Quick Fix: Spaghetti with Lemon Garlic Shrimp

Today's recipe is not only a Quick Fix, it's also what I call a Friday Night Fix - and it's one of my favorite things to make when I find myself home alone on a Friday night when Steven's playing poker with the guys.  It's comforting, satisfying and super quick to make.  It's great hot or cold too so it's a multi-seasonal dish.  Grill the shrimp outdoors in the summer, if you like!  You can make this dish start to finish in just a little more time than it takes to boil the water and cook the pasta.

This is a very versatile recipe.  You can easily use more pasta and shrimp to prepare more servings and it would be a lovely addition for a small dinner party - reduce the portions and serve it as a first course to keep it simple and affordable.  Steven doesn't really care to eat shrimp, so if I make it when he's home, I simply put half of the pasta in a dish for him and top it with a bit more Extra Virgin Olive Oil, some fresh cracked pepper and some Parmesan cheese - delicious!

Spaghetti with Lemon Garlic Shrimp

serves 1-2

4 oz Spaghetti

8 oz EZ Peel Shrimp (I like a lot of shrimp)

1 Lemon

1 Clove Garlic

1 TBLS Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

Ciao!

Creamy Mushroom and Pesto Pasta with Spinach

Do you ever have those nights when all you want is to plunk down in front of the TV (in your pjs or yoga pants and night shirt) with a bowl of tasty, comforting pasta and your favorite program or movie?  Confession:  I've been having a lot of these nights lately.  There's something about starting a new job, no matter how much you like it, no matter how great your coworkers are, and no matter how capable you are of completing the tasks of said new position that is stressful and exhausting.  Now double that by purchasing a business and doing both at the same time.

Hence, this pasta:

My husband and I liked this pasta so much, I made it twice in the same week!  It's earthy, creamy, hearty and extremely tasty.  It's great for a Meatless Monday meal, or if you're just a huge fan of mushrooms (like me).

Put some salted water on to boil for your pasta.  Then slice up some mushrooms,

Scallions...

Spinach (try to get baby spinach, if the leaves are small enough, you won't even need to chop them)...

And Parsley.  With any luck, your water is boiling and you can drop your pasta now.  If not, wait until you drop the pasta to heat up your skillet and start sauteeing.  Once you have dropped your pasta:

Throw the mushrooms in a skillet and sautee them for a couple of minutes...

Next, add the scallions to the skillet...

Saute these together for just a couple of minutes, when the mushrooms start to carmelize, season the whole shebang with a bit of salt and pepper, then add the spinach...

Sprinkle just a bit more salt on the spinach, then just let it hang out.  When it starts to wilt, give it a stir.

Once the spinach has cooked down a bit, add 4 oz. of Neufchatel Cheese (or other low-fat cream cheese) and half of a 7 oz. container of pesto.

Let everything hang out for a couple minutes to give the cheese a chance to melt a bit, then stir it all together. Your pasta should be ready now.  You can either drain it, first reserving about a cup of the pasta water or you can use a spider to transfer the pasta directly to the skillet (I love my spider for this!).

Add pasta water as needed to make a sauce, stir everything together and let it cook together for just a couple minutes.

Add some chopped fresh parsley and serve!

The best part of this dish, is it only takes as long to make as it takes to boil the water and cook the pasta.  YUM!

Creamy Mushroom & Pesto Pasta with Spinach

1 lb Bow Tie Pasta
4 oz. Nuefchatel Cheese (or low-fat cream cheese)
3.5 oz. Pesto (I like the kind you get in the fresh pasta aisle)
4-6 Mushrooms, sliced
3-5 Scallions, chopped
2 cups Spinach, chopped
2 Tbls Fresh Parsley, chopped
Salt & Pepper, to taste
2 TBLS Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4-1/2 cup Pasta Water

Put a large pot of salted water on  to boil.  Cook pasta to just shy of al-dente.

Preheat olive oil in a skillet.  Add mushroom, saute a couple minutes, then add scallions and sprinkle with salt.  Once mushrooms start to carmelize, add spinach, sprinkling a little salt on the spinach.  Let the spinach sit in the pan and steam with the mushroom and scallions, until it starts to wilt, then stir it in.  Sautee about 2 minutes, then add cream cheese and pesto.  Once cheese starts to melt, stir it in with the vegetables.  Add the pasta and approximately 1/4 cup pasta water.  Stir everything together and let it all cook together about 2 minutes, add more pasta water, as needed to make a creamy sauce.  Sprinkle with fresh, chopped parsley and serve hot with crusty bread.

