Shrimp has always been one of my favorite leans to eat off plan or on plan. I especially love shrimp scampi, but as you already know if you order it in a restaurant, be prepared to have a heart attack because it is usually drenched in lots and lots of butter. This is a more healthier alternative with only a tbsp of light butter that is only 5 grams of fat (which is one healthy fat) for one tbsp. I used land o' lakes light butter spread with canola oil. Land o' lakes makes the best butter so I suggest using that butter! Normally the sauce would have white wine, but since it isn't on plan, a good substitute is chicken broth. With a little bit of lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper and parsely it came out really good! I needed one more healthy fat besides the butter when using shrimp so I added the two wedges of light laughing cow cheese. It made it even better! Nice and creamy. A true shrimp scampi isn't creamy at all but it still tasted good. If you would like to make this dish with chicken, you only need one health fat so I would use a half tbsp of butter and 1 cheese wedge to make the sauce. It would still make a nice buttery sauce. This was delicious! The zucchini ribbons make a nice substitute for pasta too! One more variation I did since my shrimp cooked down to 5.25 oz (3/4 lean) and I didn't have any more shrimp, I added 1 oz Sargento Italian Cheese Blend (1/4 lean) to complete the lean. Cheese makes everything better in my opinion! Enjoy!
Shrimp Scampi and Zucchini Ribbons
Ingredients:
9 oz shrimp, deveined, tails off - should cook down to 7 oz (1 Leanest Lean)
1 1/2 cup zucchini ribbons (3 Greens)
1 tbsp light butter (1 Healthy Fat)
2 wedges light garlic and herb laughing cow cheese (1 Healthy Fat)
1/4 cup low sodium chicken broth (1/4 Condiment)
1 clove garlic, minced (1 Condiment)
1 tsp lemon (1/2 Condiment)
1/8 tsp salt (1/2 Condiment)
1 tbsp fresh Parsley (1/4 Condiment)
1 tsp grated parmesan cheese (1/3 Condiment)
Directions:
Peel the zucchini with a potato peeler until you reach the core with the seeds. The seeds will make it mushy so try not to include them. (save the core for your salads or another use). I find that the best way is to weigh the zucchinis to get the best measurement. I peeled the zucchinis and weighed them until it reached 270 grams which is 3 servings of cooked zucchini. I find that when I use 3 servings of the cooked weight from the Vegetable Weight Conversion Chart, it comes pretty close to 1 1/2 cups after it is cooked. If you just measure 1 1/2 cups of raw veggies, the veggies will shrink when cooked and you actually are cheating yourself. Set aside.
Heat the butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the garlic, parsley, lemon juice, chicken broth, laughing cow cheese, and salt. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 3 minutes. Add zucchini ribbons and cook stirring frequently just until the zucchini is about to get soft about 2-3 minutes. Toss in shrimp and heat until warm. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top. Serve. Enjoy!
1 Lean, 3 Greens, 3 Condiments and 2 Healthy Fats
