Apricot-Pineapple Glazed Shrimp

Trying To Entice Spring

We had such a lovely weekend in Asheville.  The weather got above 60 a few days in a row – I’m officially done with winter!  It’s probably not done with Asheville yet but I tried to extend my thoughts by cooking a shrimp dish labeled in the magazine as food for a summer celebration.

I love it when all the ingredients you need for a meal seem to either be on sale or you  already have them on hand.  I had a 2 pound bag of frozen shrimp and a pineapple from last weeks sales and when I hit our local grocery, red and orange peppers were on sale.   Time to soak the wooden skewers and warm up the Weber grill!

This recipe is based on one from an issue of Healthy Cooking – a magazine put out by Taste of Home.  To go with this I cooked Uncle Ben’s quick cooking brown rice with a can of chicken broth and then mixed in 1/3 cup of coconut that I toasted in the oven.  We also had my kids favorite broccoli recipe.

Apricot-Pineapple Glazed Shrimp

Mix the following in a food processor – 1 10 oz all fruit apricot spread (I used Polaner), 1/4 cup chopped dried apricots, 2 tablespoons chopped onion, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, 1 chopped garlic clove, 1/4 teaspoon salt.  Process until blended.  Set aside half of the sauce for serving.

Peel 2 pounds of shrimp – I had large shrimp (21-30 count).  Chop a large sweet bell pepper into chunks – I had about 24 pieces.  You need about 2 cups of chopped fresh pineapple – I used less than my whole pineapple.  Thread the shrimp, pepper, and pineapple on skewers, alternating as you go.  Grill the skewers over medium heat, basting with the remaining sauce.  Cook until the shrimp are pink.  They should need about 4 – 5 minutes per size, depending on your shrimp size.  Serve with the sauce.

Threading the skewers took a little time but the rest of this came together pretty fast.  It was so good, we will probably have this again soon – regardless of the temperature outside.  Enjoy!

~The Mildly Manic Mom