Heavy Veggie Ceasar Salad with Super Crostini

Yesterday morning I was already thinking about dinner and the veggie box I have coming Monday from Denver Door to Door Organics.  I needed to clean out some stuff to make room for the new veggies.

So I had a good head of romaine, a whole red bell pepper, half a cucumber, a few radishes and a bag of baby carrots. Chop, dice, slice and that's a good salad.  But The Chief Mess Cleaner-Upper is not partial to salad for dinner so I needed to find something a little more robust.  I found about half a bag of frozen un-cooked shrimp and thought I could roast the whole bell pepper rather than just including it with all the other veggies already in the salad. So before I ran to the grocery for the usual Sunday, paper towel, milk and assorted staples run, I was already thinking about some prosciutto and putting together a Super Crostini with that bell pepper to make up for a really big salad for dinner.

The plan started to come together. Big salad and Caesar dressing, I have.  Shrimp for crostini, check.  I picked up some prosciutto and a demi-bagette of semolina bread.

Next time I would put the shrimp UNDER the cheese just to hold them onto the bread a little better.  Either way, this turned out pretty well.

Heavy on the Veggie Caesar Salad

1/2 head Romaine Lettuce, chopped
2 radishes, sliced into matchsticks
4 baby carrots, sliced thin on the diagonal
1/2 Cucumber, sliced thin
Caesar dressing

Lay out lettuce on a plate and sprinkle veggies over. Drizzle lightly with Caesar Dressing.

Quick Shrimp Scampi

1/2 bag of frozen, uncooked shrimp, thawed, shelled and dried
3 cloves garlic, chopped
pinch of chili flakes
1 tsp butter
1 tsp olive oil

Melt butter in small saucepan with olive oil on medium heat. Add garlic and chili flakes. When garlic begins to brown add shrimp.  Toss every minute or so until shrimp is just cooked through. Remove from heat.

Super Crostini

1 Semolia demi bagette, sliced
1 clove of garlic, peeled, whole
1 bell pepper, roasted, blackened skin removed and sliced
4-5 slices of prosciutto
1 tomato, thinly sliced
shrimp scampi
3 slices provolone cheese

Place bread on baking sheet and spray with olive oil (I love and use my Misto sprayer EVERY DAY). Lightly broil for 2-3 minutes, flip bread and repeat.

Rub each crostini with the clove of garlic then top with a slice of roasted pepper, a slice of tomato, a slice of prosciutto and a half slice of provolone cheese.  Return crostinis to the broiler until cheese has melted. Top each crostini with 2-3 shrimps.

I made it with the shrimp topping this combo but would make it again with the shrimp UNDER the cheese to keep the little shrimpies in place.

Arrange crostini around salad and call it dinner!