Beef and Shrimp Kabobs

I haven’t made these very often, although, they never disappoint when I do.  I’ll be honest; I’m not a big fan of fiddly food, i.e. meatballs, kabobs, cut-out cookies, etc.   It always looks like fun, but when it comes down to execution, unless I've got a tasty beverage and some tunes playing, I find that the fun wears off pretty quickly.  This has slowly started to change as the kids have gotten older and have taken an interest in helping me out in the kitchen.  It also helps that I don’t need to worry about monitoring every moment lest someone lose a finger or end up with a meatball in their hair.  Even my husband gets into it now, if the payoff is delicious, he will now gladly help make armadillo eggs, crab Rangoon, or even these kabobs.  This all makes mommy a happy camper, I get to make the fun fiddly food, and it stays fun, and we only occasionally end up with meat in our hair. 

This is a recipe that made us leftovers for the week, so as with many of my other lunch meals, this is quite large.  You can easily cut the veggies in half and omit one of the meats if you are not making this to get you through a couple of meals. 

Here is a note that you probably don’t need, because you probably think these things through a little better than me. You will see in the photos that there are some skewers that have both shrimp and steak on them . . . . .don’t do this.  Unless you are a rare steak lover, the shrimp will cook much faster than the steak, so make skewers with just steak and put them on first, and then add the ones with just shrimp about five minutes later.  This shrimp marinade still made these shrimp delicious, but they were just a tad overcooked.  If you are a rare steak lover, feel free to do what I did and just cook the kabobs until the shrimp are cooked.  I’ll be honest that is what I did on the second batch of skewers, because I like my steak with a little moo left in it.  

Steak and Veggie Marinade: 

• ½ Cup Soy Sauce
• ¾ Cup Olive Oil
• 4 Garlic Cloves, minced (I used from the jar)
• Black Pepper, lots of it, to taste

Shrimp Marinade:

• ¼ Cup Lime Juice
• ¼ Cup Honey
• ¼ Cup Olive Oil
• 2 Garlic Cloves, minced
• ½ tsp Salt
• ½ tsp Pepper

Meat and Veggies:

• 2lb Sirloin Steak, cut into 1 ½ inch Chunks
• 2lb Shrimp
• 2 Bell Peppers, seeded and cut into 1 ½ inch Chunks
• 3 Zucchini Slice into 1inch rounds
• 16 oz Button Mushrooms
• 2 onions, cut into chunks**
• 1 can Pineapple, drained  
• Metal or Bamboo Skewers (if using the wooden skewers, make sure you soak them for 15-30 minutes before assembling the skewers)

**Note on cutting up the onions.  1. Cut off both ends and peel off the skin.  2. Cut the whole onion, from top to bottom, into quarters, and get rid of the inner quarters, I just quickly diced the inner parts up and threw them in the fridge to use later in the week.  3. Cut each onion quarter in half lengthwise. Now depending on the size or your onion, your pieces may be just about right at this point, about 1 ½ inch, but if they are still pretty big, go ahead and cut the pieces in half again, but I usually just stop here, I love big chunks of grilled onion.  

Get out 2 Ziploc bags and a mixing bowl large enough to fit all the cut up veggies.  Mix the Meat and veggie marinade in the mixing bowl and then put half of it in one of the Ziploc bags.  

 Put the ingredients for the Shrimp marinade directly into the other Ziploc bag and squish them together to combine, add the shrimp.  Add the beef to its Ziploc bag, and squish the meat around in its' marinades, seal up both bags, and refridgerate them for 1 to 2 hours.

Add all the veggies, except the pineapple to the bowl with the reserved marinade, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and microwave for 5-7 minutes on high.  You want the vegetables to still have a little crunch left to them.  Then unwrap them and set them aside until you are ready to make the kebabs. 

When the beef and shrimp have had their time, take the bags out of the fridge, drain off the marinade, and grabbing as many volunteers as you can, start threading the meat, vegetables, and pineapple onto the skewers in whatever order you choose (see note above about combining meats).

Grill the kebabs over medium-low heat until cooked to your taste, probably about 12-15 minutes.  As I mentioned above, I would probably put the steak on first, and then add the shrimp about five minutes later.  This recipe makes a lot of skewers, so unless your grill is pretty big, you may need to do two batches.

I served this with plain old rice and roasted asparagus.  

Sunday Night Tostadas

This, was an act of desperation, a moment that arose out of a deep desire to avoid leaving my house to get food on a night in mid-April, when it decided to rain and then proceeded to snow.  By the way, “COME ON SPRING, ENOUGH ALREADY!”  An opening of the cupboards revealed a variety of ingredients, but none of them really seemed to go together, black beans, coconut milk, rice?  Then I spied in the deep recesses of the top shelf, a leftover bag of tostada shells, and also spied the mandatory can of chili that my son requires I keep on hands at all times.  That kid, I could spend hours lovingly making my mother’s chili, which is delightful, but he would just prefer to open this can, no beans mind you, warm it up, and go to town.  Children, the great destroyers of culinary dreams!  As with so many throw together meals, it was amazing, and we have now delightfully eaten this two Sunday nights in a row, it is now officially in our circulation and I don’t think it is going anywhere soon. 

I find that one small can of chili is enough for 5 tostadas, you don’t want too much chili or the bottoms get soggy, and as this meal is meant to be eaten in front of the TV, you want it to kind of hold together a little (bring the paper towels just in case).  I have also toyed around with the idea of topping this with a fried or poached egg.  I’ll let you know if that happens.

These are delightful as they are, but as with many things, they are even better with toppings, so go to town with salsa, sour cream, tomatoes, cilantro, guacamole (I couldn’t be bothered, so I just chunked up the avocado that was giving up the ghost on my counter) or pickled jalapenos, etc.  I just wouldn’t spend too much time chopping; these lose their mystique if they require too much work or cleanup.  

• 1 can chili of your choice, or leftover chili if it is super thick chili
• 1 cup Cheese of your choice
• 1 cup diced or sliced onion
• 5 tostada shells
• Black Olives, sliced (optional)
• Garlic Salt
• Toppings:  green onions, olives, tomatoes, guacamole, sour cream, etc.  

Preheat the oven to 400° and get out a baking sheet or pizza pan that is big enough to fit the amount of tostadas that your are making. 

Place your tostada shells on the pan, lightly sprinkle some cheese on them, and top them with the chili and onions.  If you are using black olives, sprinkle them on now, and top with the remaining cheese.  Sprinkle these lightly with Garlic Salt and pop them in the oven for about 12 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and golden.  Take them out and give them a couple of minutes to cool down, you will have a burned mouth if you don’t.  

As you can see, I couldn't be bothered to use a real plate.
Enjoy!