Chad's Shrimp & Spinach Scampi with Lemon (Gluten Free)

Chad's Shrimp & Spinach Scampi with Lemon (Gluten Free)

Ingredients

16 oz. package of frozen white shrimp (You can use as much shrimp as you desire) 
1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon salt
1 bulb garlic
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
6 Tablespoons of butter 
2 lb. frozen cut leaf spinach (or, use fresh spinach)
1/4 cup white wine (pinot grigio is best)
20 thin slices of provolone cheese (7.6 oz.)
juice of 2 lemons & zest of 1 lemon
1 Tablespoon pesto  (or fresh basil is better)
Grated parmesan cheese

Variations
This is delicious with most green vegetables.  Try substituting broccoli or green beans instead of the spinach.

Thaw the shrimp under running cold water.  Or, if you're trying to conserve water like us, let the shrimp sit in cold water until thawed.  Add about 1 Tablespoon of salt to brine them.  Let sit for 30 minutes, or longer.  (You know you have the right amount of salt if you taste the salt water first and it has a pleasant, salty flavor.)

Peel the skins off & de-vein if necessary.

Peel & crush the garlic cloves.  Chop into chunks.  Heat the garlic, olive oil, & butter in a sauce pan over medium heat.  Sauté until the garlic starts to brown (about 5 min.).  Add the shrimp and partially cook (1-2 min).  Remove the shrimp when the shrimp have turned half orange.

Add the spinach, 1 teaspoon of salt, & a splash of white wine.  Sauté for about 10 min. until the spinach is heated through.

Add the provolone cheese and then the lemon juice & zest.

Add the pesto & shrimp.  Stir to combine and remove from heat.  Let sit for a few minutes to allow the shrimp to finish cooking.

Serve with grated parmesan cheese and pinot grigio wine.

Bon appétit!

Other seafood recipes

Chad's Gluten Free Pasta with Gluten Free Clam Sauce

Moules (French Mussels)

 

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Mohawk Mountain Ski Area & Round Tuit Restaurant

We have been stuck inside waaaaay too much this winter.  This past week we decided we have had enough.  We just feel like we need to be outside, in spite of the cold.  Either we head south or we do some winter activities outside.  So, we decided it was time to hit the slopes.  Chad used to go snowboarding all the time before we were married.  I never could really get good at snowboarding.  I used to be better at skiing.  But, it's been quite the long time since I went.  But, with all the snow we've had, this is the perfect time to go! 

We went up to Mohawk Mountain Ski Area in West Cornwall, CT.  This ski area is small, but fun and usually quiet.  They had all the slopes open, so that was great. Chad got to snowboard on a slope he had never been on before. They have 25 trails, and the snow was exquisite, nice & fluffy....not icy at all. It was perfect. I thought for sure I would fall at least once, but I didn't. I think it was because it wasn't icy.   They also have what they call a Nutmeg Lift Ticket - just the easy slopes for beginners.  It was nicer because that one is cheaper.

Here are some pics.....

 

The slopes

Here we are - ready to go....

The Bunny Slope

Bambi on skis

 

Click here to see a you tube video of the slopes. Click here for more information about pricing for lift tickets.  In general, Chad likes to go at night because you can get a lift ticket for $26, 4-10 p.m.

On the way home, we stopped at one of our favorite places to eat, Round Tuit. It is located south of Millerton, NY right off of Route 22.  This is one of those hole-in-the-wall places that you'd never find unless someone told you about it. We love burgers, and Chad loves trying new burgers everywhere we go. One of our favorite places to eat burgers is Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Well, we think the burger and fries at Round Tuit are even better. On his menu he has a burger that comes with bacon, lettuce, onion, tomato, and mushrooms. And, the finishing touch is his own special sauce. It's called The Original Super Burger.  Delicious!  And, it's around $10, which is still cheaper than Five Guys.  If you're ever in the area, you must try it. Click here to see the location on a map.

The Original Super Burger

P.S. You might also like Boston Burger Company.

Winter Storm Pandora in the RV

Well, winter storm Pandora has come and gone.  We were expecting to have some ice at the end of it, but it only brought snow.  We have almost 5 more inches.  This gives us a total accumulation now of bout 2 1/2 ft.  The temperature warmed up above freezing today and the sun was out, so it felt really warm.  I can't even tell you how good it felt today to have the warmer weather.  But, we must not get too comfortable because the temperature is dropping now and will be back to the single digits by tomorrow afternoon.

Chad plowed snow in his T-shirt today.  It was 34 degrees F.

This past week was another really cold week.  Chad's brother's septic froze in his mobile home.  He has skirting up and it is well-insulated underneath.  And, many other people are starting to have problems with their houses.  So, we are glad that ours is relatively easy to thaw out.  We've come up with a pretty good system now.  This week, we started using the hose pulled through the bathroom window to fill the tanks up with hot water to thaw any ice accumulation.  This past Tuesday was the worst so far.  They were almost completely frozen.  But, the hot water did the trick.  

When the lows at night are around 0F or colder, our fresh water will freeze even though we keep the thermostat for the furnace set at 60 and leave the cabinet doors open with heat blowing in.  So, we get up about an hour before the alarm goes off and turn the furnace up to 70-75.  In that hour, the water will thaw so that we can use all of our faucets when we wake up.

Some more pics before we started plowing....

Related Posts

The Great Water Dump - Frozen rinse/waste tanks

Winter Storm Juno in the RV 

Winter Storm Linus in the RV 

Winter Storm Marcus in the RV 

Winter Storm Neptune in the RV 

Leaving the RV unattended in Winter

Snow!! 

Our First Snow in the RV 

By the way, we did get a light snow from Winter Storm Octavia - but, that storm mostly hit down south.

