Honey Lime Shrimp

I love finding new recipes that I love.  If their easy, healthy and quick for a weeknight I'm even happier.   That's just what happened last night when I tried a recipe for Honey Lime Shrimp that I found on Pinterest.

Photo from The Dough Will Rise Again

Stephen and I love shrimp (all seafood really) so I'm always looking for new ways to serve it.  This recipe was so easy I had the marinade done before Stephen got home from work and 45 minutes later we had dinner.  The part that took the most amount of time was letting the shrimp sit in the marinade for 30 minutes.  The next time I make this meal, I'll make the marinade for the shrimp in the morning and let them sit in it all day long.  Then after work dinner can be ready in 15 minutes!

I followed the directions exactly as they are in the original post, but I did cook the shrimp in the marinade.  Based on how crisp the shrimp look in the photo above, she didn't.  My way turned out AMAZING, so I think you're safe either way.

I served the shrimp with some rice and sauteed broccoli.

Margarita Cupcakes: Recipe

The 2012 Summer Olympics started Friday night and we were invited to an Opening Ceremony Party. Everyone at the party had to pick a country and represent that country with food, drinks and outfit.  The easy way would have been to pick the USA and gone with some Coors Light and a red, white and blue snack - but we don't go the easy way in our house.  I thought the red, white and blue could have worked for a few different countries, but Stephen convinced me to go another route: Mexico.  I love Cinco De Mayo (especially since that's the day added Goose to our family) so I didn't fight his suggestion too hard.

Stephen makes amazing guacamole so that was going to be his contribution to our offerings.   We had just been to the farmer's market so we had four fresh avocados to use.  Yum.  I did a quick search on Pinterest for "Mexican themed party" and found a recipe for Margarita Cupcakes and decided I'd give those a shot.  Here is the link to the original recipe on Hostess With The Mostess.

photo source: Hostess with the Mostess

These cupcakes are amazing.  Not just a little bit, but a lot of amazing.  I followed the recipe exactly, but substituted coconut oil for the vegetable oil.  For the icing, I had to use abut 5 1/2 cups of sugar for it to get to the consistency that I wanted, but I think that had to do with my heavy pour with the margarita mix.

I got 20 cupcakes out of my first batch and enough frosting for 44 cupcakes.  So what do you do when you have enough frosting for a second round of cupcakes - you make more!  We had an engagement party on Saturday night to attend, so I made another batch of cupcakes and used up the rest of the frosting.

Every person who had a cupcake loved them.  I have probably had 4 in the past 3 days and I know Stephen wouldn't like me to mention how many he's put down in the same time period.  These will definitely become a summer party regular and I'll bring these to every Cinco De Mayo party we're invited to.  YUM!