Tortilla Chip Shrimp with Fresh Corn and Black Bean Salad

I pretty much make the same two New Year’s resolutions every year. Of course I have the usual good intentions of drinking less, eating more brown rice, and reading more non-fiction. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the two big ones, the two I take seriously are:

1. Floss Everyday

2. Be More Free-Spirited

The main goal I have in mind is happiness. How can one be a good mother, wife, role model, and person if one is not happy?  But just saying I want to be a happier person is much too vague. It’s a big world out there and if you don’t have specifics in mind you could easily get off track and end up somewhere pretty weird. Like at a drum circle at Little Beach. (Unless that’s your thing, then by all means- drum away!)

So it’s important to have action steps to stay focused.

Flossing everyday is pretty straight forward, but you can’t be happy if your teeth hurt…so I keep that one on the list.

Being more free-spirited ironically takes some planning.

One year I decided to try a class outside my comfort zone. Hello Zumba! That first class was scary for me. My youth in the punk rock scene really didn’t give me much exposure or practice in dancing beyond just bobbing my head. And while I haven’t really improved much, it’s safe to say Zumba helped me make leaps and bounds in happiness and setting that spirit free.

The next year I added attending a large music festival to my action steps. That’s a keeper. Sometimes when I need a break from the day to day routine of life, I just put on my Coachella mix and I’m right back there, standing next to my husband, watching Florence and the Machine cast a spell over a sea of 80,000 people. Probably not all that different from the drum circle now that I think about it.

This year I am adding more time in the great outdoors. I want to do an amazing backpacking trip of some sort in 2013. When I was in high school, we did all kinds of wilderness adventures. At the time I had no idea how special it was. All we did was whine about snakes and sun poisoning and desperately try to bum cigarettes of the occasional hiker we would pass. What I would give now to have a backpacking trip with my friends all planned and organized for me!  It’s been a long time since I’ve carried a backpack of essentials into the wilderness and stayed long enough to forget about everything. Long enough to come back grateful for every small luxury I am blessed with.  I’m starting small, a trip into Haleakala, who’s coming with me?

Uh oh, dancing with live music in the outdoors. I’m not ready for the drum circle, not in 2013. But if by some chance that’s where I end up, I’m bringing Tortilla Chip Shrimp. Can you do that? Is it like a pot luck? Stranger things have happened I’m sure.

Turns out crushed tortilla chips make an excellent breading. And paired with a salad of fresh shaved corn, black beans and tart tomatillos, yum! You could really serve this shrimp with anything, salsa, BBQ sauce, rice. And I think you could bring it anywhere, a Superbowl party, drum circle. Anywhere. Your choice.

Tortilla Chip Shrimp with a Fresh Corn and Black Bean Salad

Ingredients

1 C flour

2 eggs, beaten with a splash of milk

2 C ground tortilla chips with a pinch of pepper, cumin and garlic powder (don’t you think?)

20 (21-25/lb) shrimp, peeled and deveined (I kept the tails on)

2 TB butter

2 TB olive oil

4 cobs of sweet white corn, shaved

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 C diced onion

5 tomatillos, dehusked, washed and diced

juice of 1-2 lemons or limes

1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions

chopped cilantro (I didn’t have any but I wished I did)

Directions

Start with breading the shrimp. You will need 3 bowls like this…

Designate one hand for wet, one hand for dry. Then just go for it. Be ready, your phone will ring when you are halfway through. Standard. Dip a shrimp into the flour, then the eggs, then the chips until you have coated them all.

You can keep the crusted shrimps in the fridge until you are ready to cook them. Next in a large bowl combine all your salad ingredients, the corn, black beans, onion and tomatillos.

Toss it all together and season with salt, pepper, green onions, cilantro and fresh squeezed lemon juice.

Get a large pan hot and add butter and olive oil. Saute shrimp until pink and just cooked through. Serve with the corn and black bean salad and whatever else sets your spirit free.