Merry Christmas, Badasses! I hope all of you are enjoying a great holiday with friends, family, pets, significant others, etc.
I have been baking and cooking up a storm for the past couple of days. Not all of it is healthy, but it's Christmas! And I've been practicing what I preach these past few days, with 15 to 30 minutes of extra running and cycling.
Now, no amount of exercise will really make up for this Italian Creme Cake I made for Christmas dinner dessert. But even Badasses get to indulge every once in awhile, and this sweet treat is going to be worth every calorie and every ounce of cream cheese, butter, buttermilk, sugar and coconut. I mean, just look at the thing! You know you want a piece!
In my Italian family, Christmas Eve dinner is always a seafood feast that begins with shrimp cocktail and ends with the main entree: Seafood Creole over rice. Of all the things my Grandma Colavecchio makes, it is perhaps the healthiest. So it will serve as a wonderful balance to the rich, buttery Creme Cake.
Just a little heart-healthy olive oil to saute the diced vegetables, and then a sauce made of crushed tomatoes (antioxidants and lycopene!). In the final 10 minutes, the shrimp and scallops get tossed in to cook. Shrimp and scallops are super healthy and super light -- low in fat, low in calories, and delicious when they soak up the flavors of the rosemary-and-tobasco-spiked creole sauce.
Serve it over rice and enjoy a big green salad on the side, and voila! An elegant, easy meal that won't put extra junk in your trunk. Because I love you all, I am sharing Grandma Colavecchio's Seafood Creole recipe. Enjoy it, either for the holidays or any time of year:
Grandma Colavecchio's Seafood Creole
Note: This recipe is enough for a crowd. Cut it in half if you're serving it for a smaller group
- 2 lbs. fresh shrimp, shelled and deveined
- 1 1/2 lbs fresh scallops
- 2 medium onions, diced
- 2 green peppers, diced
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 large (32 ounce) cans crushed Italian tomatoes (or whole tomatoes crushed quickly in a blender)
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 3 tsp. rosemary
- 1/2 to 3/4 tsp. paprika
- 1 to 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- Dash (or more) Tabasco sauce
Saute the onions, celery, peppers and garlic in 2 to 3 Tbsp. olive oil until lightly browned and soft, in a medium skillet. Add tomatoes and the seasonings. Simmer, low heat, for about 45 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally. (While the sauce cooks, prepare the rice. 3 cups uncooked rice will serve a crowd and is enough for the full creole recipe) About 10 minutes before you are ready to eat, toss in the shrimp and scallops. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Spoon the rice onto a large serving bowl or platter, and spoon the Seafood Creole over the top. Put extra sauce in a serving taureen.
(Note: The sauce, sans seafood, can be made the day before. When it's time to eat, just reheat the sauce and put the seafood in 10 minutes before dinner time to cook. Here's my sauce, pre-seafood, simmering away)
Whether you are eating seafood or turkey or a roasted pig or whatever, enjoy it and be grateful for the people you are sharing it with. Be grateful for your health and strength. Be grateful for your Badass-ness!
And after you've opened the presents and feasted, start pondering this: What do you want from 2010? How will you get better, fitter, stronger? And be realistic. Be true to yourself. Merry Christmas!
Coming up: Realistic Badass Resolutions
