Simplicity

This week I've done a pretty good job at keeping it simple. We were home for one day so I made lamb chops and asparagus.  We have had some decent meals these past two days in Myrtle Beach and it hasn't taken much effort nor lots of money; I think we spent a total of $150 at the market...not bad for multiple meals for 6 people.

We were quite hungry when we arrived so we bought fried chicken...I made okra, my mom made an attractive salad, and I made a simple vinaigrette.  Shopping for meat at Food Lion proved to be a chore...beef was not an option and the chicken was questionable, particularly since most of the packs had up to 15% added solution (this is usually code for sodium nitrate or phosphate)...I finally settled on a pack of "natural" breasts that were surprisingly small. The tragedy is that "pink slime" in ground beef is not the only concern among the "value added" products in the meat department.

After about an hour in the market we headed to Berry's for shrimp. I had called several purveyors of "fresh" seafood but only one had local shrimp exclusively...I'm just not sure why a seafood shop in South Carolina would carry shrimp from Ecuador.

Of course we had shrimp and grits...the North Carolina white shrimp are good but they don't have anything on the brown shrimp. We were so stuffed we had to go on a 1.81 mile walk after dinner to help digest our food.

This morning I made veggie omelettes (onions, peppers, mushrooms, spinach) and we headed out to the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway; after our trip to the Little River Inlet we were famished so I made chicken "cacciatore" which we thoroughly enjoyed...the robust flavor came from simmering the sauce the tons of onions and garlic and adding "recipe inspirations."  We had the meat and sauce over "smart taste" thin spaghetti and zucchini and broccoli on the side...needless to say, another walk is in order.