Feed Your Brain, Feed Your Life
Garlic Shrimp Panzanella is about to be your favorite new summer supper. Instead of heating up the kitchen, cool down with this filling salad featuring lean protein-rich shrimp.
Traditionally made with day-old bread, ripe tomatoes, herbs, olive oil, and a tangy dressing, panzanella only gets better as it sits, making it perfect for busy nights and simple suppers connecting with friends and family.
My version combines the bold lemon and garlic flavors of scampi (like this quick and easy garlic shrimp) to toss with the bread and vegetables. And, if you’re in a hurry you can make it with store-bought pre-cooked shrimp.
Welcome to the Good and Good for You™ newsletter, a quick 5-minute read with ideas and info on ways to help improve your life – including a tasty and healthful recipe.
I’m chef and cookbook author Virginia Willis. I changed my life, lost a bunch of weight, but more importantly — gained immeasurable health. My philosophy is if you choose what’s Good and Good for You™ most of the time, you’re headed in the right direction.
This issue shares:
- Best Life Living Tip: Connecting Offline 🌎
- Self-Care Strategy: Read More. Scroll Less. 📘
- Ideas and Inspiration: All Shrimp Are Not the Same. 🦐
- Good and Good for You™ Recipe: Garlic Shrimp Panzanella 🥖
This Garlic Shrimp Panzanella is packed with lean protein, colorful vegetables, healthy olive oil, and fresh herbs, ingredients that nourish both our body and brain.
Read on for more — including this tasty recipe for Garlic Shrimp Panzanella.
Best Life Living Tip
Connecting Offline
Having a meal like this in your back pocket keeps cooking to a minimum so you can spend more time at the table than in the kitchen.
Research consistently shows that meaningful, face-to-face social interaction supports cognitive health, lowers stress, and may even help reduce the risk of cognitive decline.
This week Google Trends devoted an entire section people’s desire to connect offline. Here are a few of the searches:
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People searching for “how to make friends” over the past month were also searching for “book club near me,” and “how to host a book club meeting” and “how to start a book club with friends” were trending book club questions.
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Roller skating and pilates were the top trending “classes near me” searches over the past month, and “Spanish classes in person” was a breakout search.
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“community volunteer” hit a 10-year high in 2026, and “how to volunteer at animal shelters” was the top trending “how to volunteer” search in the past month.
Self-Care Strategy
Read More. Scroll Less.
We spend so much time thinking about what to eat for a healthy heart or stronger muscles that it’s easy to forget one of our most important organs: the brain.
The choices we make every day from what we put on our plates to how we spend our free time can help keep our minds sharp, our moods balanced, and our memories strong.
One of the best exercises for your brain is also one of the simplest: read.
Whether it’s a novel, biography, cookbook, or magazine, reading strengthens memory, improves focus, expands vocabulary, and challenges the brain to build new neural connections. (I’m pretty sure my very last book purchase will be a very quick read, but I could not pass up this Dolly Parton Golden Book!)
Trade just twenty minutes of scrolling for twenty minutes with a good book this week. Your brain and your stress level will thank you.
Ideas and Inspiration
Your Seafood Choices Matter
Shrimp is not just shrimp. There are over 300 kinds of shrimp. And, it matters how and where they are harvested.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch is the premier authority on sustainable seafood. (I’m a member of their Blue Ribbon Task Force, a group of chefs who advocate and educate concerning sustainable seafood.)
Shrimp buying guidelines click here.
When in doubt, look for shrimp certified by the following organizations:
- Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC)
- Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP)
- Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)
- Naturland
Make sure to follow @SeafoodWatch on instagram and check out their website at SeafoodWatch.org
Make it Count
This week’s Good and Good for You™ takeaway is challenge yourself to nourish your brain in more ways than one. Feed your body, mind, and spirit with colorful food, meaningful conversations, and moments away from your screen. Small daily choices can help keep your mind sharp for years to come.
- Eat colorful, whole foods.
- Move your body.
- Get enough sleep.
- Make time to connect with the people you love.
Thank you for reading. For more tips, inspiration, and healthy recipes, please follow @virginiawillis on Instagram.
Remember, if you choose what’s Good and Good for You™ most of the time, you’re headed in the right direction.
Bon Appétit, Y’all!
Virginia Willis 
Garlic Shrimp Panzanella
Ingredients
- 6 ounces baguette cut into 2-inch cubes, toasted
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes halved
- 1/2 Vidalia onion very thinly sliced
- 1 English cucumber quartered lengthwise and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 16 Castelvetrano olives
- Zest and juice 2 lemons
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 pound large shrimp peeled and deveined
- 4 cloves garlic very finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon coarse kosher salt or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper or to taste
- 1/2 cup basil leaves loosely packed
- 1/2 cup freshly chopped parsley
Instructions
- Place the bread in a large bowl. Add the tomatoes, onion, cucumber, olives, lemon zest and juice. Set aside.
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, turning once, until the shrimp are white and opaque, 3 to 5 minutes.
- Pour the shrimp with the oil and garlic over the salad. Add the basil leaves and parsley. Toss to combine and coat. Taste and adjust for seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve immediately or refrigerate to marinate for up to 4 hours and serve chilled.
Nutrition
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