We sauteed 1 lb. of 31/40 shrimp that has been peeled and deveined in 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil. It should take about 2 minutes on each side for the shrimp to cook through. Transfer the shrimp to a large bowl and set aside.

In the same skillet, add 5-6 garlic cloves that has been minced (or pressed through the garlic press). Next, add 1/2 tsp dried hot red-pepper flakes.

Next, add 1/2 cup dry white wine, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper. Cook over high heat for about 1 minute. Finally, add 5 tbsp butter to the pan until it melts.

Now add in 1 cup of diced tomatoes, zest of 1 lemon, and the juice of half the lemon.

Finally, add in the 3/4 lb of cooked angel hair pasta and the shrimp and toss evenly to coat. If you plan to use more pasta, then increase the ingredients for the sauce. Another tip: reserve 1 cup pasta-cooking water and add it to the mixture to keep it moist, if necessary. We didn't have to use the pasta water since we had the extra liquids coming from the tomatoes and lemon juice.

And don't forget your fresh basil! If you don't have basil, you can substitute for flat-leaf parsley.

Now you can plate the Shrimp Scampi and sprinkle with some grated Parmesan cheese to make it look like it took more work to make than it really was! This is a great go-to recipe when you plan to have guests over last-minute. These ingredients should be things you already have in the kitchen, so it makes it that much easier to prepare. Grab your fork and dig in to this lovely elegant meal!

The first thing is to prepare the candied walnuts. In a small saucepan, bring 1 cup water with 2/3 cup sugar to a boil. Next, add 1 cup of walnuts and continue boiling for a few minutes until it has a nice glaze over the walnuts.

Place the walnuts on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and set aside. Don't put them on paper towels or they will stick! And feel free to pop a few in your mouth.

Next comes the shrimp! We used 1 lb. of 41/50 ct. large shrimp that's been peeled and deveined.

For the batter, whip 3 egg whites in a bowl until foamy. Add 1/2 cup cornstarch and season with salt and pepper. Toss the shrimp into the batter mixture to coat evenly, as shown. Make sure you add the shrimp to the batter immediately before frying. Don't let it sit in the batter!

Now the frying begins! Heat oil until 350-degrees and drop a few of the battered shrimp into the oil and fry on each side for a couple minutes until golden brown. You don't want to put all of the shrimp in at once because it will drop the temperature of the oil!

The shrimp should look plump and crispy after the deep-fry bath. Set it on paper towels to absorb excess oil.

For the creamy dressing, stir together 3 tbsp mayo, 2 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp lemon juice, and 1 tbsp condensed milk. Mix it together and taste it to see if you prefer it sweeter or creamier. Once you like the consistency and flavor, add the fried shrimp and toss to coat with the sauce.

Don't forget to sprinkle with the candied walnuts before serving! So for those of you like me who never knew how this dish was made, now you have a clear image of the 3-step process: walnuts, batter/deep fry shrimp, and coat with creamy sauce. We had a few friends over the night we made this and they graciously helped us eat the Honey Walnut Shrimp, like it was candy. I especially like the fact that we were able to control the amount of mayo in this dish so it didn't overwhelm our tastebuds. Overall, we thought it was a pretty good outcome for our first attempt!

Here we used 3.5 lbs of pork shoulder cut into chunks (we removed as much fat from the pork as possible). We are trying to make this a healthier version!

Liberally salt the pork and cook the pieces of pork in a single layer until well-browned. They should have a nice dark color on each side.

Here are the seasonings we used to braise the pork: 1 tsp Ground Cumin, 1 tsp Smoked Sweet Paprika, and 1 1/2 tsp Manzanillo Mexican Seasoning (which is a hand-blend of Mexican oregano, black pepper, Chipotle powder, Ancho Chile powder, Pasilla Chile powder, cumin, garlic powder, garlic flakes, onion powder, onion flakes and coriander) . If you can't get the Manzanillo Mexican Seasoning, just replace this with chile powder and oregano.

Add enough pork stock to the pot so that the pork pieces are two-thirds submerged (around 2 cups). If you don't have pork stock on hand, you can just use water. Add in the above-mentioned seasonings, a couple bay leaves, 1 tsp fresh oregano, and 1 tbsp chopped garlic. Braise this pot of pork and spices in the oven at 350F degrees for about 2 1/2 hrs until most of the liquid has evaporated and the pork is falling apart.

Remove the pork pieces from the pot into a bowl and discard the liquid, because it's pretty fatty.

Traditionally, the pork pieces are deep fried so it gets that nice crispy texture. But since this is a healthy version, we took the pork and scattered it on a baking sheet and broiled on High in the oven until the pork is crispy and caramelized. Just keep an eye on it to determine how crispy and brown you want them. Since we were impatient, we didn't want to wait that long to eat it!

This is a great way to stretch your pork shoulder by making Pork Carnitas at home. These are great to eat as a taco with corn tortillas, tomatoes, shredded cabbage, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime. It can also be eaten with rice and beans - or just by itself. Either way you choose, this Carnitas recipe is delicious with the exotic spice blend and tastes just as fabulous as the unhealthy fried version!

The recipe calls for 4 medium onions, thinly sliced. We actually doubled the recipe, but for simplicity sake, we will give you instructions based on the cookbook's recipe. To make things easier on us, we sliced the onions using a mandolin so it comes out fairly evenly. And obviously it's a lot faster.

In a soup pot (not a pan like we used here), add some oil and the onions over medium-low heat. The trick here is to not stir the onions at all until they begin to brown on the bottom.

When the onions begin to brown on the bottom, raise the heat to medium, stir, and continue to cook until the onions are deeply caramelized to a dark golden brown. The total cooking time should be about 30-45 minutes. If the onions begin to scorch, add a few tbsp of water and continue cooking. To the onions, add 2 minced garlic cloves and 1/2 cup brandy and simmer until the liquid has nearly evaporated, about 2-3 minutes.

