Welcome to KidsCookDinner.com, a website my brother and I started in 2015 to talk about food and kids’ cooking. Since then we’ve tried to use it to raise awareness about social issues such as worldwide hunger (see post above “About KidsCookDinner…” but now my brother is in college, so I get to choose what to cook!

Tonight I wanted to cook a healthy, meat-free dish so I decided to do a sheet pan roast of shrimp and vegetables. While shrimp is considered a “healthy” choice, after researching it from an environmentally sustainable perspective, I was surprised to learn that a lot of shrimp is not considered a good choice from an overall climate change, sustainability POV. There are a lot of different organizations that list “good” fish to eat, and it’s hard to keep track of them all (and one article I read even said it’s so confusing as to what fish is OK to buy!

(See https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/03/15/520023117/i-want-to-eat-fish-responsibly-but-the-seafood-guides-are-so-confusing)

The shrimp I bought had a sustainability label on them so I hope they were ok. But just be careful, look at labels and certifications from organizations such as OceanicSociety.org, seafood.edf.org, or seafoodwatch.org.

Anyway, the ingredients you need include:

FULL INGREDIENT LIST:

• 1 pound raw, peeled shrimp (hopefully from a sustainable source)
• 2 cups broccoli florets
• 1/2 red onion chopped
• 1 cup grape tomatoes
• 2 cups sliced mushrooms
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and pepper

NOTE: you can add whatever additional veggies you like: thin-sliced carrots? garlic cloves? cauliflower? peppers (you just may need to add a bit more olive oil if you have more volume)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and prepare the shrimp. For our family, that means making sure they are peeled and the tail is removed! Oftentimes, if you buy peeled shrimp, the tail is still on, which is fine if you are eating them as a shrimp cocktail but not so good if they are part of a dish.

Then put the veggies in a large bowl and toss with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and some salt and pepper.

In a separate bowl, toss the shrimp with the other tablespoon of olive oil and salt and pepper.

Spread the veggies on a sheet pan and bake for 10 minutes until lightly charred, then toss and turn them on the pan and bake for another 5 minutes

Add the shrimp and bake for another 5 minutes until everything looks a bit browned.

Serve with rice if you like, or not! I found it was a delicious, satisfying meal without any additions…