Resolutions & Roasted Lemon Garlic Shrimp

This morning God turned on the lightbulb for me.  Our pastor spoke on resolutions and focusing on the "main thing" which is to love the Lord your God.  He encouraged us to make a resolution this year, but not just make one, but thoughtfully consider what specific thing you could do keeping in mind the verse "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. (Matthew 22:37).  That's why we were made and that's our purpose.  There are so many ways to do this by talking to people around you when you are at home, out and about or relaxing.  Make loving God the forefront of your life and show others that you love your Lord.  Wow.  That sounds hard.  I guess it's both overwhelming and encouraging at the same time.  I love to talk so that part comes easy to me.  Now I just need to show love when I talk without complaining or judging...now that's the tricky part. 

I also have other goals for myself such as appreciating more, looking on the brighter side, working out on a consistent basis, eating healthier foods, staying away from chocolate, improving my attitude and so forth.  There are so many things I want to improve about myself.  Our pastor continued and said once you have a resolution in mind, write it down, review it and most importantly SHARE it with someone.  Well, that's what I am doing right now.  I am sharing it with you.  Because I have so many things I want to work on AND I tend to be a perfectionist and get very discouraged when I do fail I've decided on a different type of resolution:  "When I mess up, I won't give up."  Notice the "when"...I know I will mess up because I am human and imperfect.  Thankfully Jesus died for my imperfection and took my sins away when he did or else I'd really be up a creek.  But back to my point, I know I will mess up...that's a given.  However, it's the getting back on the proverbial horse that's the hard part.  That's what I need to work on.  So this year I am going to keep on keeping on no matter how many times I mess up.  If you are reading this feel free to call me out if I don't! :)

So, to keep my promise from yesterday I am going to post my first anti-inflammatory recipe from CinnamonSpice&EverythingNice...Roasted Lemon Garlic Herb Shrimp. 

I'm making it tomorrow night so I'll let you know how it turns out...enjoy :)

Roasted Lemon Garlic Herb Shrimp

(adapted from Fine Cooking)

1/3 cup olive oil

1 lemon, zested then half cut into thin slices and other half into wedges

3-4 fresh thyme sprigs, leaves removed (I'm using the thyme that's in my spice rack)

sea or kosher salt and fresh black pepper
whole wheat spaghetti/pasta, couscous or brown rice for serving

1 pound fresh shrimp, medium-sized, deveined with tails off
5 cloves garlic, minced (I'm using about 3 tbsp. out of my super sized jar of minced garlic)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a 9×13 baking pan combine olive oil, lemon zest and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Bake in oven for 12 minutes. Meanwhile cook pasta, couscous or rice.

2. Remove pan from oven, add shrimp, garlic and the thin sliced lemons (don’t squeeze them), toss to coat with oil mixture. Bake for 8-10 more minutes or until shrimp turn pink and start to curl. Serve over whole wheat pasta, couscous or brown rice tossed with extra-virgin olive oil and fresh-squeezed lemon with additional lemon wedges for serving.