A New Home

If you haven't noticed already, I've moved my blog to a new host. You can get to it quickly and easily by going to shinyhappyrachel.com. Add or update your favorites!

That link will work in about an hour (at which point I'll remove this little note) in the meantime I'm at ShinyHappyRachel.wordpress.com

Pimp Her Blog #1

Looking for delicious recipes and not finding what you want here? You need to check out my girl's blog.
It's called Not Your Mommas Kitchen and Dana comes up with some recipes that make me drool.
I think I'm going to make a big batch of her Homemade Meat Spaghetti Sauce and I'm gonna HAVE to take a paleo break to try Crock Pot Orange Chicken.

So, RUN, don't walk to her blog.. RIGHT NOW... why are you still here????!!!!

Delicious Buttery, Garlicy, Lemony, Spicy Shrimp

I was (again) wandering punchfork last night and searched for "Paleo Shrimp" and this jumped out at me. First off, it's really a Paleo cheat because it uses a lot of butter. Butter is "ok" from time to time. I use butter now and then and I'm careful to buy the "Happy Butter" as I call it. Grass fed cows, free-range, no funky stuff fed to them or injected.. so yeah, happy butter!

I also served it with some homemade french bread because the sauce you end up when it's cooked is just too good to waste so you can either pour it in a glass and drink it or use some french bread to sop it up. The latter won't make you feel dumb. ;)

You're going to need:

2 pounds Raw Shrimp, Cleaned and Deshelled
2 sticks COLD Unsalted Butter Cut Into Pieces
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
4 cloves Garlic, Peeled
1/4 cup Fresh Parsley
1/2 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper
1 whole Lemon, Juiced

Preheat oven to 375 degrees (190.6 C).

Get out your food processor. You're really going to need one to make this painless. Use the blade attachment that chops everything up.

In the bowl add your cut up COLD butter pieces. It's important that it's cold and hard butter or it's not going to crumble right. So butter, sea salt, garlic, parsley, crushed red pepper and the lemon juice.
Pulse it until it's all combined and kinda crumbly. 

Get a baking dish out (I used a 8x11 casserole pan) and lay the cleaned shrimp out all flat in one layer. The original recipe calls for the shells to be left on and then peel them as you eat them BUT, from experience, when you cook shrimp with the shells on and then peel them to eat, all of the good taste comes off with the shell! SO... I'm saying deshell, clean and put on the tray all nice and flat.

Sprinkle the butter mix all over the shrimps and pop in the oven. You're going to want to cook them until the shrimp is pink on the outside and opaque in the middle and butter is hot and bubbly. It took me about 13 minutes and Gary said it was cooked perfectly.

Next, take your plate and serve the shrimp up with big spoonfuls of the butter sauce that you can use your french bread to get off of your plate. The butter sauce is the best part in my opinion!

(image courtesy of punchfork stock)

Slow Cooker Apple BBQ Chicken

I stopped looking for new crockpot recipes awhile ago because everything seems to be "protein plus BBQ sauce". It gets really old, really fast. Well, I was bored, wandering punchfork again, and came across this recipe. It had some extra flair so I decided to give it a go and it turned out pretty stinkin' good!

That is not my picture. I used punchfork stock.

You're going to need: 
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I used 3)
4 slices of bacon (I skipped this step)
1/2 cup of BBQ sauce
2 large apples, peeled and cut into small pieces
2 Tbs lemon juice

You're supposed to start by wrapping the chicken breasts in bacon slices. I skipped this step. I'm sure it adds some decent flavor but I like my bacon one way.... burnt. I HATE soggy bacon and there can come NO GOOD from bacon in a crockpot for 8 hours.
Anyway, place your chicken breasts in the crockpot.. with or without bacon.

Peel the apples and chop them up into little pieces. (I highly recommend peeling them even if you like skins. The skins won't break down in the crockpot the way they're supposed to.)
Mix the BBQ, apple pieces and lemon juice.
Pour it over the chicken and cook on low for 8 hours.

I used green apples. Those are pretty much the only kind that Gary likes. If you try a different kind of apple, you'll have to let me know how it tastes!

I was out of Steve's Original BBQ sauce so I used another gluten free/NO HFCS BBQ sauce that I found at Sprouts. :)

Why hello there, 2013!

