With the feasting of Christmas behind us it’s time to get back on the wagon, the cooking wagon that is. I don’t know about you, but for our family the last two weeks have meant parties with friends, family parties and eating out. It’s hard to get back into the routine of meal planning and cooking “real” food. With today being the first day back at work and school this seemed as good a time as any to start.
For our first meal back in the saddle I decided to make shrimp scampi and pasta. I want to use this meal as an example of how easy it is to cook from scratch using whole fresh ingredients. Sam’s Club sells boxed shrimp scampi that is loaded with fat, corn syrup solids and other things I cannot pronounce. It involves sautéing the shrimp and tossing with your cooked pasta. To make the “real food” version I used thawed peeled and deveined shrimp, jumbo size about 25-30 count per pound. I sautéed the shrimp in olive oil then removed to a plate. Tossed about four cloves of minced garlic into the pan that I sautéed the shrimp in and sautéed for about two minutes. Once the garlic is fragrant and starting to get golden add red pepper flakes, white wine and butter. Let this sauté for another two or three minutes and add shrimp back in. Pour the shrimp mixture over cooked angel hair pasta and serve. This took only about ten minutes total to prepare and I know what is in it, shrimp, olive oil, butter, red pepper, garlic, salt and pepper and white wine. The cost for the entire meal was probably about $10 (including a salad with organic greens) and it fed a family of five with leftovers. I am bringing up the cost to prove that it doesn’t cost more to use “real” ingredients rather than a prepared box. The box version was bout $12. The shrimp, which was about $12 and I used about half. I always have butter, garlic, and red pepper in the pantry and the white wine was left from another recipe.
You can enjoy a meal of “real” food with ingredients you can pronounce for little time and little money. I am back on the wagon again!
For our first meal back in the saddle I decided to make shrimp scampi and pasta. I want to use this meal as an example of how easy it is to cook from scratch using whole fresh ingredients. Sam’s Club sells boxed shrimp scampi that is loaded with fat, corn syrup solids and other things I cannot pronounce. It involves sautéing the shrimp and tossing with your cooked pasta. To make the “real food” version I used thawed peeled and deveined shrimp, jumbo size about 25-30 count per pound. I sautéed the shrimp in olive oil then removed to a plate. Tossed about four cloves of minced garlic into the pan that I sautéed the shrimp in and sautéed for about two minutes. Once the garlic is fragrant and starting to get golden add red pepper flakes, white wine and butter. Let this sauté for another two or three minutes and add shrimp back in. Pour the shrimp mixture over cooked angel hair pasta and serve. This took only about ten minutes total to prepare and I know what is in it, shrimp, olive oil, butter, red pepper, garlic, salt and pepper and white wine. The cost for the entire meal was probably about $10 (including a salad with organic greens) and it fed a family of five with leftovers. I am bringing up the cost to prove that it doesn’t cost more to use “real” ingredients rather than a prepared box. The box version was bout $12. The shrimp, which was about $12 and I used about half. I always have butter, garlic, and red pepper in the pantry and the white wine was left from another recipe.
You can enjoy a meal of “real” food with ingredients you can pronounce for little time and little money. I am back on the wagon again!
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