Paleo citrus bacon shrimp with caramelized onions, mashed potatoes, and cilantro!

This is a great way to get some sea food in that body! Shrimp is a great source of protein and man, is it delicious. I'd heard that it is high in cholesterol and therefore we shouldn't eat it, but that's just one more example of how we have been misinformed by mainstream nutrition to fear fat. We need cholesterol to make up some of the more important parts of our bodies (like our cells. Yeah, pretty important!). Read this for all kinds of interesting shrimp info!

[Paleo] Citrus bacon shrimp with caramelized onions, mashed potatoes, and cilantro
Makes 1 single-serving meal

For the mashed potatoes:

1 large yukon gold potato
the cream from 1 can of full-fat coconut milk (start with 1 spoonful and add more according to how thick you like your mashed potatoes)
butter
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp celery seeds, if desired

Chop the potatoes into chunks and boil in water until very soft. You can peel them if you want, but I never do. It's too much work when the skins are super tasty and add some nice texture. Just wash them really well first. When they're done cooking, drain water and mash them (using a hand mixer, potato masher, or even just a fork) with coconut cream, butter, salt, pepper, and celery seeds. Use discretion and preference of texture and taste to determine amounts of each ingredient. You can do it! Cooking for more than one person/meal? Just plan on 1 medium-large yukon gold potato per person, and increase the amounts of everything else. Another note: I have found that the addition of celery seeds gives the illusion of the presence of celery root, another starchy root vegetable, and helps mask some of the coconut flavor from the coconut milk.

For the shrimp and caramelized onions:

2 Tbsp butter
1 slice Paleo-friendly bacon, chopped
1/2 onion, sliced (can use a yellow, white, or red onion)
8-10 wild caught shrimps (just buy as many as you want to eat in one meal)
zest and juice of a lime (reserve one slice for garnish, if desired)
salt and pepper

1/4 of a bunch of fresh cilantro, chopped

De-vein and clean the shrimp really well. Season on both sides with salt and pepper.

Melt 1 Tbsp of the butter in a skillet and add chopped bacon, cooking until the fat is rendered and the pieces of bacon are crispy. Leaving the fat in the pan, reserve the pieces of bacon. To the hot fat, add the sliced onions, and cook on high heat until slightly charred. Turn down heat and allow to caramelize slowly for 15 minutes. Move onions to the side of the pan (you can leave them in there) and add the shrimp, cooking no more than 1 minute per side. You can add more butter if the pan is dry, it will help the shrimp cook. They will curl up and turn pink when finished, and this happens very quickly! When they are done, remove from heat and add the bacon back to the pan.

Plate by placing the mashed potatoes on the plate and creating a "cave" with the back of a large spoon. Place the shrimp/onion/bacon mixture on top of the mashed potatoes and sprinkle everything with the lime juice and a healthy sprinkling of fresh cilantro. Voila!