Next, add 1 1/2 quarts of beef broth... and the herb sachet shown below.

We snipped about 3-4 parsley stems from our herb garden for the sachet.

To this cheesecloth, add some thyme, tarragon, and 1 bay leaf. This gets wrapped up and tied with a string to put inside the soup pot while it's cooking to release the flavors of the herbs without having them get inside the pot.

Bring to a simmer and cook partially covered for 45 minutes to 1 hour, skimming the surface as necessary and discarding any fat. Once the soup is done, remove the sachet and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Meanwhile, grate about 1 cup of Gruyère cheese. Gruyère is sweet but slightly salty, with a flavor that varies widely with age. It is often described as creamy and nutty when young, becoming with age more assertive, earthy, and complex.

When the soup is ready to serve, fill the soup crock and add a couple slices of toasted French bread.

Sprinkle with a generous amount of Gruyère cheese and broil on high for about 5 minutes until the cheese is melted.

The secret to making a fine French Onion Soup is to give it lots of time to develop flavor. The rich flavor of the base is not due just to the broth, but to the caramelized onions. If you find yourself with a lot of onions and want to make something where onions are the key ingredient, then this is surely a dish to consider. We hope that this post will help show you that it's not a daunting task to make your own French Onion Soup at home.

Luckily we had some spicy Thai chilies growing in our garden, so we picked two of them for this dish. If you know your chilies are extremely spicy, just use one!

We used about 1 lb of flap meat, but use whatever stir-fry beef you prefer. Cut it into thin strips. Saute the meat for 3 minutes, then add 4 cloves of minced garlic, 3 shallots, and 2 chilies.

Since we had some mini bell peppers left in the fridge, we used this to add color and texture to the dish. Here we used about 1.5 cups of sliced bell peppers. Toss this together with the rest of the ingredients for another few minutes until the meat and peppers are just tender.

In a separate bowl, mix together these ingredients to create the sauce: 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1.5 tsp fish sauce, 1 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp mirin, and 1 tbsp cornstarch. Mix it well and then pour it into the pan to coat the meat and vegetables. You will see the sauce thickening up. Add some cracked pepper.

Turn off the heat and toss in about 1 cup of Thai basil leaves. Don't cook the basil or it will turn black.

This is a great dish to serve with rice. Use this recipe as a template for your own stir fry adventures in the kitchen. You can change up the meat and use chicken or shrimp, and use broccoli and carrots instead of bell peppers. The cooking time is ridiculously fast so you can have dinner ready in no time. Hope our friends who likes fast and easy recipes enjoy this one!

The first thing I did was cook 1 lb. of ground beef in a skillet so that I can drain the fat. Yes, it's disgusting, so drain it!! Then set aside. (Optional: I seasoned the beef with salt and pepper).

I used 1 cup diced onions, 1 cup diced green bell peppers, 1/2 cup diced jalapeños, 1/2 cup diced celery, and 1 tbsp garlic. That's right - 1/2 cup of jalapeños, that is why it's so spicy! But it gives it a nice kick. If you can't handle the heat, then just reduce it to 1/4 cup.

Add the above ingredients in a pot and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. You are sweating the veggies.

Now comes all of the flavor enhancers: 1 tbsp chili powder, 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper. Then add the ground beef into this pot and mix everything together for a couple of minutes.

Finally, add 8 oz. tomato sauce, 8 oz. beef broth, and 1 can (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for about 10 minutes to let all the flavors incorporate. Taste to adjust seasonings.

Top your bowl of Spicy Chili with some grated cheese, minced red onion, and cilantro. Then dig in! We really liked the freshness of the toppings because it went really well with the hot and spicy chili. You can really taste the cumin and the other spices that gives it that hearty chili flavor! And don't worry - just because we are on a low-carb diet does not mean we won't be making carbolicious foods for the blog... we will still make it, but won't eat too much of it!

This is our organic French sorrel from the garden, which is still alive and strong throughout these cold months. These acidic leaves are high in Vitamins A and C, as well as fiber. Remember - greens are good for you!

To the food processor, we made the pesto by combining 2 cups of fresh sorrel with the ribs removed,(The ribs are the part of the stem that goes through the leaf. It's very tough so it should be discarded), 1/4 cup of pine nuts that we toasted in a pan, 1/3 cup parsley, 2 garlic cloves roughly chopped, 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 cup olive oil.

The mixture is pureed and should look like this. Taste and adjust for seasonings. You will find that it has a distinct lemon flavor.

You can use this pesto sauce in any pasta you want. We went with a bow tie pasta and cooked up some chicken to go along with the dish. The nuttiness from the pine nuts and the tartness of the sorrel definitely makes the meal interesting. And just for fun, we bundled some French sorrel into a bouquet.

As mentioned, we took the remaining sorrel pesto and made a pizza with the store-bought dough we had on hand. We docked and par-baked the dough first in the oven at 400F for 7-10 minutes because we like our dough crispy. Then we took it out to spread the pesto sauce on top.

Then came the rest of the toppings - a ton of mozarella cheese and pancetta that we crisped up in the pan. Pancetta is a cured meat, similar to bacon. We popped it back in the oven for another 10 minutes or so until the cheese was fully melted and the crust was browned.

We sprinkled a little bit of French sorrel chiffonade on top and this French sorrel pesto pizza was ready to be devoured. We really enjoyed utilizing the fresh sorrel from our garden to make these two simple meals, and we hope that you get a chance to try this lovely green herb if you ever come across it. Since we still have a bush of sorrel growing, our next meal will have to be the classic French sorrel soup! Stay tuned!