Monica says:

I cook almost every night. I guess you could say it’s just a part of my day.

When our girls were little we always tried to sit down and eat dinner together if our schedules allowed it. It was the best time of the day….and even though our girls are all grown up and on their own, we still love sitting down to dinner.

Most people have eaten shrimp scampi, but how about scallops scampi?

No, I hadn’t ever heard of it either.

Until….

I was helping my sister Maria clean out her house since she and her hubby were moving. Since I am a recipe addict, I spotted some torn out recipes from magazines and voila!

Scallops Scampi!

The original recipe (from Good Housekeeping) called for a bed of couscous and of course, since we can’t have couscous, I substituted quinoa.

It was easy and so delicious! See for yourself!

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

1 c quinoa

1 ¼ lbs. sea scallops

1 lemon

I clove garlic, crushed

4 zucchini (8 oz. each)

1 T butter

2 T chopped fresh chives

salt and pepper

Preparation

Prepare quinoa according to package.

Rinse and pat scallops to dry.

Grate 1 tsp of zest from lemon and then squeeze 2 T of juice.

In a bowl, toss scallops with garlic, lemon zest, ¼ tsp salt, and ¼ tsp pepper.

Make the zucchini ribbons by taking a vegetable peeler and slicing each zucchini lengthwise into long pieces until you reach the seeds and core. Discard the cores. Set ribbons aside for later.

In a non-stick skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Place the scallops into the pan and cook 5-6 minutes on each side. Make sure you only turn them over once! When they are done, remove them and place on a plate.

Add the zucchini to the skillet. Reduce the heat and cook with a lid on for 2 minutes making sure you stir the ribbons at least once. Uncover and cook an additional minute or until tender and crisp. Remove zucchini from heat; stir in lemon zest and juice.

Spoon quinoa onto each plate and then top with zucchini ribbons. Place several scallops on top and sprinkle with fresh chives.

What a great dinner!

Now all we need is to have our girls at the dinner table with us!

But as Bjarne Reuter said, “Children have the unforgivable habit of growing up.”

© 2014, Monica of glutenfreedoubletalk