Honey Pineapple Shrimp & Red Cauliflower (Sweet & Spicey goodness!)

This was one of those haphazard experimental meals that turned out really well. It was the end of the month, (and therefore I cook whatever we have left in the house) so I pulled out some leftover pineapple salsa, and a head of cauliflower. I also had some whole, raw shrimp I had gotten from the Farmer's market. I even had followed the recommendation to let it thaw for a day in the fridge. Food with Kid Appeal had posted a fun recipe for cauliflower that I really wanted to try, so I didn't make the usual cauli-rice I would have thought of making to go with pineapple shrimp. Then I was sitting there eating spicey cauliflower, and sweet shrimp... spicey, sweet. Sweet, spicey. Wait.... sweet and spicey? I mixed them all up together, and Mmm... Hubby still ate his mostly separate, but he enjoyed the mix as well.

Honey Pineapple Shrimp
(from Better Homes and Gardens)

• 1-1/2 lbs shrimp
• 1 lime
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/2 c fresh cilantro (can sub parsley) chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp honey
• 20 oz peeled pineapple
• 1 red onion
• 1/8 tsp salt

Finely chop garlic, cilantro, and pineapple, and chop onion. Grill onion, pineapple, shrimp - basting with some of sauce made from other ingredients and pineapple juice, reserving extra sauce for after cooking. Or just pan fry everything, cooking onions and garlic first, then adding shrimp to cook until just pink on one side, then adding the rest of ingredients and cooking for another couple minutes.

This recipe is very flexible - I like more greenery and not quite as much pineapple, just use whatever you have.

For red cauliflower recipe, see Food with Kid Appeal's post. I cut the cauliflower into smaller peices than she shows in the picture, but still had decent sized chunks. I also used a little less lemon and a little too much cumin. Yum!

Note on the shrimp: I got whole raw wild shrimp. (See photo) It was kinda creepy to cut the heads off, and a little more work to peel and de-vein, but the resulting taste and texture was well worth it. I'd previously always gotten the pre-cooked and de-veined shrimp that was really easy to peel, but the flavor and texture was nothing like these. The meat was more flaky and lingered in your mouth so much longer. I will definitely be buying these again even if they are looking at me!