Easy Entertaining: Baked Lemon-Garlic Shrimp

It's funny how food moods change with the seasons.  Given how warm it's been (unusually warm for Washington, DC as well), I've been wanting lighter, fresher meals.  So when my family came for a visit over Easter weekend, I knew I wanted to make a shrimp dish.  I found the perfect one - Baked Lemon-Garlic Shrimp.  The taste was light and fresh, and it was definitely healthy.  I baked it in one big casserole dish and then served it over cous-cous.  Perfect!  This is a good dish for company since it's easy to assemble and it's healthy.  Your guests will thank you.

Baked Lemon-Garlic Shrimp
(Courtesy of  The Good Housekeeping Step-by-Step Cookbook)

Ingredients:
1 1/4 pounds large shrimp
1 bunch (10-12 ounces) fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
2 medium tomatoes, halved, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
2 T. olive or vegetable oil
Salt
1 garlic clove, minced
1 T. chopped fresh parsley
1 T. fresh lemon juice
1/2 t. lemon-pepper seasoning salt
Parsley sprigs for garnish

Method:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Shell and devein shrimp.

In bowl, combine spinach, tomatoes, 1 T. olive oil, and 1/2 t. salt.  Toss to coat.  Place spinach mixture in four 1-1/2 cup shallow casseroles. (I didn't have individual casserole dishes, so I just used one large casserole dish, which worked just fine.)

In the same bowl, combine shrimp, garlic, parsley, lemon juice, lemon-pepper seasoning salt, 1 T. olive oil, and 1/2 t. salt; toss shrimp to coat.  Arrange shrimp mixture over spinach mixture.

Bake 12-15 minutes, until shrimp are opaque throughout.  If you're using individual casserole dishes, the recipe recommends that you serve this dish by placing each casserole on plate and garnishing with parsley sprigs.  (I served the shrimp over cous-cous.)

Note:  This recipe makes 4 main-dish servings (it allows plenty for seconds or leftovers).  Each serving is about 205 calories, 26g protein, 6g carbohydrates, 8g total fat (1g saturated), 219 mg cholesterol, 865 mg sodium.