Date Night at Home: Shrimp & Grits

About once a week or so, we put the kids to bed early and eat a nice dinner together. This past week, eMeals had a lovely looking date night meal on their low calorie plan.  I saw it and knew immediately that this was our kind of meal.

I changed up the recipe just a bit to use low sodium bacon, baby bella mushrooms (instead of regular ones) and to use a mixture of water and chicken broth in the grits.  Below is my recipe.

Low Country-Style Shrimp

4 slices low sodium bacon
16 oz baby bella mushroom
2 cups cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 lbs peeled and deveined shrimp
1 cup fat free, reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 tbsp cornstarch
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Cook bacon until crisp. Reserve about 1/2 tbsp of the bacon grease and put it in a large skillet. Crumble the bacon and set aside.

Add mushrooms and garlic to the skillet. sauté for about 6 minutes or until the mushrooms are browned and tender. Add the shrimp and cook for about 3 minutes or until they turn pink.

Whisk together the chicken broth and cornstarch; add the broth mixture and the lemon juice to the skillet. Cook for about 2 minutes or until slightly thickened. Stir in bacon and serve this deliciousness over Creamy Parmesan Grits.

Creamy Parmesan Grits

1 1/4 cups fat-free, reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 3/4 cups water
1 cup milk
1 cup instant grits
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Bring the broth, milk and water to a boil. Add salt and pepper. Whisk in the grits and cook, stirring occasionally for about 20 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed.

Stir in the cheese and you're done!

I served this with sliced French bread and sweet tea, because those are the best accompaniments to a southern meal.

If you're looking to simplify your meal planning, you should head over to eMeals and check it out!

Summer (Mom) Style: Date Night

Outfit #9 . . . Date Night!

Shorts, Tank, Bracelet & Watch: Target

Wedges: Zulily

Date nights don't happen all that often at our house, so when they do we cherish them.

I love this guy. On Tuesday, we'll be celebrating 8 years of marriage.

We enjoyed the Pollo Rosa Maria at Carrabba's. Then we enjoyed a little trip to Lowe's. A trip to any store without the kids is always a pleasure. Then we got home in time to tuck the kids in.

It was one of those rare nights, when the Princess actually decided she wasn't tired and whined/fussed for about an hour in her bed. Why is it that when kids do that we think letting them sleep in our room might help? It didn't. Finally around 11pm, she fell asleep and we got to catch a few winks.

Despite the limited amount of sleep we got, I was able to get a PR when Nate & I went out to the bike trail yesterday morning.  My super sprint is a 7.5 bike and 1.5 run, which should be incredibly simple. So we pushed really hard to see what I might be able to do on race day.  We averaged 16.7 mph on the bike and 8:45 on the run.

I still have a few weeks till the triathlon, so I'm hoping to improve that time a bit more!

I have thoroughly enjoyed this weekend with the family. I love weekends now even more than I did when I was teaching. Summer weekends are so much fun! I hope you all enjoy the rest of yours! Happy Sunday!

I'm linking up today with Fine Linen & Purple, Sunday Style & Watch What I'm Wearing.

What We Wore While Cruisin' Round-Up & V-day Stuff

Everywhere I turn, I see red and pink and hearts and all things Valentine-y and I love it! But not here. =(  I've barely had time to toss the rest of my cruise outfits into a post for you, much less put together a sweet V-day post. 

Worn on our excursion

Shirt, skirt, turquoise swimsuit & sandals: All from . . . Target! =)

Leather wrap watch: Shoedazzle

I did do some lovey-dovey stuff this weekend, though! I made these V-day cards for Little Guy's class.  Mine didn't turn out nearly as cute though, so no pictures. ;)  I also bought all the ingredients and thought about making marshmallow pops like I did for the Harvest Party, only this time I'd dip them in chocolate and coat them with pink sprinkles and red hearts. But alas, homework trumped fun V-day projects and it didn't get done. Oh well, maybe I'll be able to make a few with the kids tomorrow night for dessert. It'll be more fun letting them decorate their own anyways, right?

Worn to Dinner & A Show

Dress: mark from Jackie Giardina

Belt: Aldo

Shoes: Shoedazzle

I also went on a fun little pre-V-day date Saturday night.  Can you guess where we went? Yes, it wasn't even up for debate, we went to Carrabbas. =)  I thought about wearing something like this or maybe even this, but ended up wearing this because I didn't have time to change before we left for our early evening date. Yeah, we almost always go out to dinner with the grandmas and grandpas, so that we can get back home in time to tuck the kids into bed. =)

My sister, at the same dinner & show

Dress: Cato

Belt: Maurices

And I'm not sure where she got all those fantastic bangles

Anyways, our experience at Carrabbas was fantastic.  Being that it was Valentine's Day weekend, they were swamped. It was 5:45 p.m. and we still had to wait about 40 minutes to be seated!  Once we were seated, however, we got our food so quickly.  Our waitress was absolutely the. Best.  Hand down!  If you're ever in Pensacola, you have to go to Carrabbas and ask for Deb.  She's amazing! And of course, the food, was simply delicious. So go visit Carrabbas now and say hi to Deb and you'll see . . . I wasn't lying! =)

If I don't "see" you tomorrow (I never know when I'll have time to blog these days...), y'all have a Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm linking up with Monday Mingle, of course, because those girls are pretty amazing!