I was at Zoom hangout the other day when someone asked me what I cooked for Thanksgiving dinner. A friend of mine immediately burst out laughing because anyone who knows me knows I’m a terrible cook and avoid it almost as much as I avoid catching COVID-19.
This is actually the same friend who often sends me easy recipes you’d find in a “dummies book” with the message even you can do this.
The other day she said, here’s how to make shrimp tacos in under 25 minutes (and 25 minutes is while being lazy).
- Cook shrimps on broil for 8 minutes
- Toast the tortillas for 1.5 minutes
- Prep the guacamole taking less than 5 minutes
- Prep cilantro sour cream taking less than 5 minutes
- Chop cabbage for about 2 minutes
It sounded simple enough, so I gave it try.
Attempt 1
Now, it’s important to know I had every intention of making the tacos exactly like she described.
I played it cautious and bought regular sour cream because I wasn’t certain I’d like the cilantro taste. I forgot to buy cabbage so substituted it with spinach…hold your comments because it gets a bit weirder. The spinach met my vegetable goal for the day (1 point for me), but I still needed fruit. So I decided to add apple slices. In hindsight, I truly can’t justify this decision, but at the time I remember thinking…what’s the worse that can happen?
I’ll spare you the after picture so you don’t lose your appetite.
The first two tacos weren’t awful. I didn’t mind the taste of the apples. That is, until taco number 3. By this taco, I realized how ridiculous and illogical it was to add the apples to the taco instead of eating them on the side.
Since I’m not really at a place in life where I can afford to throw away food, I finished the last two tacos. And definitely struggled while doing it.
This experience likely sheds a bit of light for you, and myself, on one of the reasons I’m a terrible cook. Note to self: follow the recipe, end of story.
Attempt 2
I had leftover ingredients so I decided to try again, this time substituting shrimps with frozen store-bought chicken skewers (already not following the recipe) but with no apple slices. Luckily for me, this one turned out so much better!
Although not the exact recipe this time, it was truly easy to make and delicious.
I ended up sending the recipe to my Mom as a quick meal she can make. She was pleasantly surprised too. She never thought of making tacos with shrimp or chicken instead of beef but instantly loved them. My picky-eater little sister also fell in love with them!
What are your favourite simple recipes?