Shelf Cooking: Family Friendly Shrimp and Sausage Paella (not spicy)

Things are a little different here these days. May of us are staying home, almost all of us find ourselves cooking at home more often. If you’re like me, after 30 days you’ve made all the “family favorites,” and are looking for new ideas. I’m sharing a new recipe I tried, and look forward to sharing more with you in the coming weeks!

We made this dish and it was such a huge hit! Paella is usually made with the wonderful (but expensive) spice called saffron. Have you ever tried it? Since we’re practicing shelf cooking (meaning cooking at home with what we have, instead of running to the store with a list of ingredients) I had to improvise a little. Here’s my version of this delectable dish!

 

Ingredients

1 lb kielbasa sausage, sliced into ¼inch pieces

2 medium red bell pepper, cut into thin strips (or green bell pepper) 

1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes with herbs, un-drained

3 cups chicken broth (or hot water and 3 tsp better than bullion seasoning)

2 cups uncooked long-grain rice (or Mexican rice)

1 lb peeled deveined medium shrimp, thawed if frozen, tail shells removed

1 cup frozen sweet peas

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

 

Directions

1. Fill electric kettle (or 2-quart saucepan) with water (or chicken broth in saucepan) and bring to a boil.
2. In a large paella pan or 3-inch-deep 12-inch skillet, cook sausage over medium heat, stirring occasionally until browned. Remove sausage and add chopped onions lightly salted until softened, add bell peppers stirring occasionally until crisp-tender. Reduce heat to low add garlic and tomatoes and combine.
3. Sprinkle in rice and pour over heated broth or hot water and add 3 tsp better than bullion chicken concentrate; heat to a boiling. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer. Simmer for about 15 minutes.
4. Add shrimp and peas. Cover and simmer about 10 minutes or until rice is tender. Sprinkle with parsley.

 

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Let me know if you make this recipe! And if you modify it, I’m always looking for new meal ideas at dinner time. Stay safe, stay healthy friends!

xo,

Christine

Clean Eating, Week Two!

Hi! Welcome back!

I’m so excited to share this week’s meal plan with you. It’s really challenging to cook healthy, delicious food that the whole family will love, that won’t take forever to prepare! I’ve put together a few of my family’s favorite meals, a few good-for-you comfort foods, and lots of tasty snacks!

I hope you’ll join me on this journey, and remember good eating is done one meal at a time. You can do this!!

Veggies with hummus is one of our favorites!

 

Here’s a quick preview:

 

And you can download and print the meal plan here: Delightful Southern Moments, Week II Meal Plan

 

Recipes

There are a few new Recipes this week, so I’ll share them here:

Sweet and Spicy Chicken Drumettes

Fish Tacos (skip the cayenne pepper for the kids)

Lentil Soup

Tomato & Spinach Soup

I buy my Korean Short ribs from Trader Joes. They’re already marinated and are so easy to make. I recommend popping them in the oven under the broiler. But you have to watch them closely so they don’t burn!

 

If you try any, or all of these recipes, please share! We’d love to hear from you!

xo,

Christine

Eating Healthier in the New Year

We’ve all been there, but are you really ready to jump start your ideal weight goals?

Let’s do it together!

I’ll be sharing my favorite recipes, and a few new ones here for us all to try together! Come along with me on the journey to cleaner eating, mom and toddler friendly exercises, and lots of positive thoughts to inspire us in the new year!

I’m really excited to share our meal plan for the week. While not vegan, many are vegetarian and all are dairy free. There are lots of great recipes here that I’ll be sharing with you and I hope you’ll try them! You’ll notice that most of the recipes have proteins and vegetables, or veggies and carbs. This is because it is easier for our body’s to digest foods in certain pairings. But more on that later! My favorite nutritionist recommends starting your day with a cup of warm lemon. It helps get your digestion moving and has tons of digestive enzymes!

Another great tip is what we drink. I’ll let you do your own research with this topic, but a friendly reminder to myself is to drink less adult beverages when I’m loosing weight. I also skip all sodas, even ‘diet’ labeled stuff. And I use half or completely skip the sugar I add to my coffee. I drink it with plenty of un-sweetened almond milk, but almond milk has it’s own sweetness. Between drinking lots of plane water, juicing (that’s another blog post for another day), green smoothies, 1 cup or less of coffee a day, warm tea, and 1-3 glasses of wine a week I find that I don’t need to drink any soda.

 

Our Meals this Week

We love making a special meal once a week. Have you ever made pork wellington? It’s actually really easy! My hubby makes this amazing dish for us! Here’s the recipe for Pork Wellington.

 

Another favorite meal, that is oh so toddler friendly is oatmeal! We use instant oatmeal, sprinkle in a little cinnamon and raisins. For the littlest member of our family we add sprinkles!

 

We love breakfast around here! A new favorite is this Banana Breakfast Wrap!

Below is a preview of this week’s meal plan, you can download it here, Delightful Southern Moment Clean Eating Meal Plan.

(Please note that this is not medical advice and not to replace meal plans given by your doctor).

Recipes:

Banana Breakfast Wrap

Nutty Carob Power-Shake

Veggie Wrap

Easy Roasted Chicken

Green Smoothie

Honey & Soy Salmon Skewers

Chia Acai Smoothie

Gluten-Free Pancakes

Homemade Granola

Portobello Burger

 

 

Being Active

To balance out all the good eating, I need to get more active! It’s difficult in the frozen winter months to be motivated to run outside, or even head over to the gym. What if you could workout at home? If you’re interested in the workout video I showed on stories the other day, you can find it here on Amazon. It’s engaging, fun, and yes, even toddlers can do the exercises and have a great time! All you need is a mat and a couple of weights.

 

If you aren’t sure how to make something, or are curious about substituting something, or even looking for a recipe you don’t see here, feel free comment below or send us a message through our Facebook or Instagram pages! What are you hoping to add to your wellness plan for the new year? Comment below to tell us about your plans!

xo,

Christine