Angry Shrimp

Ingredients:

• 6 ounces fresh linguine 
• 1tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pound raw large shrimp, peeled and deveined 
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained

Preparation:

1. Cook pasta according to the package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain and keep warm.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add onion, minced garlic, basil, and crushed red pepper to pan; sauté 1 minute. 
3. Add tomato paste and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Cook 3 minutes or just until sauce begins to thicken. 
4. Sprinkle shrimp with salt; add shrimp to pan.  Cook until shrimp are done (about 8 minutes, flipping after 4 minutes).
5. Serve over pasta.

 Makes 3 servings (1 serving=1c. pasta and 1c. shrimp mixture).

 6 WW points+

Sicilian Rice Casserole

* 2 cups uncooked long grain rice
* 2 garlic and cheese flavored sausage links, casing removed
* 1 lb) 93% lean ground turkey
* 1 onion, chopped
* 5 oz frozen peas
* 16 oz tomato sauce (I used Classico Roasted Garlic)
* 2 eggs
* 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
* 4 tbsp seasoned breadcrumbs, divided
* 2 cup shredded part skim mozzarella


Cook rice in water according to package directions. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, sauté sausage meat; cook until brown. Add turkey and onions and cook until browned. Add peas and 8 oz tomato sauce and simmer on low, covered, about 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400°. In a large bowl combine rice, parmesan, eggs, and 4 oz tomato sauce and mix well. Rice will be a bit sticky.

Spray a 9 x 13 casserole dish with cooking spray, making sure to spray sides too. Add 2 tbsp breadcrumbs to the dish and roll around to coat the bottom and sides.

Take half of the rice mixture (a little more if needed) and cover the bottom of the dish and up the sides; press to form the bottom layer.

Layer the meat mixture on top.

Sprinkle mozzarella on top. Top with remaining rice and press until even. Top with remaining 4 oz of sauce, remaining 2 tbsp breadcrumbs, and remaining mozzarella.

Cover with foil and bake 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake 10 more minutes. Cut into 16 pieces.

I'm back!

So, no posts because for the first 5 months of my pregnancy, I have been just too exhausted to cook. Although I am still tired on school nights, I am finally at the point that I can muster up the energy to cook a real dinner on the weekend. Tonight I made my husband incredibly happy by making his favorite: Chicken Parmesan.

Chicken Parmesan

Flour
2 eggs
Breadcrumbs
Parmesan Cheese
2 T olive oil
2 T margarine or butter
1 lb thin-sliced chicken breast (or you can save money by buying regular chicken
breasts and pounding them yourself. You want them to be about 1/4" thick.)
1 jar of your favorite sauce (I used Classico Roasted Garlic)
8 oz bag of Italian blend cheese (I usually use Sargento, but this time had to use
Kraft)
Pasta of your choice

1. In 3 different plates or shallow bowls place one of the following: flour, 2 eggs (beaten), and breadcrumbs mixed with parmesan cheese.
2. Heat a large skillet with about 2 T olive oil and 2 T margarine.
3. For each piece of chicken: dredge in flour, then eggs, then breadcrumbs and place in skillet. Turn after about 1 minute. After another minute, remove from the pan. (We are not trying to cook them all the way through, just brown up the outside).
4. Spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of a 13 X 9 baking dish. Place chicken in dish. Top with remaining sauce (I usually put just a little bit aside for Jim's pasta, then put the rest of the sauce on the chicken). Top with cheese. Cover with aluminum foil (make sure the aluminum foil is not touching the cheese).
5. Bake in 350 oven for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for 10 more minutes.

You can make your pasta while the chicken is baking. I used the Ronzoni Garden Pasta, which has a full serving of veggies in each serving of pasta.

Enjoy!

First Dinner in a New Home

This weekend I moved into a new house (yay!) so I haven't made dinner in a few nights (and if fact the last dinner I made, I burned - whoops!). So tonight was the first dinner I made in my new kitchen. Step one: dig out the kitchen, which was buried in boxes of stuff. Then I made a simple but yummy meal. I made some gemelli pasta and put some frozen meatballs in a jar sauce to heat. As a housewarming gift, my in-laws had given me bread and wine. I wanted to use the bread tonight, but when I cut it I noticed it had started to get hard, so I sliced it, put slices of garlic and herb cheese on some, margarine on some, and garlic oil on some, then put them all under the broiler for about 7 minutes. This was a delicious and easy Italian meal (I'm sure true Italians wouldn't appreciate my describing it that way, but oh well).