Well, I searched my entire blog and I can't find my post for my 2012 resolutions. I guess that means I didn't make any. I usually do so.... anyway. I wouldn't say it was a bad year. Gary and I started the Paleo diet change mid July and I've lost 52 pounds so far. I had to bring my walking (exercise) to a halt due to girl problems but I plan on picking it up ASAP.
My goals for 2013 are pretty simple.
1. Finish losing the weight I started out to lose. This shouldn't be incredibly hard. It was pretty much falling off when I was walking and my girl problems should be over by mid-February.
2. Be a better pen pal. I've been slacking BIG TIME this year and I'd like to apologize to my pen pals. My goal is to get back on track. I'm going for at least 1 letter, per pen pal, a month. Feel free to nag me if you haven't received yours. :)
3. Be a better blogger. I really do try and keep this updated. I get lazy and that's my only reason. I'm on a mission to find new recipes so hopefully they turn out well and I can share them!
4. I'm going to TRY and read 2 books a month (minimum). I'm a pretty fast reader but I get distracted easily and forget to pick up the kindle or a book. So yeah, I know, I set my goal low but it's a start.

Hopefully, in 52 weeks, I can update the blog again and report that I successfully stuck to my resolutions!

Blackberry Pork Tenderloin

Hey, I bet you'll never guess where I found this recipe! Oh.. punchfork you say? OK FINE... actually my mom found it on punchfork and pointed it out to me. :D
You're not getting a pretty picture this time because 1. the stock image looked gross and 2. my own dish looked even worse! Seriously, if you were going by looks alone you'd never touch it. Purple pork with a purple sauce? LOL
OK, just trust me when I tell you that it's delicious AND it's a crockpot recipe so even better!!

The first thing I did when preparing to make this was go wine shopping. Most of you are cheering at this point, but I'm not a huge fan of wine so I took my wino friend, Melia, with me. :D
I should point out that I do like a nice glass of moscato but I was shopping for a Merlot and I hate red wine.

So let's get started!!
You're going to need:
1 (2lb) pork tenderloin (I used 1 lb)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 Tbs dried rubbed sage
1 Tbs crushed rosemary (I skipped this. We're not a fan)
1 (16oz) jar seedless blackberry jam
1/4 cup honey
2 Tbs dry red wine (I used a Merlot)

For the sauce you'll also need:
1/2 cup of the above red wine
2 Tbs honey
1 cup fresh blackberries
(I would double the sauce if you're making a 2 lb tenderloin)

Start by seasoning the tenderloin. Cover all sides in the salt, pepper, sage and rosemary.
Put the tenderloin in the crockpot.
Pour the blackberry jam, 1/4 cup of honey and 2 Tbs of the red wine over the pork.

Cook on Low until very tender. I did 6 hours but that's because Gary was running late from work. It was probably ready 30 to 45 minutes before. It wasn't dried out though. :)

For the sauce, grab a small saucepan. Pour 1/2 cup of the red wine, 2 Tbs of honey into the pan. Add in the fresh blackberries.
Bring to a boil over medium-low heat and simmer until the sauce reduces a little and the berries begin to burst. It took about 20 minutes for me.

Slice the tenderloin on to plates and spoon the sauce over the slices! :)

If you're a slob like me, I'd suggest using an apron. You're using red wine and making a blackberry sauce... so yeah.. everything stains. I **always** cook with an apron!

Sizzling Shrimp with Garlic

On December 23rd, I went to the grocery store to pick up a few last minute things for Christmas dinner. I didn't wanna go the day before Christmas because I knew it would be a madhouse. I also picked up a few things to make meals right before and right after because again, I don't like madhouses. One of the things that I grabbed was a pound of shrimp. Then I went googling for a new shrimp recipe because I wanted to try cooking something new.
I'm going to post this recipe as I found it then tell you the changes I made along the way.
Gary gave it 5 stars. I, personally, don't eat shrimp. It's nasty. It tastes nasty and has a horrible texture. It did smell good though!


I found this recipe on punchfork.com. Punchfork is my new favoritest place to find fun, new recipes. It's where I found the dill, garlic, lemon salmon that I posted yesterday, and this one, and a few more I'll be trying.

While this recipe IS Paleo we did cheat and use some delicious french bread. I ate it with my gluten free pasta/marinara and he used it with the pan juices this dish creates.

You're going to need:

4 to 5 Tbs. olive oil
4 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 tsp. sweet paprika
1 lb. medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 to 2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
1 to 2 Tbs. dry sherry
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 Tbs. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Start by heating up the olive oil over medium heat in a saute pan. I didn't have lemons for juice on hand so I used a lemon infused olive oil. Once the oil is warm add in the garlic, red pepper flakes and paprika. Saute for about a minute ... until it's fragrant.

Turn up the heat to high and add in the shrimp, lemon juice and the sherry. Stir well and saute until the shrimps are cooked. They'll turn pink and opaque... it takes 3 to 4 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with the parsley.

He liked it so much that instead of saving half for lunch the next (like he normally does), he ate the entire pound of shrimp.