Shrimp and Orzo

Hi! Happy Wednesday, everybody :) Today was actually a pretty good day, even though I had an AWFUL sleep last night. After getting back from a relaxing physical therapy appointment, I ate a breakfast of whole wheat english muffins with peanut butter and bananas, a side of a grapefruit with Splenda. With my breakfast, I drank a glass of organic skim milk. I love drinking milk, and it's so good for you. The kind that I buy is made from local Rhode Island farms, because supporting local industry is important to me, and it's also organic so that I don't have to have all of those extra added hormones in my body that big milk companies like to give to their cows. 

After my breakfast, I fell back asleep for about two hours before I had to go into work. Normally I would've had class, but it was cancelled today. When I woke up, I knew I should eat something before going to work, so I had an avocado and a juice box.

One of the things that I've always done, because that's what my parents taught me, is I basically only drinking water. Most days I'll have a ton of water (at least the daily recommended amount) and usually one glass of milk (I almost never drink more than one glass because your body doesn't need that much milk in one day so I don't want to overload on those calories). Sometimes to treat myself (a few times a week) I'll drink a juice box with lunch to give myself a serving of fruit in a healthy size so that I'm not pouring myself a huge glass of sugary juice to satisfy a drink craving. Occasionally I'll also drink diet soda with nothing added, like Fresca, to give myself a change of pace from all the water. Also, I add fiber powder to my water once a day... just to make sure my digestion is on track and so I get enough of that essential nutrient :)

Oh I forget to show you... these are the flowers Brent gave me for Valentine's Day! Purple is my favorite color. He was so sweet... he said that he got me a plant because he thinks flowers dying is a bad omen. That was so adorable, so now the flowers are sitting on my windowsill soaking up the sun, where I can admire them all the time :) I just hope I don't accidentally kill it!!! Have you all seen How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days? (ha ha ha... love fern!)

After getting out of work (and traffic court... c'mon, it was a broken taillight!) I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few extra things I needed for tonight's recipe. By this time I was STARVING! Walking around Stop&Shop with my stomach growling was torture. Luckily, I was able to stick to my list and didn't buy anything unhealthy :)

This recipe I found from Cooking Light. It was so yummy!!! The only thing that I didn't like about it was that I completely followed the portion directions, but there were WAY too many shrimp. I had to eat a whole shrimp in every bite with only about five orzo noodles to make each bite even.

Shrimp and Orzo

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 1/4 cups)

Ingredients

• 1  cup  uncooked orzo (rice-shaped pasta)
• 2  tablespoons  olive oil, divided
• 3/4  teaspoon  salt, divided
• 1/4  teaspoon  black pepper, divided
• 1  pound  medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1  cup  chopped Vidalia or other sweet onion
• 1  tablespoon  bottled minced garlic
• 1/4  teaspoon  crushed red pepper
• 2  cups  cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/3  cup  (about 1 1/2 ounces) grated fresh pecorino Romano cheese
• 1/3  cup  chopped fresh basil

Preparation

Cook the pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat.

While pasta cooks, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/8 teaspoon of black pepper evenly over shrimp. Add shrimp to pan; cook 1 1/2 minutes on each side or until done. Remove from pan.

Add remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to pan. Add onion, garlic, and red pepper; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add tomatoes, and cook 3 minutes or until tomatoes begin to soften, stirring occasionally. Stir in pasta and shrimp; cook 1 minute or until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat, and stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon black pepper, cheese, and basil.

Question of the Day: When I'm eating something, I'll make sure that I grab equal pieces of everything to make each bite "the perfect bite" and so that it all ends up even in the end. Do you guys do that too??