Running short on time

I got lazy yesterday and just didn't get to blogging about Thursday's dinner so here it is.  After running errands with my mom, we realized it was getting close to 5:30 by the time we made it to Whole Foods. The plan was to make our own kebobs but since it was already late, we ended up just picking up some pre-made ones there.  We got 8 kebobs, 4 sesame teriyaki and 4 honey ginger.  Along with that, I decided to make a version of caprese salads since I'd been craving mozzarella lately and we always want shrimp cocktail so why not add that into the mix too.

I began with the caprese so it would have some time to marinate in the dressing of balsamic and olive oil.  I added some extra ingredients though, making it a little fuller than just a usual tomato, basil, and mozzarella.  The ingredients I used were:

cherry tomatoes

peppadews

mozzerella

artichoke hearts

balsamic vinegar

olive oil

salt

pepper

basil

I halved everything because I felt they would marinate better if the "meat" of everything was exposed.  So I started by halving the gazillion tomatoes, and then artichokes, mozzarella, and peppadews.  I chopped up the basil and then added the balsamic, olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste and tossed it all together.  Then I let it sit in the fridge for a couple of house, given it a toss every 30 minutes or so.

A couple hours later, I turned on the grill and started the kebobs.  I put these on about medium high and rotated them every 5 minutes.  The thing I hate about kebobs is that you have to cook them longer to allow the veggies to cook but then the meat is always a little overdone and maybe even chewy since the meat is cut up small.  I think next time we'll just make steaks and then make veggie kebobs.  Either way, these turned out well. 

After taking them off the grill, let them rest for about 10 minutes.  I put them in the microwave to sit b/c I was worried they would get cold so when we finally ate them, they still had some warmth to them.  

I threw together some cocktail sauce for the shrimp.  It was a simple process, just ketchup and some raw horseradish to taste and mix it all up.  We threw some lemons on the shrimp too. 

Final meal turned out a little like this

It was pretty good! plus, you can't really ever go wrong with shrimp cocktail or caprese with any ingredients as long as your ratio of balsamic to olive oil is good.  It ended up being way too much food for us to finish but made for nice leftovers.