Arugula Salad with Grilled Shrimp & Chimichurri Sauce

I love the idea of a raw sauce to top meat and fish. Mine was grilled shrimp and Mr. J had steak tips. The arugula salad had avocado, cucumbers, and tomatoes. I’ll have to keep the idea of chimichurri around the next time I have handfuls of fresh herbs leftover from something!

The Three Bite Rule - Grilled Shrimp w/ Chimichurri Sauce

Ingredients:

1 cup flat parsley
1/2 cup cilantro
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tsp garlic, minced
pinch crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 olive oil
shrimp/steak
2 cups arugula
1 cup mixed greens
1 avocado
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 cucumber, chopped

Directions:

Preheat the grill.
In a blender or food processor, combine the parsley, cilantro, red wine vinegar, crushed red pepper, cumin, salt, pepper, and stream in the olive oil. Taste and add in more oil/vinegar as needed. Keep at room temperature until ready to serve.
The Three Bite Rule - Grilled Shrimp w/ Chimichurri Sauce
Grill the steak/shrimp.
Toss together the arugula, avocado, tomato, and cucumber.
The Three Bite Rule - Grilled Shrimp w/ Chimichurri Sauce
Toss with some salad dressing. Add the grilled steak/shrimp and spoon some chimichurri sauce over the top.
The Three Bite Rule - Grilled Shrimp w/ Chimichurri Sauce
I liked the fresh-herby flavor of the chimichurri. I found it a strong so I made sure there was some on each shrimp, but I wasn’t trying to dress the salad with it. I used some creamy caesar dressing for the salad. I thought a more fatty-peppery dressing was good to contrast the chimichurri sauce.

Feta & Herb Crusted Salmon

My garden herbs are still kind of hanging on, likely because it has been 50-degrees! I used them with some feta for a Greek-inspired salmon or the topping would work nicely on chicken as well. I cooked it on the grill or it could be popped into the oven as well.

The Three Bite Rule - Greek Salmon

Ingredients:

1 salmon fillet
1-2 tbs crumbled feta
1/2 tsp chopped fresh oregano
1/2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp chopped fresh thyme

Directions:

Chop the feta and herbs and mix together with a little pepper (the feta will provide enough salt).
The Three Bite Rule - Greek Salmon
Preheat the grill or oven.
Make a foil packet sprayed with a little non-stick spray.
Place the salmon onto the foil and top with the feta/herb topping.
The Three Bite Rule - Greek Salmon
Close up the foil and cook until your desired doneness.
The Three Bite Rule - Greek Salmon
The herbs flavor cooked in really well. It was a his/hers dinner so Mr. J grilled some steak while I had salmon. With some roasted broccoli and some creamy white beans, dinner was really quite hands-off. It was a good reminder that the salmon I had hanging out in the freezer would defrost quickly and cook quickly with only a few ingredients. What a perfect use for some leftover fresh herbs you have from something else!

The Three Bite Rule - Greek Salmon

What I Ate: Angry Shrimp Wrap

What I Ate’ is a series of posts for so-easy-this-doesn’t-need-a-recipe but I’m sharing with you for the idea or inspiration.

I’m lacking on the eat-more-fish goal this year. Baby steps…speaking of, the baby is trying to take some steps. For this quickie we did a his/hers wraps. His was Chicken Caesar and hers was Buffalo Shrimp! I liked this for a really quick, easily customizable dinner. Although it is a sandwich, it isn’t your average lunch-box option.
The Three Bite Rule - Angry Shrimp

Ingredients:

burrito-size tortilla
lettuce/tomato/cucumber/pickles as you wish
~6 medium shrimp, pealed & deveined
4 tbs buffalo sauce
2 tbs blue cheese dressing

Directions:

Prep the shrimp: peal, devein, defrost as necessary.
Heat a small skillet to medium low heat and add in the shrimp and buffalo sauce. Toss and cook until warmed through (if the shrimp are fully cooked – about 4 minutes) or until the shrimp cook through (if the shrimp are raw – 5-6 minutes).
The Three Bite Rule - Angry Shrimp
While the shrimp cooks in the buffalo sauce, prep the veggies.
Top the wrap with the veggies, shrimp, and a drizzle of blue cheese.
The Three Bite Rule - Angry Shrimp
Wrap & enjoy!

This was pretty basic, as in simple…not being “basic”. Don’t even get me started with PSL and being “basic”. Such a lame descriptor.

This was tasty and just what I wanted. Again, not rocket-science, but this is real-life. It is definitely a whirl-wind to pick up the little dude at daycare, get home & see the pups, spoon feed the baby dinner, and then to know what’s up for adult dinner. It is a short window from 6-8pm to fit in baby playtime, dinnertime, bathtime, bottle & bed. Dinner sometimes just has to be dinner and this one hit the spot!

