Beth's Shrimp "Not So" Po Boy

I'm on this serious tomato kick lately and it's not even tomato season. All my foodie friends are baking and cooking with pumpkin for Fall and I'm stuck on the tomatoes. I found some grape tomatoes from Costco yesterday and I was eating them all afternoon from the container. They were just so sweet.

Tomatoes are great sources of potassium and several vitamins such as folic acid, vitamin A, C, and E. Tomatoes are also an excellent inflammation-fighting food in addition to helping lowering the risk of several types of cancer due to the high concentration of lycopene. Most of your lycopene, which the body does not produce on it's own, will come from the tomatoes that you eat. So, tomato up!

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees

• 3-4 cups of grape or cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
• 3 tbs of extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 medium sweet onion, sliced
• 1 half tbs of dried basil
• a dash of balsamic vinegar
• 5 garlic cloves, minced and divided
• thick crusty bread of your choice (I used foccacia that I bought from the Atlanta Bread Co)
• fresh baby spinach leaves
• swiss cheese
• 1 lb of large shrimp, deveined, peeled and tails removed (I used Black Tiger Prawns)
• the juice of one lemon
• a pinch of red pepper flakes
• salt and pepper to taste

Marinate shrimp in 1 tbs of extra virgin olive oil, red pepper flakes, lemon juice and 2 minced garlic cloves, for 30 minutes to an hour. 

To a roasting pan, add tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, 3 minced garlic cloves, 2 tbs of extra virgin olive oil, and onion. Toss and place in the oven for 20 minutes or until tomatoes are soft and appear pleasantly roasted. Toss once while roasting. Remove from the oven.

Use grill pan to grill shrimp. Do not overcook the shrimp. Grill on one side for a minute or so, flip, and quickly remove from the pan and place on a plate until ready to use for the sandwiches.

On a cookie sheet, slice bread and place in the oven for about 5 minutes. Remove. Begin assembling the sandwiches. Shrimp and roasted tomatoes on one side. Spinach leaves and swiss cheese on the other side. Remove from the oven after about 5 minutes and serve.