One of the most-asked questions in our house is, “What’s for dinner?”
This weekend, as I was making my weekly menu so that I could go to the grocery store, Michael asked the question.
“What are you thinking about for lunch?”
I have a very real problem. I usually grocery shop on Saturday mornings, but by the time I do the shopping and the putting away, I am not in the mood to cook lunch. I usually try to pick up something easy that I can throw together for lunch.
When I told him that I didn’t know what I was making, he said, “How about shrimp tacos?”
I have never made shrimp tacos in my whole entire life.
I guess I should be flattered that my husband thinks that I can make pretty much anything that he thinks up. But that’s a daunting prospect!
Okay, shrimp tacos it is.
Then he threw in the whammy.
“Or just make some kind of lettuce wrap with shrimp.”
Low Carb Lou strikes again!
But that’s not always a bad thing. He forced me to think outside my culinary box and I made these beautiful Shrimp Lettuce Tacos. Yes, I know they’re not technically tacos because I didn’t use taco shells or tortillas, but I’m still calling them tacos. Come along for the ride. You’re going to love this!
Shrimp Lettuce Tacos
- 2 pounds of medium to large shrimp, peeled, deveined
- 2 packages of mild taco seasoning
- 1-2 heads of butter lettuce
- 2 red bell peppers, seeded and julienned
- 1 small onion, cut into rings and then halved
- 1 stick of butter
- olive oil
- Limes
Garnishes:
- sliced avocado
- thinly sliced red cabbage
- Honey Chipotle Sour Cream
- Cilantro Lime Sour Cream
Place raw shrimp into a gallon-sized zipper bag. Add taco seasoning packets. Seal the bag and shake and massage to be sure all shrimp are well coated. Set aside while you slice the peppers, onions, cabbage, and avocados and prepare the sour cream sauces (recipes below).
In a large skillet, melt half the stick of butter with 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the shrimp and stir for 4-5 minutes until shrimp curls and is cooked through. Drain onto paper towels.
Add the other half of the stick of butter and 2-3 more tablespoons of olive oil to the skillet. Once butter has melted, add the onion and bell pepper. Saute until vegetables are tender. Drain onto paper towels.
Set up an assembly line with lettuce leaves, shrimp, onions and bell pepper, and garnishes. Arrange according to your tastes. Serve with a lime wedge for squeezing over the tacos before eating.
Well Duh #1: Try to use a taco seasoning that is powdered without chunks of dehydrated onions or chiles. I used Taco Bell mild taco seasoning and I actually let the shrimp marinate in the seasoning for about 30 minutes.
Well Duh #2: Honey Chipotle Sour Cream Sauce:
- 1 cup of sour cream (I used light)
- 1-2 tablespoons of adobo sauce
- 2 tablespoons of honey
- 1 tablespoon of milk (I used skim)
Mix together until smooth and creamy. Pour into a squeeze bottle for drizzling.
Well Duh #3: Cilantro Lime Sour Cream Sauce:
- 1 cup of sour cream (I used light)
- 3 tablespoons of finely-chopped cilantro (I used cilantro paste in a tube)
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1 tablespoon of milk (I used skim)
Mix together until smooth and creamy. Pour into a squeeze bottle for drizzling.
Well Duh #4 These components would make a wonderful salad!!
Well Duh #5: When purchasing shrimp, I got peeled, deveined, uncooked, frozen shrimp. There were roughly 40 shrimp in each 1-pound bag that I used. I thawed them in a colander under running room temperature tap water.
Well Duh #6: We had a lot of leftover sauce and, let me tell you, it’s good on EVERYTHING! We ate it on egg rolls. We ate it on taquitos. We ate it on omelettes. Good stuff!! You can usually find squeeze bottles in the gadget section of your grocery store. The ones I found were less than a dollar each.
These were a HUGE hit with my tribe! I mean a HUGE hit. As in, “When can we have these again, Mama?” and “Oooh, I don’t even want these in tortillas! They’re perfect like this!”
I’ll take it!
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