing with my lazy weekend, I just didn’t feel like spending the day in the kitchen yesterday. It was time to pull out the Crockpot again! This BBQ shredded chicken really couldn’t be easier to make, which makes it perfect for lazy days or long work days!
Clean and trim fat off the chicken breasts. Add to slow cooker. In a bowl, whisk together the BBQ sauce, vinegar, and red pepper flakes. Cook on low for 5 1/2 hours.
After 5 1/2 hours, remove chicken and shred using a fork. If you don’t want your chicken to be too liquidy, you can pour out the liquid into a bowl and save for later. Or you can leave the liquid in (I do recommend leaving at least a little bit of the liquid in to avoid drying out the chicken). Add the shredded chicken back to the slow cooker. Add the remaining BBQ Sauce and salt and pepper to taste. Cook on low for an additional 30 minutes. Serve.
Welcome to Eat. Drink. Love.! My name is Stephanie. Here you will find healthy and easy recipes with a few indulgences thrown in for good measure! Why the name Eat. Drink. Love.? Well, I think this is what life is all about!
