I know y'all are sick of turkey by now. Have a shrimp taco instead.

It's a lazy Sunday afternoon and it seems our parade of Thanksgiving weekend guests has finally come to a close. My girl Ness ("You can just call me Doctor") just left to finish the second leg of her drive home (one nice thing about being in the armpit of California is that the majority of my friends either live south but have family north or vice versa, and it's a long ass drive. Our pull out isn't mighty comfy, but it's always free. Cost wise, anyway. There's almost always a cat on it), and asked for my shrimp taco recipe from last night as she left. I told her I'd email it, but I figured as long as I was typing, I might as well share with all y'all.

They are some awesome tacos, it's true. And I think she was impressed by how fast (and easily) they come together. 

I didn't write anything down as I was making them, so this is rough, per usual. Adjust as you see fit. They're spicy but not unreasonably so. Adding more sauce and/or cabbage on top helps. There's no photo, but that's ok. You can take your own after you make them.

Chipotle Shrimp Soft Tacos

1 chipotle pepper (from the can), chopped fine

3 garlic cloves, minced

About 1.5-2 lbs medium sized raw shrimp, deveined and tails removed

Peanut oil (or canola or olive)

About a cup greek yogurt (0% works better but regular is fine)

About a 1/2 tsp cumin

A little less than 1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro

Salt and fresh pepper

2 limes (One halved, one in 1/8ths)

Water as needed  

Corn or flour tortillas, warmed (We did some of each, both are equally good)

Shredded cabbage 

Chopped cilantro to top

Salsa or hot sauce to top

Combine the chipotle, about 2/3 of the garlic, shrimp, a good sprinkle each of salt and pepper and maybe a tsp of oil. Combine well so everything is coated, and let marinate in the fridge for 15-20 minutes. 

In the meantime, combine the yogurt, the rest of the garlic (about a cloves worth) cumin, cilantro, a pinch each of salt and pepper, and the juice of one lime. Mix well and stick in the fridge until needed. 

Heat a swirl of oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Depending on how large your skillet is and how much shrimp you're using, you may need to cook the shrimp-as follows-in two batches. Add shrimp, and cook for about 3 minutes. Turn over each piece and let cook another 2-3 minutes or until opaque and cooked through. Remove to a clean bowl. 

Take the sauce out of the fridge and taste. Add more lime or more cumin (or a bit of cold water if too thick) as needed. 

Throw some shrimp, a handful of cabbage, and a glob of sauce on a warm tortilla. Add salsa and cilantro if you want. Squeeze one of those lime wedges over everything. Eat. Say "Mmmmmmm...I'm SO effing glad this isn't turkey." Repeat.  

This served 3 hungry people, 2-3 tacos each. 

I feel like "Easy" and "Fast" should be the same thing.

Being the size of a house right now, and without the energy to make much more than salads these days, I've been looking for quick and easy dinner ideas.

(And this would be y'alls cue to send me quick and easy dinner ideas.)

I'm bored with Cooking Light recipes. Allrecipes.com is fabulous, but impossible to browse unless you have some inkling about what you want. So I went back to Sam for some help.

He promised these eggrolls would be easy and tasty. Both are true. But easy does not necessarily equal fast. Although, now that I'm thinking about it, if I hadn't also been juggling making cookies and cooking everything in a toaster oven, I could have had these done in one pass. Also, chopping pre-cooked shrimp, sauteeing for less than five minutes, prepping the rolls for another 5 minutes, and baking for 15ish minutes certainly sounds like it's fast. Sooo, how about Ms. Whineypants over here just shuts up and gives you the recipe already.

Served with Sam's Baked Scallops. Something went terribly wrong with my panko and they ended up with total mush around them, but they still tasted good. Add some sriracha to the sauce, it's worth it.

Shrimp Eggrolls
peanut oil
1 bag mixed cabbage for coleslaw (usually white, red and carrots)
8oz cooked shrimp, chopped
1/4 cup of stir fry sauce (We used Saigon Sizzle)
Sriracha (optional)
10 spring roll/eggroll wrappers (from the refrigerated section)
Spray oil
Sesame seeds
Soy sauce (low sodium)

Heat a bit of peanut oil in a wok or large skillet/saute pan. Add cabbage mix, and saute for a couple of minutes until it starts to soften just a bit. Add shrimp, and saute another minute or two. Stir in sauce and a good squirt of sriracha (if you like spicy). Remove pan from heat and let sit 5-10 minutes until cool enough to handle.

Spray a baking sheet with spray oil and heat the oven to 375.

Take an eggroll wrapper and place it with a corner facing you. Add a scoop of filling-2 tbsp or so-and spread it out a bit widthwise. Fold the right and left corners a bit over the filling, then roll up the whole thing away from you. Use a bit of water to wet the wrapper to close it and place on the baking sheet. (You'll get the hang of it. You'll no doubt have extra wrappers if you need to start over a couple of times.)

Spray each roll with cooking spray and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Cook about 8-10 minutes, then flip and cook another 5-8 minutes or until they begin to brown.

For dipping sauce, mix another tbsp of stirfry sauce with 1 tbsp of soy sauce. Add a bit of sriracha or rice vinegar, depending on your mood/taste.

About 75 calories each.