Shrimp Gumbo

A while ago when the kiddo and I went to Friday Fest with my mom, we had some amazing shrimp gumbo. Since then I have been craving a recipe to make it. I found one that was doable but changed it up quite a bit to make it more similar to the bowl I had already consumed. You can find the original here. Although Emeril's looks tasty, it's not exactly what I was looking for to make my gumbo. 

Here's what I did to change it up a little:

Heat oil and fry the okra. Add 1 can of diced tomatoes minus the juices, 1 T onion powder, 1/2 cup chopped celery, 1 t minced garlic, 1 bay leaf, 1/4 t salt, and 1/8 t cayenne pepper. Cook for about 10 minutes since the tomatoes were canned and the celery was very small. No ham. Add 1 box of seafood stock (because I wanted the extra juice) and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat and cook about 10-15 minutes. Add about 1 1/2 cups of precooked white rice.

While the veggies were finishing, I cut up the shrimp into thirds to make bite size pieces. I shook them in a container with premade creole seasoning. I heated them up in a saucepan until pink. There were two batches to make sure that all shrimp were cooked through. I rinsed the second batch with hot water after cooked to remove the extra seasoning. Good thing I did, too. (I'll explain later). Once cooked, I dumped all the shrimp in the pot with the veggies. Simmer for about 10 more minutes. Serve in bowls. 

The flavor was delicious but holy hell it was spicy! I only had one small bowl because the last thing this pregnant mama needs is something to add to the heartburn I already get every night. Tonight will definitely be a Tums night but it was worth it :). Hubby was not big on it because he doesn't like okra unless it's fried but he still managed to eat two big bowlfuls. This will definitely be a redo but with about twice as much so I can portion and freeze more of it. As is I still had three portions but if it's good leftover I would love to make more (minus a little of the cayenne or creole spice. In hindsight, I should've known it was going to be super spicy because I started sneezing the minute I poured the creole seasoning into the container but we like spicy...usually :).