Trying Out New Recipes

There are so many recipes I want to share with you, but there are also so many new recipes I want to try. I don't know about you but I'm always on the lookout for something new to add to my repetoire that my family will love and that I won't have to spend hours preparing. So rather than making & photographing my own recipes, I've been trying out lots of new recipes. Here are just a few of the recipes I have tried out so far.

I've recently become addicted to watching Nigella Lawson on the Cooking Channel. I especially enjoy Nigella Express and on one of my trips to the library at the first of the year (I spend a lot of time at my local library) I found the cookbook of the same name. It's absolutely packed with recipes I want to try, so I sticky noted (yes, I really said "sticky noted", no I don't suspect that's an actual word) some of them to try right away. I really love Nigella's approach to cooking - very simple techniques, lots of one pot dishes, very quickly put together, and filled with fresh, quality ingredients that won't break the bank. So Tuesday night we tried out her Sweetcorn Chowder with Toasted Tortillas. It was so simple and so delicious. I don't have a food processer so I used my blender and some of the broth to get the consistency right, but it was, as I said so delicious!

Another Nigella Lawson recipe I tried recently is her and, to be perfectly honest, am already addicted to them. I have made so many batches already they're practically a staple in our pantry now. Amanda pointed out to me that we're out several weeks agot now so I really need to make some more.

Back in January or so, I listened to an audiobook of a favorite book series of mine - the Hannah Swensen Mysteries - maybe you've heard of them? The herione owns a cookie and coffee shop and the books are absolutely filled with recipes - and all the recipes I've tried so far have been absolute winners. Joanne Fluke is the author and I understand all the recipes that go into the book are thoroughly tested. Anyway, I was listening to Key Lime Pie Murder and a cookie called "Chippers" was included in the story. These cookies have potato chips in them - being a "crunchy/salty snacker" myself, I was intrigued, but since I didn't have a hard-copy of the book, I didn't try to copy the recipe. Then, I was reading one of my favorite blogs the other day - Smitten Kitchen - lo and behold, she posted a recipe for Potato Chip Cookies! Of course, I had to try them. They are buttery, shortbready (is that even a word?), cookies with toasted pecans as well as crushed up potato chips. You should hop on over to the Smitten Kitchen, grab the recipe and give it a test drive yourself! I have since wrangled a hard-copy of Key Lime Pie Murder and tried those out too. I have to admit, I like Joanne Fluke's recipe even better. Hers recipe calls for a couple of egg yolks in the dough - so they came together a bit better. In both cases the cookies come out crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside. I did use the Smitten Ktichen's method of rolling the whole dough ball in sugar before flattening - I like them that way very much. You end up with a lovely combination of sweet/salty/crunchy/chewy. Hard to believe, right!? But I am SOLD and wholly addicted to these gems!

Our 15 year old, Arynn, was cast in the production of Les Miserables at her high school this year. She had rehearsals 4 days a week until 6 or 7:00pm - which spells L-A-T-E D-I-N-N-E-R for us. So, one day, after making not just the Potato Chip cookies but also another batch of my signature cookies (I promise, I will post this recipe - someday) for a friend of the family, I decided we'd go with a simple dinner of pasta tossed in butter and parmigiano reggiano and that I'd use my bread machine to make some bread to go along with the pasta. I have a bread machine cookbook and so far the recipes I've tried from it have been pretty good so I decided to try a new recipe from that and chose the Italian Scallion and Herb Bread. It starts with chopped scallions, dried basil, thyme and rosemary sauteed in butter then added to the other ingredients in the bread machine. The photo in the book of this particular bread showed it cut into slender pieces and toasted - so we did the same and it made for a crusty, savory accompaniment to our pasta.

I have also finally gotten around to trying out some recipes I found on Pinterest, but I'll save those for separate posts - FOP (Found On Pinterest) - that I'll try to start posting on some sort of regular schedule TBD later. I'm sure there's more I should be sharing with you but I'll call it good for now and try to get some more posts up (and add photos) in the near future! Until then, Ciao!