Weeknight Thai Coconut Spinach and Shrimp with Peanut Sauce

Weeknights can be rough, amiright?  Whether you work or not, work from home, rush home in rush hour traffic, etc, they are just all around rough.  At our house, there is a very brief window of time where many things happen at once- get home, walk the dog, feed the dog, cook and eat dinner, give S a bath, bedtime routine, clean up after dinner, put S down, etc.  This is usually squeezed into 2 hours or so.  Moral of the story- we ALL need some quick and easy recipes, using freezer ingredients, that you can throw together fast and with a minimum of dirty dishes.

For me, there are a couple freezer lifesavers that I would seriously die without.  Shrimp and spinach are two of those freezer staples that are regularly called upon to be the basis of a nutritious, filling, and GFG approved meal.  

You may have also noticed by now that I am pretty partial to Asian flavors, Thai in particular.  I loves me some Thai.  Unfortunately, I don't eat it too often because most of the dishes have lots of noodles in them and who knows how much added sugars.  And let's face it, with a two year old, we're not eating in restaurants much these days anyways!

Thai Coconut Milk Spinach and Shrimp with Peanut Sauce (3-4 servings)

1 bag of frozen spinach, defrosted

12-15 medium/large raw shrimp (defrosted and peeled)

1 cup light coconut milk (or use full-fat)

4 tbsp peanut flour

2 tbsp soy sauce

1/4 tsp toasted sesame oil

2 tbsp thai chili sauce

2 tbsp water

1/4 tsp garlic powder

2 scallions, chopped

some EVOO, or a bit of toasted sesame oil, for cooking the shrimp

salt and pepper 

Get out two sauté pans.  In one pan, heat some oil (I used hot chili garlic oil) for the shrimp and cook just a few minutes per side until opaque and cooked through.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic powder before flipping.  Remove from heat when finished.  In your other pan, heat up just a tiny bit of oil, and dump in your defrosted spinach.  Season with salt and pepper, then pour in your coconut milk and let it come to a simmer.  While you are waiting for that, get a medium sized bowl to make your peanut sauce.  Combine your peanut flour, sesame oil, soy sauce, chili sauce, garlic powder, and water, and stir well to combine.  Spoon half of this mixture into your spinach and mix well to incorporate.  The rest you'll spoon over your shrimp.  To plate, place shrimp on top of spinach, top with peanut sauce, and cover with scallions/green onions.  Dinner done in 15-20 minutes.  This is a healthy, filling, protein, vitamin, mineral, and fiber packed meal.  Peanut flour is my newest favorite ingredient to have around.  Do you ever cook/bake with peanut flour?  What are some ways you use it?  I am curious to know if you can use it as a breading- any ideas?

Hope you try this one out!