Back At It For A Bit (Part 1)

Well, I'm back to writing, not so much cooking. Last week, with it being Thanksgiving and TS and I were in Omaha with TS's family I didn't do much cooking. However, when I came home on Sunday all I wanted was a good dinner. I made my easy shrimp and pasta on Sunday. Monday, all I wanted was fish, again. I made tilapia. Tuesday, I babysat my neighbor's two boys and ate pizza with them. Tonight I helped TS put prepared food from Kowalski's in the oven. That, in a nutshell is what I have eaten this week. Here are the recipes. The recipes will be posted in a series of posts.

First, I cannot believe I have not put my shrimp and pasta recipe up here. This is my go to, quick, easy dinner that I make when I cannot think of what to make. This recipe evolved from a chicken and pasta recipe I used to make for myself when I was in law school. I have moved on to shrimp, but the base recipe is the same. You make shrimp, pasta and whatever frozen vegetable you have and mix it all together with tomato sauce. Well, that is the base recipe. Here is how I made shrimp and pasta on Monday night:

Shrimp and Pasta

18 frozen shrimp (large)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 onion, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 tsp olive oil
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp basil
1 c. chopped frozen broccoli
1/2 c. tomato sauce (I think I mentioned earlier I use Newman's Organic Tomato Basil)
1 package gnocchi

1. Set the water for the gnocchi to boil
2. while the water is heating up, put the olive oil, garlic, and onion in a large pan and cook for 2 mins stirring constantly
3. Then add the green pepper, cayenne pepper, basil and broccoli to the pan and cook
4. put the gnocchi in the pot, once the water starts to boil, and cook until all the gnocchi floats to the top. Simultaneously, to putting the gnocchi in the pot, put the shrimp into the pan with the broccoli. Cook the shrimp until it is all pink
5. Once the gnocchi has cooked, drain out all the water except about 1/2 c. Add the 1/2 c. of pasta water and the gnocchi to the pan with the shrimp
6. Add pasta sauce to the pan, stir all ingredients together and cook for 2 mins.
7. Serve with fresh parmeasan cheese if you desire.

The whole meal takes no more than 20 mins to cook and it is healthy. It is a staple in my house. Healthy staples are always good. So... Here's go good healthy, quick eating!