Low-Carb Lesson #18: Shrimp, Chilled Fruit, & Iced Tea

Written by Di Bauer June 1, 2002, Updated by Andrew DiMino July 18, 2016

Low Carb Cooking 101

My house does not even remotely resemble “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” I was all set to share a new recipe with you, Chicken Alfredo With Zoodles, but it requires cooking and our downstairs air conditioner is on the fritz. It’s about 90 degrees in my office, I’m slowly melting like the Wicked Witch of the West, and I cannot even think about cooking something. Instead, I’m going to share what we’re going to have for dinner tonight: a Simple Shrimp Salad, some chilled fruit, and Peach Iced Tea. No cooking!

For hot or hectic times like today (which seems like most of the time around here), it’s very helpful to have some types of meat or seafood precooked and already sliced or cubed in the freezer. I buy the frozen, pre-cooked salad shrimp whenever they are on sale for buy one/get one free and keep them on hand. I also stock up on canned crab meat when I find it on sale or at Big Lots.

I often marinate a bag of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in Italian, Greek Vinaigrette, or Dijon Vinaigrette salad dressing and broil them, then serve some for dinner that night and slice the rest up into bite-sized pieces. I put one and a half chicken breasts in each freezer bag, which is about the amount of meat my family likes in a main dish salad, and pop them in the freezer.

When I find flank steaks in the “sale” meat bin, I put a spicy rub on them and broil them until they’re just a smidge past rare, then slice them up thinly and freeze the strips for future use. The reason I only cook them to rare is so that I can reheat them without overcooking them.

My family, picky people that they are, don’t like to eat cold meat, so even if the meat is served on a salad it has to be warm. If you’re more like me and like the meat cold, too, then broil the flank steaks completely to the desired doneness.

Ah, but I digress. My husband would say I’m babbling. Tonight we’re having a Simple Shrimp Salad. It’s an extremely simply recipe, quick to prepare and refreshingl to eat. The key is the presentation. If you follow my directions, you’ll serve your family a main dish salad that any restaurant would be proud of. Enjoy!

Here’s This Evening’s Low-Carb Recipes

• Simple Shrimp Salad Recipe
• Chilled Fresh Fruit of Your Choice
• Sugar-Free Peach Iced Tea Recipe
  

Here’s The Gameplan

The shrimp salad needs to chill for at least an hour, so you will want to make this as soon as you get home from work, earlier in the day or even the night before. You can cut the tomatoes into wedges, slice the cucumbers, and chop up the green onions at the same time to save work later. Just put the cut up vegetables in plastic containers or bags and store them in the refrigerator until dinner time.

Make the Peach Iced Tea as early in the day as possible, too, so that it can chill thoroughly, but don’t prepare the fruit until the last minute so that it doesn’t brown or get mushy.

I’m not providing a specific recipe for the chilled fruit since none is really needed. I would suggest using a few low glycemic fruits such as berries so that you can indulge alongside your non-low-carb family. Simply slice the fruit of your choice and place the slices in a custard cup or small salad bowl. This is where everyone can have what they want with no extra work or fuss. I usually have strawberries, honeydew, or cantaloupe. My husband and kids like Asian pears, apples, or grapes.