After a month of endless desserts and party foods the Blogger CLUE crew and I are on the hunt for healthy foods to bring in the new year.

This month I was tasked with searching through Wendy’s blog, A Day in the Life on the Farm. As her blog name suggests, Wendy lives on a farm where she and her husband are fairly self sufficient. They raise chickens, turkeys, and pigs for meat, have hens for egg laying, and have fruit trees and gardens on their 12 acres of land. I’m exhausted just thinking about it! Isn’t retirement supposed to be relaxing?!

I am very familiar with Wendy’s blog as I have worked with her in many events and blogging clubs. Surprisingly though I’ve not actually cooked anything from her recipe box. (She’s ambitiously tackled my Busia’s recipe for pierogi for a Secret Recipe Club post.)

I really wanted to return the favor of celebrating Polish cuisine and make her recipe for beet soup. I was pretty excited about it, too, and I don’t tend to get excited about soup. I went to the grocery store on a Sunday (something I tend to avoid). Kroger was packed! Post-holiday fridge-restocking was on everyone’s mind that afternoon many items were out of stock (I snagged the last carton of organic whole milk!). The missing ingredient that threw me into a tizzy was beets! How was I to make beet soup without beets!? Granted, there were some golden beets that looked pretty sad. I pushed my cart to a corner of the produce section, trying to be as out of the way as possible, and frantically searched through some of the other recipes I’d book marked from Wendy’s blog: between grilled mahi mahi, cranberry chicken, and spicy citrus shrimp, I decided on the shrimp.

This shopping curveball was a huge blessing in disguise. This shrimp dish is incredible! I served it over rice as dinner. It’s a perfect weeknight meal that I will be returning to. I had to swap the mango for pineapple due to allergies and the pineapple was my favorite part. I liked that the fruit wasn’t cooked with the shrimp, it was simply warmed through from the sauce, a perfect compliment to the flavors.

Citrus Shrimp

Ingredients:

• 12-14 jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 tbsp flour
• juice of 1 orange
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tsp Kosher salt
• 1/4 – 1/2 tsp chile paste (I used Gourmet Garden)
• 1/2 C diced pineapple
• 1 scallion, sliced

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
2. Pat shrimp dry and toss in the flour. Place in a glass baking dish.
3. In a small bowl whisk together the orange juice, lime juice, salt, and chili paste. Pour over the shrimp.
4. Bake shrimp for 7 minutes. Flip the shrimp and bake another 7 minutes.
5. Add the pineapple and scallions to the shrimp and toss to combine, thickening the sauce.
6. Serve over rice.

*This recipe is modified from Wendy at http://adayinthelifeonthefarm.blogspot.com/2015/02/triplesbitesspicy-saucy-sexy-bites-for.html*

Here’s a list of the other players of Blogger CLUE this month:

• Apricot Muffins by Azmina from Lawyer Loves Lunch
• Broccoli Stalk Feta Salad by Stacy from Food Lust People Love
• Citrus Shrimp by Lauren from Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Couscous with Chicken and Vegetables by Sue from A Palatable Pastime
• Ginger-Citrus Grilled Salmon by Kathy from A Spoonful of Thyme
• Irish Seafood Cocktail by Kate from Kate’s Kitchen
• Massaged Kale Salad by Anna from annaDishes
• Mediterranean Chopped Salad by Christy from Confessions of a Culinary Diva
• Middle Eastern Vegetable Salad by Christiane from Taking on Magazines
• Orange Banana Matcha Smoothie by Kim from Liv Life
• Red Lion Inn Swordfish by Lea Ann from Cooking on the Ranch
• Roasted Carrots and Cauliflower (with a kick) by Debra from Eliot’s Eats
• Sophie’s Chopped Salad by Rebekah from Making Miracles
• Thai Salad with Peanut Dressing by Liz from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• White Bean Chili by Lisa from Authentic Suburban Gourmet
• Winter Salad of Roasted Beets, Avocado and Grapefruit by Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm