So we are studying geography in homeschool with my daughter, and I thought… lets learn about dishes from different countries! So, for the next week or so we are going to do a few South American dishes. This specific one was Peruvian inspired… but with my own twist. And… DELICIOUS! I can only imagine if I had access to FRESH seafood… oh man! But alas, I must use frozen… still so good though! This dish took 30 minutes start to finish too, and that’s with kids crying and hanging on my ankles… so that’s a definite win! Easy, quick, TASTY, and not too heavy on the calories. Who wouldn’t want that! Please try this one for sure, and let me know how it turns out for you!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. Trader Joes Seafood Blend (a blend of shrimp, bay scallops and calamari)
• salt to taste
• frozen mixed vegetables – 1 1/2 cups
• 1 1/2 cups jasmine rice (I rinse and cook in my rice cooker)
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 red onion diced
• 2 tb cilantro
• 1/3 cup of chopped carrots
• olive oil
• 1/4 tsp cajun seasoning
• lemon zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp. low sodium soy sauce

Directions:

First: rinse your rice and start cooking. If you do not have a rice cooker, follow the directions on the packaging. If you do, rinse, put into the pot, fill with water corresponding on the directions… and press the button! Lovely right? It should take around 15 minutes.

Second: After about 10 minutes of the rice cooking, get the onions, garlic and olive oil simmering on the stove.

Now, pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Take a baking dish or a lipped cookie sheet and line with tin foil. Dump out the seafood blend (or similar blend) onto the pan. Make sure a single layer… don’t have any overlapping, you want them to cook evenly. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, garlic powder, cajun seasoning, 1 Tb lemon juice and zest. Place into the preheated oven and bake for 8 minutes. That’s it for the seafood!!! Now, if you have larger seafood than I did, you will want to bake longer. I had some jumbo shrimp that I cooked from frozen and it took 13 minutes… just make sure that it’s cooked through, curled up and not at all translucent.

Once the seafood blend is in the oven, add the frozen vegetables to the simmering onions and garlic in the pan along with the chopped carrots. Then add the remaining lemon juice and zest. Once the vegetables are still firm, but hot and cooked through. Then, spoon in the rice and stir. Take the seafood out of the oven, and pour into the skillet and stir. Add the turmeric to get the yellow color on the rice, and then season with a dash or so of soy sauce.

And… serve!!! I served mine with some chips and guacamole, but you could do it with some fruit, some bread… man, really anything! It’s versatile!

And now, for the quote of the day: