Coconutty Happiness

I’m home by 6:00pm tonight. Workout behind me this morning and no plans this evening! How in the world did this happen? Score! So I cranked the Madonna Pandora station and got to work on dinner…but clearly not before a little bit of dancing! Hey, its Madonna and life is a mystery!

So I’m using a lot more coconut product these days for a couple of reasons. The first is that I absolutely effin love the stuff! I have loved coconut since I was a kid and even my cupcake choice for our wedding was coconut! Luckily for Josh, we had several flavors so he wasn’t subject to my coconut obsession. As a side note, I ate two of these cupcakes at 5am the morning after our wedding for breakfast on the way to Greece! Hey, I’m the bride, I’ll do whatever I want! The second reason is that the more I read about coconut, the more I find it’s actually much better for us than I ever knew. I was always scared of it because of its high fat and calorie content. But lo and behold, some genius has decided its healthy and I’m on the bandwagon!

So I’ve stockpiled coconut milk and oil in my house! I’m even putting it in my coffee as a dairy substitute! But typically if I’m thinking coconut milk for a dinner situation it is some kind of curry. Frankly, I may be more obsessed with curry than coconut. So I made a coconut curry shrimp that cured me of all my cravings! And I’m certain you’ll love it too!

Coconut Curry Shrimp:

1lb shrimp

1 can coconut milk

2tbsp red curry paste

2 garlic cloves, minced

½” fresh ginger, minced on a microplane

juice of one lime

sprinkle cayenne pepper

basil

Mix coconut milk, curry paste, garlic, ginger, cayenne and lime juice. Marinate the shrimp in half the mixture for an hour or so. Whatever you have time for. Then skewer and grill your shrimps. They won’t take long, 3 minutes or so per side depending on shrimp size. DO NOT overcook them….there is nothing worse in life than overcooked seafood! Heat the rest of the coconut milk mix in a small sauce pan over medium heat and put cooked shrimp in the sauce constantly stirring for 2 minutes. Then spoon them onto a plate garnished with fresh basil. And voila! Spicy and coconutty!

I paired this with a salad. This particular salad was pretty rockin if I do say so myself. I found these fabulous organic baby kale. Yes, kale, not spinach! 

Here’s the deal…

baby kale

mixed greens

*both Olivia’s brand

blueberries

orange pepper

sliced almonds

coconut flakes

shredded fresh basil

Basically pile this up like any other salad. I mixed up some fig balsamic vinegar with olive oil and pepper to dress it. Because of the coconut and basil the salad was completely cohesive with the shrimps. I love when I can carry an awesome flavor through the whole meal without it becoming overwhelming.

At the end of the dinner, Josh says, “Thank you for making me eat healthy!” Big Eater Small Body VICTORY!

High Five and Salud!