Dinner at My House: Coconut Shrimp & Sweet Potato Spears

Let me start by saying: I love coconut shrimp! Let me also add that it is difficult to find a healthy/clean version that still tastes yummy since coconut shrimp is normally deep fried. Red Lobster's Parrot Isle Jumbo Coconut Shrimp contains 880 calories, 60 grams of fat and 1,860mg of sodium (daily recommended sodium intake is only 1,500mg). Yikes!! Needless to say I would not be eating Red Lobster's shrimp or any other deep fried shrimp- so I have been on a mission/recipe search for the past few months. And then just last night I finally found the coconut shrimp recipe of my dreams. I whipped up the shrimp and some sweet potato spears on the side. Dinner was amazing (and gluten free). Check it out!

(Before they went in the oven)

Shrimp Loves Coconut
1 lb large shrimp, tail on peeled and deveined (I used med. size)
1/3 cup coconut flour
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 egg whites
2 cups coconut flakes
Pre heat oven to 400. In a mixing bowl, stir together the coconut flour, salt, and cayenne pepper. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy.  In another bowl, pour the coconut flakes.  Taking one shrimp at a time, dry well with a paper towel and dredge each shrimp in the coconut flour mixture, dip into the egg whites and then roll into the coconut flakes.  Bake on a lightly greased (with coconut oil) baking sheet for 12- 15 minutes or until the shrimp are pink and the coconut flakes start to brown.

(sweet potato spears)

Sweet Potato Spears
 2-3 sweet potatoes cut like french fries
1 tbsp basil
1 tbsp paprika
black pepper to taste
sprinkle of sea salt
1/4 – 1/2 cup olive oil
Preheat oven to 375. In a large bowl, whisk all spices together with the olive oil and then toss the sweet potato spears in the olive oil mixture until all the spears are coated.  Line a cookie sheet with tin foil and evenly spread the potato spears on the foil.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, turning the spears over half way through the cooking time.

Yum!

ENJOY!!!