Caviar and Codfish

I am a glutton and proud of it. Unlike the typical red-blooded American addiction to “Mickey Dee’s” and Coca-Cola, my gluttony finds form in artisanal cheeses, dark chocolates, Sauvignon Blanc, and dry-aged rib-eyes.

Whole weekends revolve around food. Dinners are planned weeks in advance. Jim and I are known to turn down invitations to go out because we want a Saturday night with nothing to do but cook, snack, and watch reruns of The Wire. When we do go out, we hound friends about where and what we’ll eat, whether the restaurant is Zagat rated and—”just in case”—we stash some homemade snacks in my bag.

If you invite me over to your kitchen, I’m cooking dinner, and it will be a decadent, waistband-popping, many-plated meal. If I invite you out for dinner, rest assured that I’ve researched everything about the restaurant’s menu, making certain it will appease everyone’s palate.

I’m constantly pushing my favorite foods on friends and family, and long, languid afternoons are often spent talking about idolized chefs and perfect meals.

So, it’s no surprise that I spend Mondays popping antacids and sulking about my weight. It’s also a reason why I don’t normally blog about Mondays’ dinners of bare fish and salads. Tonight, however, things were different.

Cursing my lack of willpower—that fifth piece of pizza on Saturday, those chocolate dipped cookies on Sunday—I wallowed in self pity late last night, wallowing until it began to feel good. I felt happy about my indulgences—lucky that I can eat the foods I love, lucky to have loved ones to share with. And by embracing my gluttony, I started to feel good about my Monday healthy dinner and got creative. A variation on my fish and salad Mondays, this stir fry was almost too satisfying to be so healthy!

Shrimp Salad Stir Fry

Serve with a white sticky rice. If you don’t have a large wok, use the biggest skillet you have for this recipe—the lettuce takes up a LOT of room before it wilts!

• 1 to 1½ pounds shrimp, deveined and tailed.
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 hearts of romaine lettuce, each head cut crosswise once or twice
• 1 T canola oil
• ¼ cup chicken broth
• 3 T dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1½ tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes

To make sauce, combine broth, soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch and red pepper flakes. Set aside. Heat canola oil in a wok over high heat, once hot add garlic and fry about 1 minute, stirring. Add shrimp and fry for about 3 minutes, stirring. Add 1/3 of lettuce, stirring until it beings to wilt and make room in the wok. Add second 1/3 of lettuce and stir until that begins to wilt. Add remaining lettuce and sauce. Simmer for a few minutes. Serve over white rice (unless you’ve eaten too many carbs over the weekend!)