Today I asked a few questions in my Instagram stories to plan the year ahead and what I hope to Everybody Baking Co to provide. I asked, "do you want me to bring back cooking videos," and the overwhelming response was YES! 🌮
I started making my cooking videos on my stories about 5 years ago now, mostly when I was home alone making dinner or on Saturday mornings making breakfast with Stella. It reflects more of 'me' than anything I probably have shared online at this point. They're spontaneous, unscripted, full of mistakes. On the fly decisions to fix errors or swap ingredients I don't have. As with most things, I got in my head about it way too much, mainly regarding my own self-doubts.
We're on the heels of the Meghan and Harry/Oprah interview this morning. As I sipped my coffee watching the debrief on the morning shows, Oprah shared something that made me go ‘Whaaaat?’.
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It was a conversation she had with Meghan in 2018 where Meghan had been told it would be best if she could be 50% less than she was.
Wow. I've been told that exact thing not once, not twice, but multiple times in my life.
"If you were less (loud/happy/successful/intimidating/the list goes on depending on the scenario and season of my life I was in)...things would be better for you."
So this morning, I'm making a promise to you. To not hide who I am. To be more vulnerable. To inspire you to do the same.
Whether it be to encourage you to start your own baking adventure.
Or to share more about yourself if you're feeling pressure to edit who you are.
Or just make a little shrimp taco out of leftovers from your fridge and share it on your Instagram.
These shrimp tacos are the kind of thing that got me interested in cooking in the first place. I started cooking because I wanted to cook food at home that reminded me of something I'd had at a restaurant. Yesterday, Andrew and I were missing eating at one of our favorite restaurants - Border Grill in Marquette. We were definitely not going to drive an hour to go through the drive-through to get shrimp tacos, so I decided to try and make some for lunch with two goals. Use leftovers and as little effort as possible.
The hardest part about writing this recipe is...it's not a recipe. It's literally leftovers in my fridge, mixed in with one or two things I made on the fly. Hopefully, you can take my bits and bobs and create something of your very own.
Border Grill Shrimp tacos have a cabbage slaw, a white sauce, shrimp, and you can put salsa of your choice on top. What I had in my fridge was:
1️⃣ White corn street tacos size tortillas
2️⃣ A dozen shredded Brussels Sprouts from a salad (shredded with my food processor)
3️⃣ Diced mango (could use canned pineapple!)
4️⃣ Shrimp (I always buy the raw - aka, gray ones - frozen, deveined, with no tails)
5️⃣ Not even a full tablespoon of Trader Joe's corn salsa (again, this was clean out the fridge time) and homemade salsa I also had in the fridge for chips.
All I had to do was make shrimp and crema, so here is my low effort versions:
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I did not measure anything to make the crema - I simply emptied out the last of the mayo and sour cream I had. I would imagine something like this: about 1/4 cup mayo, 1/4 cup sour cream, lime juice, hot sauce, cilantro, and spiced to taste with salt, garlic powder, and cumin. Then toss that with the shredded Brussels sprouts (or you could use bagged coleslaw mix).
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I boiled the shrimp to thaw and cook them in one step, plus reduce the amount of effort it would take to clean that pan vs. sauteeing thawed shrimp. I melted some butter and added spices I already had out from the slaw (cumin, garlic, salt, and then a little oregano).
Instead of a DIY assembly, I put each taco together on a giant dinner plate. That way, we got to focus on chowing down instead of stopping, assembling, eating, and then doing it all over again.
If you make something similar, would you share it in your Instagram stories and tag me at @everybodybakingco? I'd LOVE to see the ripple effect a simple 'non-recipe' post could have in inspiring you to cook 'on the fly.'