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Chad's Meatballs (Gluten Free)

Chad's Meatballs

This week we are featuring our recipe that was published on RVwest magazine's website.  I think you will find these meatballs the best you've ever had....at least I did.

Click here for the recipe.

These meatballs go well with Chad's Marinara Sauce.  Click here for the recipe.

More Recipes:

Gluten Free Meat Pie 

Gluten Free Broccoli Casserole

Gluten Free Goulash with Spaghetti Squash

Gluten Free Chicken Francese

Gluten Free Lentil Burgers

Gluten Free Cabbage Stirfry

Orders from Amazon.com made through this site help support this site.

Winter Storm Neptune in the RV

Wow!  We are continuing to have one winter storm after another.  This storm brought with it high winds and more snow.  It has stopped snowing now, but the wind is very strong.  And, the temperatures continue to drop.  It is currently 13 degrees and feels like -5 with the wind chill.  (According to The Weather Channel.)  

The wind blowing snow

 

Our icy, snowy road

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Gluten Free Meat Pie

Gluten Free Meat Pie

This recipe was inspired by Chad's memories of his grandma's meat pies.  This recipe is not his grandma's but his own recipe, which I have to say is absolutely delicious!

Ingredients
Gluten Free pie crust (for the top and bottom of the pie)

1/2 pkg (6-8 oz) of bacon 

1 medium white onion, diced

1 heaping Tablespoon minced garlic

1.5 lbs ground beef

1/4 cup dried parsley

salt and pepper to taste
1 egg yolk (optional)

Pie Crust - We found a great gluten free pie crust recipe and it turned out very good.  Click here for the recipe.  A gluten free pie crust is very fragile, but I followed the detailed instructions on the recipe with excellent results.  We also used Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 Baking Flour.  We had to get resourceful because we don't have a rolling pin.  So, I used my stainless steel water bottle.  It worked great! 

Rolling the dough for the pie crust

Pie Filling -  

 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cook the bacon and set aside.  After it cools, chop the bacon into small chunks.  Drain the bacon fat and set aside.

 Dice the onion and add to the stock pot along with the ground beef and minced garlic.

Stir over medium-high heat.  We used frozen ground beef so it took about 20 min to cook.  Finely mince the beef as it cooks.  We use a wooden spoon.  Drain the beef fat and add some of the bacon fat for flavor.  Add the 1/4 cup of parsley, salt, pepper, and bacon.  Stir until everything is heated through.

Add the filling to the pie crust.

 Add the top crust and brush with an egg yolk if desired.  The egg yolk will make it brown nicely.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until the crust is brown.

Cut into slices and serve.

Bon appétit!

P.S. How to cook the perfect steak

Our Propane Usage

Yesterday, was one busy day in our RV life.  We had a little bit of a warmer day yesterday. (High of about 25 degrees.)  So, Chad took advantage of that and the break in the snow to pry the RV out of the ice.  The front tires were buried in 5 inches of ice.  Our little external propane tanks were buried in 10 inches of ice.  He also removed all of the ice / snow off of the roof.  The next step was how to pull the RV out on that much ice.  The RV wouldn't start, so he replaced the starter.  He said it felt like he was working in an ice cave!  Once it started, he was able to pull forward and then put wood down in the holes created in the ice where the tires were.  Then, he floored it out of here.

Before.....

After...

The white dusting you see on the ground is new snow from this morning.  We are supposed to get another inch today.

After all of that, he took the RV for a drive to fill up the on board propane tank.  What a savings it is for us to use the on board tank!!  It is $55 vs. $140 using the small 20 lb. grill tanks.  At our current cold temperatures, the on board tank will last us about two weeks.  It is 80-90 lbs.  It's not always possible to take it to get it filled though, in this unpredictable weather.  So, the smaller grill tanks are a good back up source of propane.

Related Post
Hooking up an external propane tank

Winter Storm Marcus in the RV

Well, the latest winter storm named Marcus has brought us an additional 5 inches of snow.  It just keeps piling up higher and higher.  The forecast says we should be getting even more on Thursday.  I really can't believe it - this winter is just as bad as last winter.  I've lived up here through 10 winters now and I've never experienced two bad winters in a row.  But, I think this year is an El Nino year so that may have something to do with it.

Making Gluten Free Pizza

Gluten Free Pizza

It's not super easy to find a good gluten free pizza.  We love to make pizza as a quick and easy meal from time to time.  And, we wanted to share with ya'll one of our favorite combinations. 

NY is famous for their pizza.  And, myself, being from VA, I had no idea how to make a really good pizza until I met Chad.  I've learned now that there are certain key ingredients to make it really yummy.  

Key ingredients:  

Fresh mozzarella cheese

A sauce base

Toppings - meat or veggies 

The Crust - we like Udis Gluten Free Pizza Crust.  It comes with 2-9" crusts in a package and that works out perfect for us to have as a meal.
Oregano 

One of our discoveries was just how yummy pesto is on a pizza.  One of our favorite combinations is pesto with onion, fresh garlic, & pepperoni. We have found that you can buy different brands and it will have a completely different taste.  Our favorite to use is a pesto we find at Sam's Club.

Chad's marinara sauce is also a great tomato sauce base.  (Click here for the recipe.)  And, that goes well with adding other vegetables and meats.

Pesto has a strong flavor, so we add a thin layer onto the crust with a spoon.

Cut the cheese into thin slices and layer it over the pesto.

Add the pepperoni, onions, & garlic (or, toppings of your choice)

It's also important to allow it to bake until the cheese is turning brown.  We usually bake it in the oven for 20-30 minutes.

 

 Sprinkle with oregano, parmesan cheese, & garlic powder to taste.

buon appetito!

Would love to hear about your gluten free pizza crust or your favorite pizza combo.