Spicy Shrimp Pasta

This is one of my favorite types of meals for three reasons. The first is because I'm such a huge seafood lover! And especially with shrimp because I'll eat it however it's brought to me. The second is that I love pasta in tomato sauces. I'm pretty sure I could eat spaghetti every other day and be perfectly happy. The third reason is that I love spicy foods. Every now and then I'll challenge my pallet with some habanero wings or really spicy salsa, but I much prefer the types of foods that make you say "Hey! That has a good kick to it!"  And this meal delivers on that. In fact, it delivers on all three of these things. The pasta and shrimp are in a creamy tomato sauce that has just the right amount of heat and is really full of flavor.

What You'll Need:

1/2 pound of linguini or spaghetti

1/2 pound of shrimp

3 Tablespoons of butter

1/2 of a large onion (copped)

4 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)

1 14 oz. can of diced tomatoes (drained)

1/2 cup of dry white wine

4 oz. of tomato sauce (half of the little can)

1 cup of heavy cream

1 packet of dried peppers (like the kind that come with pizza)

dried oregano

dried basil

garlic powder

salt and pepper to taste

1. Start by boiling your water with a couple tablespoons of salt. Nothing is worse than forgetting that you still have to cook your pasta when your sauce is almost ready. Am I right?

2. If you're using fresh shrimp then I recommend peeling, deveining, and washing it before you get your sauce ready just so things will run more efficiently later on. I used frozen pre-cooked shrimp so I defrosted them by running them under warm water and taking off the tails.

*Frozen shrimp is a really easy way to add protein to your meals. They're easy to prep and you can use however much you like for any dish and put the rest back in the freezer.

3. To start the sauce, melt the butter in a medium sized pot or wide pan. Add the onion and saute for a few minutes then add the garlic with a dash of salt and cook for another minute so the garlic doesn't burn.

4. I have found this is the best time to add the pepper flakes. If you like really spicy foods then I would say two packets definitely the way to go. I like to taste it at this point and see what it needs. Just let the seeds let out some of the oils over medium heat. Right when things are getting spicy (and everything is, trust me) add the wine and let it cook off. 

**It's always a good idea to save those little pepper packets that you get when you order pizza (admittedly we have quite a few). Open them and add them to a shaker for easy access or store them in the packets and you have an easy way to add a little spice to any pasta, chicken, or casserole dish!

5. Now, add the canned tomatoes and the tomato sauce to the onions. I only used half of the small can of tomato sauce to compensate for the drained tomato juice but if you like a more "tomtoey" flavor go ahead and add more.

6. Add the cream and carefully stir it all together; letting it simmer on a medium-high heat.

7. As the ingredients are starting to come together, add the other seasonings.  Some days things just need more oregano or pepper than other days so it really depends on how much you like those flavors. Also, if you only used one packet (or a dash) of pepper flakes and want it spicier then you can still add more at this point. The spiciness will be slightly more mild, but still as delicious.

8. Now for the fun stuff! Add the shrimp to the sauce and let it cook or heat up. It'll only take a few minutes.

 

9. Drain your pasta and plate immediately onto giant pasta plates (or regular pasta plates if you're not obsessed like I am). Use a ladle to spoon the spicy shrimp tomato sauce onto the pasta. Top with some parmesan cheese.

10. Serve with a glass of wine and ENJOY!

Vegetable Soup

I made this soup right before the chaos holidays started because the weather definitely called for it. The weather has progressively gotten worse and it's made me think this is the perfect time to share my soup recipe. I started making veggie soup as a way to get one of my favorite meals without all of the extra garbage that comes in the canned soups. I have wanted no part of the condensed, salty, unfilling soup that I used to love - especially when I figured out the secret. The veggie soup I make is really easy and, as far as soups go, doesn't take too long. It's adapted this soup from a Zucchini and Potato Tomato Soup recipe from The Little Kitchen food blog. I've made some changes to fit what I like in soup but I'll always be glad I found this recipe.

What You'll Need:

1/2 pound of small noodles (ex. mini conchiglie)

1 1/2 Tablespoons of olive oil

1/2 diced white onion

3-4 medium sized potatoes (peeled and chopped)

2 zucchinis (quartered)

14 oz. can of diced tomatoes (with juice)

2 15 oz. cans of chicken broth

1 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder

2 Tablespoons of dried oregano 

1 Tablespoon of dried basil 

1 can of whole kernel corn (drained)

Salt to taste

1. Start your pasta water. It's the worst to forget about this part so it's best to get it out of the way.

2. Add the olive oil to a large pot on medium heat then add the diced onions and stir occasionally. As these are cooking dice your peeled potatoes into small chunks. Remember that they'll cook better if they are the same size.

