Seasoned Shrimp and Spiral Zucchini Pasta

We love to cook and that’s why we’re sharing our wins and losses when it comes to our meals. For us, most of the time we have dinners that we would love to cook again. We find a recipe, cook it and then decide if we want to keep it. Usually, the next time we cook that meal it’s from memory, which is really where the greatness happens. Since we’re cooking it from memory we forget exactly how we made it the first time so things change. This meal though is completely free-lanced. I say that because I have never seen Liz actually read a recipe for this specific meal. I have a feeling she saw this type of recipe somewhere on a food network show or something like that, then she logged that recipe in her memory until we eventually made the meal. The first time she threw this together we used spaghetti squash as the pasta and this time, we used a spiralizer to make zucchini pasta. I honestly like both versions. Another part I like about the recipe is it’s incredibly easy to customize. Sometimes this meal may have  fresh garlic, no bell peppers or onions. You can do whatever you want with it. Don’t like onions? Then don’t include them. Don’t like zucchini? Use spaghetti squash. Never used a spiralizer? Check out the instruction video on how we used it (Click Here).

If you don’t like either of those options and you want to just have regular pasta?  That’s fine, do that but remember the calories are much higher with regular pasta. That brings up something I hear all the time when I’m explaining this meal or meals where we use spaghetti squash. Yes, we’re using it instead of pasta. Yes, it’s not only because it has fewer calories, but for us, it has to do with how we feel. Don’t get me wrong. I love pasta just as much as anyone else does. The difference? I recognize that I love it so much that I always overeat pasta. Then I feel absolutely horrible. Sound familiar? Is it a gluten intolerance? Maybe, but more than likely it’s gluttony intolerance. So, for us using a vegetable for the “pasta” works better and to be honest, we love it. Also, this dish is so good that we ate the whole pot. All of it guilt free.

What’s the macronutrient breakdown?

Like I mention in the instruction video (Click here). We love this dish so it’s not surprising that we ate the whole thing. When you look at the macronutrient breakdown it makes sense that the most calories come from the protein. This dish breaks down to shrimp and veggies. The overall calories were perfect and came in just under 450 k/cal. Some may say 40 grams of protein is on the high side for a meal, but that’s how it worked out. Those are things that I used to care about but no longer do because I don’t have the time to worry about it. The carbohydrates came in at 30 grams which may be low for some. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If you feel you need more carbohydrates the best way to do this is to add more fruit with this and any meal. The 20 grams of fat came mostly from the sauteed veggies.

What would we change next time?

Honestly, this is one of those meals that we wouldn’t change any of the ingredients. The one thing that you could change is the spice blend. We chose a spice blend from Savory Spice called the Coastal California Fennel Pollen Rub. We added it on a whim and it turned out great. The next time we make this recipe we may or may not use it, but I wanted to point out how good it was for this dish. Not only that but you can use whatever spice rub you prefer. The one thing that we have not figured out with the spiralizer is how to have shorter lengths of zucchini. When using the spiralizer you can make too long of “noodles” that become hard to eat. We even tried to make them smaller this time around and they came out better but not quite short enough.

From YouTube!

Here’s the recipe:

This is one of our favorite dishes to make and the best part? It’s super easy to make. All you have to do is shred the zucchini, chop the veggies, and then cook the shrimp. Just try it!

Here’s what we used:

2 chopped bell peppers
1 onion chopped
3-4 small zucchini made into pasta like noodles
Bag of de-veined previously frozen shrimp
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 tbsp of butter
2 tbsp Coastal California Fennel Pollen Rub from Savory Spice
1 tsp salt
Pepper to taste

1. Heat up big pot adding butter and olive oil
2. Sauté onions until they become translucent
3. Add bell peppers
4. Stir until soft
5. Add zucchini and sauté for 5 minutes
6. Add shrimp
7. Sprinkler Coastal California Fennel Pollen Rub
8. Stir ever so often to evenly cook the shrimp
9. Once shrimp are pink and cooked through
10. Serve in a bowl
11. Enjoy!

We were so hungry that we almost didn’t get any shot of the finished meal! It was so good we didn’t have leftovers.