I don’t know about you, but with the stifling humidity and heat as of late, I’ve wanted to keep this week’s dinners a little lighter. Since I had peeled and deveined a few pounds of shrimp two weeks ago and separated them into individual servings, this meal was a breeze to make. It took about 20 minutes to make, including veggie chopping time. While I’ll pass on the humidity, I’ll take the flavor of the south any day and made some sweet and spicy shrimp to put over a bed of sautéed seasonal veggies. I also made some vanilla ice cream this week and topped it with carmalized peaches and pecans as a sweet end to the day. I hope you’ll try it and add this to a week’s routine for something new. As always feel free to share your thoughts!

Sweet and spicy shrimp
Serves 2

Shrimp ingredients:
12 medium shrimp peeled and deveined(~3/4 lb)
1/2 tbsp. molasses
1/2 tbsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tbsp. onion powder
1/2 tbsp. sea salt
1/2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. black pepper
Vegetable ingredients:
1 medium zucchini cut in 1 inch slices (1 cup)
1 medium squash cut in 1 inch slices (1 cup)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup of chopped peppers of your choice (banana peppers, bell peppers, etc.)
1 tsp. onion powder
2 tsp. sea salt
2 tsp. coarse black pepper
1/4 cup of water

Directions:
1. Under running water, separate frozen shrimp into individual pieces either through bag on in a bowl of cool water.
2. Cut zucchini ends off, then cut in half and finally cut halves into 1 inch thick pieces. ( or smaller of preferred. Repeat with squash.
3. Chop half of an onion or use frozen onion in this dish. Cut peppers in half to remove seed and cut into thin strips.
4. Add vegetables to a pan over medium heat. Once it begins to sizzle (3-5 minutes) add seasoning and water and stir.
5. In a smaller non-stick skillet add oil over medium heat.
6. Lay shrimp flat in an even layer on a plate or cut open the freezer bag. Sprinkle half of the seasoning on an even layer and add to the heated oil. The shrimp will defrost and cook at the same time.
7. Stir vegetables and turn off heat. They will continue to cook in residual heat.
8. Season other side and flip shrimp after 3 minutes. Add molasses in a drizzle on top of the cooked side. Let cook for 2 minutes.
9. Stir shrimp for a minute to evenly coat in the molasses and remove from heat once the other side is pink.
10. Turn off heat and plate veggies and then shrimp.
11. Enjoy.