Lobster Cakes

I made some lobster cakes as a play on a crab cake. They were so good and though I plopped mine onto a salad, they would be great as an appetizer too!

The Three Bite Rule - Lobster Cakes

Ingredients:

1 cup lobster meat, chopped
2 tbs mayo
1 tbs grainy mustard
1 tsp minced garlic
4 chive sprigs minced
1 green onion, chopped
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/2 cup seasoned breadcrumbs

Directions:

Mix together the lobster meat, mayo, mustard, and garlic gently to not pulverize the lobster.
The Three Bite Rule - Lobster Cakes
Add in the chives and green onion stirring gently.
The Three Bite Rule - Lobster Cakes
Heat a large skillet with vegetable oil to medium heat.
Form the mixture into 2-3 patties and roll them in the mixed breadcrumbs.
The Three Bite Rule - Lobster Cakes
To check the oil temperature, drop a few breadcrumbs into the oil and see if they sizzle immediately. If they do, then add the patties in to cook for about 3-5 minutes on each side. Try to let them really crisp on the bottom before flipping so you only have to flip it once.
The Three Bite Rule - Lobster Cakes
Remove from the oil and let them drain on paper towel to get rid of the excess oil.
The Three Bite Rule - Lobster Cakes
Serve on their own or on top of salad! Enjoy!
The Three Bite Rule - Lobster Cakes
This is the best lazy-man’s lobster. It gets crunchy on the outside but is all lobster on the inside. There really isn’t much filler in these bad boys. I ended up adding a 2nd to my plate. I couldn’t resist!

Can you believe I fried them? I never fry things! They’d be good in the oven, if it isn’t too hot to have your oven on. 😉

I served it with honey mustard dressing that is just so easy and worth making yourself:
2 tbs honey
2 tbs dijon mustard
tiniest dab of butter (tiny as in 1/2 teaspoon – this makes all the difference)
shake it up and enjoy!

The Three Bite Rule - Lobster Cakes
Make your own honey mustard dressing. It is perfect to make a tiny bit for one or two servings or double/triple/quadruple this and have enough for a while.

Risotto with Grilled Asparagus

For my restaurant recreation this month, I was inspired by a lobster & asparagus risotto dish at Davio’s but I wanted to make it at home. It also served as a reminder that risotto doesn’t only have to be winter food. With Mr. J’s new grill, this still allowed him to fill his grilling quota with the asparagus. Seriously, he wants to grill bfast/lunch/din.

I made this as a his/hers dinner that he had with steak and I had with lobster. The lobster wasn’t real so it was perfect to use in a cooked dish. I think I’ll use the remainder into some lobster mac & cheese.

The Three Bite Rule - Grilled Asparagus Risotto

Ingredients:

1/2 white onion, chopped
1 cup arborio rice
1 cup water
1 cup broth
1 cup white wine
1 tsp dijon mustard
3 tbs grated Parmesan
1 bunch asparagus
lobster or steak

Directions:

In a large saucepan, saute the onion in some olive oil over medium heat until they are translucent, about 5 minutes.
Add in the rice and stir regularly for a few minutes to toast it, then reduce heat to medium low.
In a medium saucepan, heat the water, broth, wine, and mustard to low heat.
Add a ladle of liquid to the rice until absorbed. Continue adding, stirring, and simmering until absorbed. Then adding the next ladle-ful in.
The Three Bite Rule - Grilled Asparagus Risotto
Grill the asparagus.
The Three Bite Rule - Grilled Asparagus Risotto
Chop into 1-inch sections.
Cook the lobster in butter and/or grill the steak.
Gently fold in the asparagus and Parmesan into the risotto.
The Three Bite Rule - Grilled Asparagus Risotto
Gently fold in the lobster meat.
The Three Bite Rule - Grilled Asparagus Risotto
Serve and enjoy!

Mr. J’s was asparagus topped with some grilled steak.
The Three Bite Rule - Grilled Asparagus Risotto
I liked the charred bits of the asparagus and I was careful to not overmix the asparagus. I didn’t want the pieces to be decimated or to lose all the grill marks into a blackened risotto!

The risotto was creamy and perfect. I think cooking it over medium-low heat is the ticket. If it is at a higher temp it really gets sticky versus creamy. It takes just a bit of patience, and about 25 min of cook time, but if somebody wants to keep an eye on it while the asparagus is grilling, it works out just fine. Or grill the asparagus first and let it hang out while cooking the risotto.

I could substitute grilled shrimp, or even salmon flaked apart, or grilled sausage…endless possibilities without even turning on the oven!