New Meal #5: Lemon Shrimp & Asparagus

This meal made me feel very accomplished because for the first time I cooked shrimp completely on my own from beginning to end. I love shrimp, but I rarely eat it because the thought of actually cooking and preparing it myself is enough to drive me away. I figured that the 28-Day Challenge would be a good opportunity to get more familiar with cooking shrimp so that I am not so afraid of it in the future.

Another great thing that happened with this meal is I finally started to enjoy cooking!! I've never really liked cooking and I think that's partially because I've never been confident in my cooking and I am finally feeling like I can really figure it out and totally enjoying the process of it!

So here's the recipe:

4 servings

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 lb large raw shrimp, peeled & deveined

1 lb asparagus, ends trimmed and each stalk cut into 2-3” pieces

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon minced ginger

1 teaspoon minced garlic

Lemon Sauce:

⅔ cup chicken stock (can sub. vegetable stock or turkey stock)

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon sugar (can sub. honey or other sugar alternative)

1 tablespoon soy sauce

¼ cup lemon juice

1 teaspoon lemon zest

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon sauce ingredients and set aside.

2. In a large frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat. Add shrimp to pan in a single layer and cook for about 3 minutes, turning them over to cook both sides and be opaque, but slightly undercooked. Remove from pan.

3. In same frying pan, heat another 2 tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat. Add asparagus and cook until it is tender-crisp, but green and barely browning. Season with ¼ tablespoon of salt. Add ginger and garlic and stir to combine with asparagus. Cook for another 30-45 seconds.

4. Pour in lemon sauce mixture with asparagus. Add shrimp back into the pan and combine sauce with asparagus and shrimp. Simmer for about a minute or until sauce is thickened. Remove from heat and serve.