3. Once you add the potatoes, make sure to stir them constantly. All of the starch will make them stick so keep an eye on them while you cut the zucchini. For the zucchini, start by cutting of the ends, then slice the zucchini long way so you have two halves. Then cut those halves to get quarters. I suppose you could dice them so they would be the same size as the diced potatoes but I they do tend to get pretty soft by the end of the cooking process and you don't want zucchini mush in your soup. Unless you do of course. You're better of making sure everything is cut even. 

4. Add the zucchini to the potatoes and onions and let cook for about three minutes. 

5. Now is the time where this goes from cooking some garden veggies to really making it a delicious soup! Add your can of tomatoes and let them incorporate with the other veggies for a minute or two - just long enough for you to get your herbs and do the "revival" method. This is just the part where I put the dried herbs in the palm of my hand and rub my palms together so that it really wakes of the flavors of the herbs and they don't taste like they've been sitting in a plastic container in your cabinet for far too long. 

6. Stir everything and make sure all of the herbs are good to go. 

7. Add your chicken broth and let it come to a boil. Turn the heat to medium-low and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Carefully taste the broth and see if it needs any more seasonings.

8. At this point your pasta is probably ready or close to it. Make sure to drain AND rinse it. The potatoes are starchy enough to thicken everything and pasta starch isn't necessary. FYI this is the pasta I used. I use a lot of products from this brand and I love it. I didn't even know they made this size bag until I went looking for something to add to this soup. I think it was 80 cents. Not bad huh?

9. After about 15 minutes the potatoes should be fairly soft. If you taste them be really careful! Those suckers are hot! Add the corn (drained) and the pasta. Add any salt and pepper to taste. That's it. You'll either have enough to feed four or enough for two meals for two. I like to serve this with my no-knead white bread but it doesn't need it. I hope you enjoy!

Cioppino

 If you live in California you know that we've had some of the sunniest weather during winter that we've had in a long time. I hear it's finally suppose to rain (which means snow in the mountains and possibly a future day trip *fingers crossed*) but until then we've been making-do with the sun during the day and the iciness at night! One of the things I couldn't wait for this winter was the opportunity to make soups, or in my case some Cioppino. I couldn't have picked a more suiting night because both of our colds started the night of making it, after that we were out of it for about a week. The soup was hearty, warm, and really really delicious and full of amazing seafood. You're sold right? Good! :)

We've made this before so I was able to make everything pretty quickly. The hardest part is not constantly tasting it while it's cooking.

What You'll Need:

Crab meat

1/2 p shrimp

1/2 p mussels

1/2 p small scallops

1/2 C olive oil

1 Tbsp garlic

1/2 of an onion

14 oz diced canned tomatoes

1 C of seafood broth

1 C of white or red wine

Parsley

3 to 6 oz of tomato paste

Fresh basil

diced chile pepper or cayenne pepper

Linguini or other thin pasta (optional)

Clam juice

We went to Whole Foods to get the mussels because I've never had a bad piece of seafood from them. But the best thing about this dish is that you can use whatever seafood you love, whatever is in season, or whatever you already have. It's a dish that has a lot of variations, would you expect any different from a dish that originated in San Francisco?

Cooking mussels is something that I had never done before making this dish but it's really easy now. Start by putting a small amount of water in a pot large enough to hold all of the mussels and keep it on low heat. After about 5 minutes the steam is going to allow the mussels to open. I only had to discard two because they didn't open, all the other ones opened and looked amazing. When you're done with this liquid strain it into a cup so you can use it later on. If the broth didn't make a cup you can add oyster juice to get it to a cup.

I cooked all of the shrimp and scallops the same way - in a small of amount of hot water because I had some bags of frozen, already cooked shrimp and scallops so they only needed to be defrosted. I checked them constantly to to make sure they weren't frozen so I could remove them from the heat as soon as possible. I knew that I'd be putting them in the hot soup later on so I didn't want them to over-cook. 

I ended up getting my seafood ready before I actually started making the Cioppino because I was in the middle of doing laundry. You could definitely get the shrimp and scallops ready early in the day and just store them in a zip lock bag in the fridge. I would wait to do the mussels though. I just think the longer they stay closed and cold, the better.

When you start the rest of the Cioppino then chop up your onion and saute it with some olive oil. When they start to get soft, add the chopped garlic and the chile pepper or cayenne. When I use a pepper then I leave them in halves so they're easier to take out after.... one of us doesn't always like the heat... If you're using cayenne then just add a little here because you'll be adding more later on.

When everything is cooked, add the canned tomato, the mussel broth, wine, and tomato paste. If you're using white wine I suggest more tomato paste (3 oz.) but less if using red. For this batch I used red, which is delicious but white wine will always have my heart (and therefore always be stocked in my fridge). This is also when you can taste it and see what it needs. I added the basil, parsley, salt and pepper. I also added some more cayenne because I wanted a little more kick. Let this cook for 20 minutes. Oh and don't forget that if you're adding pasta, you should cook it now too.

