I am thrilled to have 22 of you join me in rocking this 101 Days of Summer Challenge.  I love all your goals and I think together, we can achieve them.  I had two thoughts on communicating with each other – I can do a blind copy email to the group and anyone can respond to “all” or I could create a new private Facebook page – your thoughts?

It was so weird not to work out yesterday, but every time I sat at my desk for a while without a cough I thought to myself “I can probably walk outside for a bit!”  Um, no.  Any time I exerted too much energy, the coughing attacks would come back – gah.  So in the meantime I really need to be mindful of my eats without the exercise.

Breakfast yesterday was a low carb tortilla breakfast burrito with fresh fruit.  That little cup in the back?  The best spicy salsa from a new Mexican restaurant in town – after this picture was taken I doused my burrito with that salsa – holy yum.

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Our weather has been so strange lately – hot enough where we need to turn the air on, then so cold we have to turn the heat back on.  Right now its 42 degrees on June 2!  It makes for awesome sleeping weather though, so I shouldn’t complain too much.  Except when it’s chilly I think of soups/stews/hot food.  Over the weekend I made a 15 bean and Andoille sausage soup.  I have to admit, it was just okay.  Even though I cooked it low and slow in my Dutch oven on Sunday for nearly six hours, some of the beans were still a bit crunchy.  It was filling though!

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I think I told you that Hannah has a Pinterest board that says “Shit I want my Mom to make me.”  It actually helps in meal planning for me!  One of the things she pinned was Shrimp de Jonghe.  Huh.  I bought shrimp over the weekend, but as I was looking at the recipe yesterday I noticed that there was nearly 3/4 of a stick of butter in the recipe – yikes!  When I got home the kids weren’t ready to eat yet because they had a late lunch because of their work schedules. So I was on my own for dinner.

I knew at work that I had romaine lettuce, so a quick Pinterest search of “shrimp” and “romaine” led me to Foodie Crush’s grilled shrimp and romaine salad.  Let’s just say that I took inspiration from her recipe.  I didn’t have proscuitto to wrap my shrimp and well I basically started pulling out all the stuff I had in my pantry to kick up this salad:  cucumber, carrots, pecans, hard boiled egg, pickled cherry peppers, fresh mozzarella, craisins to name a few.  I still need to get a gas grill – since I had to buy a lawn mower I need to space out these purchases, so I ended up using my indoor cast iron grill – I always forgot how smoky the house gets when I use that thing!

I brushed half a head of romaine, making sure to leave the stem in tact so it stays together.  I simply brushed the cut side with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and with the grill pan on medium high, cooked it for about 1-2 minutes – you just want to char and wilt it.  I set that aside.  I had my shrimp sitting in a bit of olive oil and The Spice House’s pizza topping seasoning:  Jessica, this is one of the things I bought when I was with you in Milwaukee!

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After I took the romaine lettuce off, I grilled the shrimp for just a minute a side –they were on the smaller side.  Then it was just a matter of tossing all my fridge/pantry loot on top of the Romaine and added the grilled shrimp, then drizzled two tablespoons of Annie’s Goddess dressing over the top.

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Two words: HOLY YUM!  Guys, this salad not only screams summer, but was literally ready in about 10 minutes – perfect for a week night.  The crushed red pepper in the seasoning blend was a nice kick, then I’d get the sweetness from the craisins, then the brinyness (is that a word?!) from the pickled cherry peppers – and the shrimp were so tender – this will definitely be a repeat dinner this summer!  I think next time I’ll add charred grilled corn for some smokiness, but this salad was amazeballs.  The best part though was that that whole plate was 455 calories, 22 fat, 19 carbs, 5.5 fiber and 30.7 grams of protein.  And after that picture was taken, I brought it back to my cutting board and made a chopped salad out of it so it would be easier to eat.

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So of the 22 participants of the 101 Days of Summer Challenge, the winner of the #WYCWYC books is Heidi!

I’m in on this.
My goal is to walk or bike 30 mins 5 days a week
eat 3 healthy meals a day
NO sugar NO grains
would love to read the book, it sounds great.
Hope you feel better fast, I am just getting over sinus and ear infections, not a fun time of year to be sick.

Heidi, just shoot me an email with your mailing address and I will get this book out to you asap – I know you’ll love it:  mybizzykitchen@gmail.com.

June 2nd would have been my parents 53rd wedding anniversary were my Dad still alive – happy Anniversary Momma!  June 2 also marks seven months since Tony passed away.  I hope that Tony and my Dad found each other – I really think the would have liked each other.

Alright, off to make a breakfast baked potato . . . you’ll just have to follow me on Instagram to see how it turns out!  (my bizzy kitchen).

Make it a great day!