At LibertyCon I was told that the restaurant did good Shrimp & Grits. I love both shrimp and grits, so I was on board for that, but it turned out that the hotel had no proper kitchen this year during the remodel. I left the convention shrimp-and-gritsless.

The recipes I’ve seen online appear far more complex than the name “shrimp and grits” would suggest. They involve sausage, bacon, cream, a suite of multi-colored bell peppers, and lots more things I don’t have the patience for. Also, they take an hour to cook. I wanted these for breakfast, and breakfast is not a dish I can afford to spend an hour on. I’m breaking fast, not hosting a dinner party.

Here’s my alternative. It’s simple, and like the name of the dish suggests, it pretty much sticks to the “there is shrimp in these grits” theme.

• 6 medium-large uncooked shrimp, peeled
• 1/4c Quaker instant grits
• 1c water
• 2tbsp butter
• 1 chicken bouillon cube
• Zatarain’s Blackened Seasoning
• 1 green onion

1. Prepare the grits in the water w/ 1tbsp butter and the bouillon cube. This takes 5 minutes, tops. While that’s working, multitask the rest.
2. In a separate pan, saute the peeled shrimp in the other tbsp of butter, w/ Zatarain’s seasoning on them to taste.
3. Chop the green onion.
4. When the grits are done, remove them from the heat. Toss the chopped green onion into the pot, and then drop the cooked shrimp into the pot. Stir.
5. Serve.

This is not a big, fancy dish that says “I had shrimp, so I threw a food party and invited all of the shrimp’s friends.” This is a dish borne of “oh, hey… there’s shrimp in the freezer, and nobody is watching. I’ll be done and cleaned up before anybody is the wiser.”

“I think I accidentally made enchiladas.” — me, March 16, 2015

I wanted some chicken and cheese in a tortilla, but then I noticed the container of leftover enchilada sauce was on the counter next to the sink as part of a fridge purge. That sauce would go well with chicken, cheese, and tortilla.

I began grabbing stuff, and was going to grab some canned chicken, but then roasted chicken breasts came out of the oven. So I stole a couple of those, and here’s the recipe:

• 1 8oz package of cream cheese
• 1 small can of chopped, roasted green chilies.
• 2 chicken breasts, cooked.
• 1/4 cup refried beans.
• 1/2 can of enchilada sauce
• drippings from the roasted chicken, if you’ve got em.
• A big fistful of shredded cheese.

Chop the chicken finely. Soften the cream cheese in the microwave. Stir those together in a bowl, adding the green chilies and the refried beans.

Divide the resulting slop evenly among four burrito-sized tortillas, rolling each one up into an enchilada. I used flour tortillas because they’re what I had. (EVERYTHING I used was used because it was what I had.)

Put the tortillas in a baking pan, 9×13 is probably best.

Mix the enchilada sauce with the chicken drippings, then pour that over the top of the enchiladas in the pan. Sprinkle the fistful of cheese over the top of that.

Bake at 375°F for 25 minutes.