recipe

Chicken or shrimp in orange sauce are two of my favorite dishes to order on the rare occasions that we get Chinese takeout. While I love the flavors, I do not love the way eating “fried and doused in sodium food” makes me feel.

Last week while waiting to treat myself to a manicure, I was browsing through Self magazine and came across a recipe for scallops marinated in orange juice and maple syrup, and I decided to use this idea as a base for dinner last night.

I started with two cups of orange juice; I used Trop 50, which tastes more like real orange juice to me than regular juice. I rarely drink juice that isn’t mixed with water, but I like this all on its own because it is not too sweet.

I mixed the orange juice with two heaping tablespoons of grated ginger and several teaspoons of maple syrup before pouring it over peeled and deveined shrimp. I hate deveining shrimp. It is one of the grossest tasks ever. Also, I should mention that our dishwasher started to melt mid-wash, so we have an overflow of dishes that need to be washed by hand making the whole meal-prepping process not very fun. I use a ton of dishes it turns out!

I marinated the shrimp for about an hour in the orange juice/maple syrup mixture and then got ready to get cookin’. I felt like something was missing. . . so I had to add some sriracha. Surprised?

This recipe also used something I don’t normally cook with, frozen vegetables. I tend to buy fresh, but with our crazy schedules, we end up throwing away a ton of food because I don’t get around to cooking it. Last week I made a grapefruit, beet, celery, ginger, carrot, apple, lettuce, lemon juice just to use up what was going bad. Frozen veggies are just as nutritious, more budget-friendly, and will last a long time. I definitely need to make it a priority to stock up on them.

I mixed the broccoli with the shrimp and orange sauce and set it on low to simmer away. Then I got started on my starch, a blend of harvest grains from Trader Joe’s that included Israeli couscous, orzo, baby garbanzo beans, and red quinoa.

This blend is inexpensive and so easy to make.

And it is so festive! I loved all of the colors and textures from the various grains and pastas. This blend is definitely something I will buy again.

Once the shrimp were cooked through and the sauce bubbling, I poured it down over the harvest grains, which soaked up a bunch of the sauce and made a nice little bed for the shrimp and vegetables.

I was really glad that I added the sriracha, as the sweet of the orange juice and maple syrup really made for a nice contrast. This was a quick dinner, and while it didn’t taste like Chinese takeout, it was a fun and flavorful weeknight option that made enough for a few lunches.

In other news, I am now working two days a week in an office on a variety of Marketing, PR, and Social Media projects, and I am back trying to figure out what to bring so I am not starving all day. My silly body seems to change its appetite mind all the time, and since it’s not really my office like a full time office would be, I kind of feel weird leaving anything there. I used to keep my office stocked with chia seeds, protein powder, milk, and all sorts of food. I guess I made myself comfortable!

What are your work eating habits like? Do you keep a lot of snacks and things at work or with you at school?