Recipe: Shrimp Florentine with Roasted Garlic

November 4, 2012 By 1 Comment

Yesterday morning I ran in the Springmaid 5k. It was in my neighborhood, so I really couldn’t not do it. I’d been dreading it all week because I knew about the wicked hills on the golf course. I didn’t exactly rock it, but I survived and definitely feel more prepared for the Blue Talon 5k in Williamsburg on Thanksgiving day.

Pasta dishes are a great way to carb load before a race. This recipe from Cooking Light is great for when you want a satisfying meal, but still want to keep an eye on your calories. The original recipe has 484 calories per serving. I upped the amount of pasta a little (I do have 2 hungry teenagers to feed after all), but even still I’m sure the calorie count is substantially below 600 calories. Not too bad for a creamy, cheesy pasta dish.

Don’t let the amount of garlic scare you. Roasting the garlic totally mellows the flavor. You might want to buy prepeeled garlic cloves. Peeling 20 cloves of garlic is no ones idea of fun.

Shrimp Florentine with Roasted Garlic

  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 20 cloves garlic, peeled
  • cooking spray
  • 2 teaspoons olive oil
  • 1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
  • 1 teaspoon butter
  • 3/4 cup half-and-half
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth
  • 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 2 cups frozen, loose-leaf spinach, thawed, drained, and squeezed dry
  • 6 cups hot cooked linguine (about 10 ounces of uncooked pasta)
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Coat a cake pan with cooking spray, place garlic in pan, and sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally so garlic doesn’t get too browned in any one area.
  3. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add shrimp and cook 2-3 minutes, just until done. Remove shrimp from pan and set aside.
  4. Melt butter in skillet over medium heat. Add half-and-half, broth, cheese, 1/4 teaspoon salt, red pepper, and black pepper. Stir and cook for 1 minute, until cheese is melted. Stir in spinach and shrimp and cook 1 more minute.
  5. In a large bowl, combine pasta, garlic, and shrimp with sauce. (Note: Once cooked, I like to cut each garlic clove in half to help distribute the flavor more throughout the pasta.)

Yield: 4 servings

Recipe Source: Cooking Light March 2006

More Shrimp Pasta recipes

Linguine with Spicy Shrimp

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Recipe: Linguine with Spicy Shrimp

September 17, 2012 By 7 Comments

Whew! The weekend went by so fast and here we are already into the second half of September. The weather is cooling off some and it’s time to warm things up a bit with some spicy food. Linguine with Spicy Shrimp is a quick, easy meal that can be prepared after a busy day without too much trouble.

Shrimp only take a few minutes to cook and the sauce comes together in no time. Both the Cajun seasoning and the ground red pepper lend a good amount of spice to the dish.

This is a recipe that appeared in Cooking Light Magazine. How it made its way in there, with butter and half and half, I’m not sure. But I guess it is a “Light” version of a cream based pasta dish.

I’ve adapted the Cooking Light recipe a little to make a slightly larger yield for 4 servings. The original 1 1/4 cup servings may have worked for me, but they weren’t going to cut it with my hungry teenagers.

Linguine with Spicy Shrimp

  • 12 ounces uncooked linguine
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 1/2 cup diced onion
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 3 plum tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 1/4 pounds peeled and deveined medium shrimp
  • 2 teaspoons Cajun Seasoning
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2/3 cup half-and-half
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  1. Cook linguine according to package directions. Drain and keep warm.
  2. Melt butter over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Add onion and saute 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and tomatoes and saute 2 minutes, stirring continuously.
  3. Sprinkle shrimp with Cajun seasoning, red pepper, and salt. Add to pan and saute 3 minutes.
  4. Stir in half-and-half. Turn heat to low and cook several minutes, until mixture is warm and shrimp are cooked through. Pour mixture over pasta and sprinkle with parsley.

Yield: 4 servings

Linking up at Mandatory Mooch, Pamela’s Heavenly Treats, Mom on Timeout,

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Recipe: Mac and Cheese with Ham

June 21, 2012 By 2 Comments

Having a child cook a meal for you has to be one of the greatest things on earth. I have long hoped that my kids would take an interest in cooking. Last week, I was heartened when my daughter asked if she could cook macaroni and cheese for dinner.

One of the things I most love about my daughter is she always knows what she wants. “It has to be baked and I want it to have ham and breadcrumbs on top,” she explained. I helped her search through the mac and cheese recipes on myrecipes.com until she found the one she wanted. It only took a few minutes. She is quick and resolute in her decision-making (so unlike me). I can agonize for hours, days, even weeks over the simplest of decisions. Choose 1 thing and then shortly after think that I really wanted the other thing.

Hopefully Madison can pick up my love of cooking without my accompanying neurotic tendencies. Her mac and cheese was a resounding success and even better she says she wants to cook again Sunday night – Fried Rice with Broccoli and Peas. God Bless her for not needing to look at her pins on Pinterest for an hour before deciding what she wants to cook.

 

Mac and Cheese with Ham (adapted from myrecipes.com)

  • 1 pound elbow pasta, cooked and drained
  • 1/2 stick butter
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 4 cups milk
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded yellow sharp cheddar
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded white cheddar
  • 8 ounces ham, diced
  • 2 slices white bread, toasted
  • 1 tablespoon butter, melted
  • salt and pepper
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Melt butter in a large, heavy pot over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook for 1 minute. Add milk in a slow, steady stream whisking to keep from lumping.
  3. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until mixture is thick and bubbly. Whisk frequently during this time.
  4. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Reserve 3/4 cup of cheese and place remaining cheese in pot and stir until melted.
  5. Remove from heat and stir in cooked pasta and ham. Transfer to a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.
  6. Using hands, tear toast into bite sized pieces and mix with reserved cheese. Spread breadcrumb/cheese mixture on top of macaroni and drizzle with melted butter.
  7. Bake for 30 minutes.
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Lettuce Carry and Recipe for Bow Tie Lasagna

June 10, 2012 By 1 Comment

Fort Mill residents now have a new option when it comes to grocery shopping. Thanks to Lettuce Carry- The Store at Your Door, you no longer have to leave your house to get your groceries.

Lettuce Carry is a brand new privately owned online grocery store operating out of Pineville, NC. You won’t find quite as many products as at your local Harris Teeter or Bi-Lo, but they do have a nice selection of items, over 10,000, including local and organic choices for meat and produce, household items, and frozen foods. They also offer beer and wine but don’t deliver these products to the South Carolina Region.

Lettuce Carry operates out of a warehouse in Pineville near Westinghouse Blvd and they are able to use I-77 and 485 for easy access to a good portion of Charlotte and Northern York County. Low overhead enables them to offer prices 6-8% off of regular store prices. Next day delivery is free on orders of $25 and over. All you need to do is pick a 2-hour window for delivery and have someone at home to sign for the groceries. Teenage kids I have found come in handy for this. Plus you can then get them to put the groceries away too, further saving time.

Expedited delivery (within 2 hours) is available for a $10 fee. No minimum required.

You may find that Lettuce Carry doesn’t carry all of your favorite brands and products, but for something that saves me the time and energy of making a trip to the store, I can be a little flexible regarding the brands of products I use. They are also good about customer input and aim to please so if there’s a product you’d like to see them carry, chances are good they’ll make every effort to add it to their inventory.

The produce I’ve ordered so far has been the same or better quality as the produce I pick out at the store.

Another great thing about Lettuce Carry- No More Impulse Buys. Plus they bring the groceries all the way to your door. No more unloading groceries from the car.

Currently Lettuce carry does not accept coupons or put items on sale. Take a look through their website and you will find the vast majority of items are very competitively priced.

Click here for Lettuce Carry’s website.

Below is a nice, quick easy recipe for lasagna cooked in a skillet that I made completely with groceries from my Lettuce Carry order last week. This recipe is so much easier than cooking a layered lasagna in the oven, but it’s just as tasty. It’s so simple, I’m thinking of teaching my kids how to make it.

 

Bow Tie Lasagna

  • 1 pound ground chuck
  • 1 box bow tie noodles
  • 3 cups spaghetti sauce
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella
  • 1/2 cup Sour Cream
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  1. Brown ground beef in a large nonstick skillet. Use a wooden spoon to crumble the beef while it cooks. Once it is browned, drain off most of the grease. Season with 1/4 teaspoon salt.
  2. Cook pasta according to package directions.
  3. Add pasta, spaghetti sauce, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, mozzarella, Sour CReam, and black pepper to skillet. Stir to combine and heat over low heat for about 5 minutes to melt the cheese.

Yield: 6-8 servings

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Recipe: Lasagna Rolls with Spinach

April 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I’ve been in a cooking dinner slump. Ever been in one of those? I think I’ve only cooked about 2 dinners in the last three weeks. Of course we were out-of-town for one of those weeks. But still, those are horrible numbers for me. When I need inspiration to cook dinner I often read through some cooking blogs. Recently I came across this lasagna roll recipe on The Captivating Life Blog. I’m pretty sure I’ve cooked lasagna rolls before, but I know it’s been a long long time. I like the addition of spinach, which I didn’t even taste, and apparently my kids didn’t either because they didn’t complain. Maybe I’ve finally convinced them that anything green in pasta is parsley.

Making lasagna in the form of rolls is a really good way to control your portions. Because I know that when I cook a big tray of lasagna, I can always convince myself that I really didn’t cut myself a very big piece so it will be alright if I have seconds. And that seconds was really just a little sliver, so maybe it wouldn’t be too bad if I had thirds.

I changed the recipe slightly, using cottage cheese instead of ricotta.

Lasagna Rolls with SpinachI guess my rolls turned out a little more like pancakes.

Lasagna Rolls with Spinach (slightly adapted from The Captivating Life)

  • 1 pound of ground beef
  • 1/2 yellow onion, diced
  • 2 garlic clove, diced
  • 2 (15-ounce cans tomato sauce)
  • 1+ tablespoons Italian Seasoning
  • 8 lasagna noodles
  • 1 (16-ounce) container cottage cheese
  • 1 egg
  • 2 cups finely chopped fresh spinach
  • 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
  • 2 cups shredded mozzarella
  • salt and pepper
  1. Brown ground beef in a large nonstick skillet. When it is mostly browned, add onion and garlic and continue to cook for several more minutes, until onion is softened. Add tomato sauce and Italian seasoning and simmer for 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
  2. Bring a pot of water to boil and cook lasagna according to package directions. (Add some salt to the water for flavor, but no oil)
  3. Mix cottage cheese, egg, and spinach in a medium bowl and season with salt and pepper.
  4. Once noodles are cook, lay them out to cool slightly and then spread 1/8 of the cheese mixture along each noodle.
  5. Top the cheese mixture with a little meat sauce, but leave the majority of the sauce to pour on top of the rolls.
  6. Starting at one end, roll each lasagna noodle up. Pour sauce on top and grate 1-2 tablespoons of Parmesan Cheese on top.
  7. Top with mozzarella and back in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Yield: 4 servings

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