When the sauce has gotten thicker then add the seafood so that can heat up and absorb some of the flavor.

While everything is heating up cut a loaf of french or sourdough bread. I prefer sourdough but I'm a native Californian so it I just think it goes with everything. Any kind of "crusty" rustic bread will work - you just need it to soak up all of the awesome broth!

Once everything is warmed up and the noodles are done, you can either add the noodles to the pot or plate them first then use a ladle to spoon everything over the pasta. 

The Cioppino is a little spicy but full of seafood, tomatoes and a really rich broth that has the most amazing seafood taste. Mike loves this meal and was so happy when he came home from work and found it ready. And I don't blame him. This with a glass of wine deserves a big cheers! So CHEERS my fellow foodies! Enjoy!

Chicken Stir Fry... And Top Ramen

Hello everyone, I'm back! I've been on a hiatus for the past 2 weeks, working on a big paper and making Halloween cakes for work. Ugh - I've already talked too much about work and school in this post. Food! Just because I've been super busy, doesn't mean I haven't been cooking, actually I have a whole list of things I need to blog. Today's post comes from one of those nights where you know you have to eat so if you're going to cook, you might as well put in some good effort - but not too much of course.

My chicken stir fry, that I sometimes replace with beef, is one of my favorite go-to meals because you can't really mess it up. As I'm sure you know, you can add whatever veggies you have with whatever proteins you have and you're going to end up with a pretty rockin' meal. The best part? There's only 5 ingredients in mine.

What You'll Need:

2 chicken breasts

2 zucchini 

1 onion

6 small mushrooms

1 packet of Ramen noodles (go with me on this)

Start by cutting your chicken breasts into 2 inch bite-size pieces. Put a little olive oil in hot skillet and add the chicken. I only added a little seasoning (Season All and garlic powder) to my chicken because I had some great veggies that I wanted to come through.

While the chicken is cooking, cut your zucchini, onions and mushrooms in rather large pieces. There's about a zillion different types of veggies you could use but my personal goal was to not go to the grocery store for this one meal and use only what I had at home. I think at the time, these were the only 3 types I had in my whole apartment.

When the chicken is done, put it aside. You're going to add to the skillet again at the end so you don't have to keep it warm. 

Put your zucchini in the hot skillet with a little more olive oil. When they soften up a bit, but they're not fully cooked, add the onions.

When the onions start to become translucent add your mushrooms. These need the least amount of time to cook. I've found that when mushrooms are with other veggies that intensify in flavor as they're cooked (like onions and zucchini), mushrooms don't stand out. They definitely taste more like mushrooms if there's still a little bite to them. Honestly, at this point I could have eaten the veggies just like this!

Now comes my little secret ingredient. I like some pasta or rice with my stir fries but I usually use a thin spaghetti noodle. The problem was that I only had enough spaghetti for a spaghetti dinner (which is another go-to for us) I didn't want to "waste" it on this....especially when I had Top Ramen in the pantry. It's the easiest cheat pasta to go to. You put it in a bowl, cover it with water, and put it in the microwave for two minutes (without the seasoning).

Add the cooked chicken back to the veggies 

Then add all of the noodles to the skillet and use a fork to break them up. I wouldn't recommend using the seasoning packets for any flavoring because I'm not really sure what's in it and I recommend just staying away... 

I meant it when I said I didn't plan on buying anything extra for this meal - if you know me, you know I'm serious about my personal food challenges.

So this is what I ended up with. The veggies play just as much of a part in the meal as the chicken and noodles. This might be my girl math, but this has to be pretty healthy if there's that many vegetables in it. Right? (Just tell me yes...) Overall this is super simple to make and packed full of natural flavor. Enjoy!

Pesto Pasta with Scallops

This meal is one of our favorites! I make this quite a bit and always change it up. I usually use a long stringy pasta and shrimp, but this time I made it with pasta shells (conchiglie) and scallops. This is a great one-pan meal, the kind of meal where you just keep layering flavor to a plan then serve hot. Deliciousness!

What You'll Need:

1/2 pound of pasta

2 1/2 T butter

1 1/2 T flour

1 1/2 C milk

1/2 C heavy cream

2 T pesto

3 cloves of garlic

2 T Parmesan cheese

1/2 tsp pepper

1 pound of seafood

Broccoli or Asparagus 

Start by getting your water boiling. There's only two of us so I only used half a box of pasta. As far as pasta is concerned I'd have to say shells are the best for this sauce. This was the first time I used them but because of the shape, they held sauce the best. I don't think I'll ever use another type of pasta.

Start the sauce by making a roux. Do this by letting your butter melt in a hot pan then adding the flour when it's melted. Let it get a golden color.

When the roux is done pour in your milk and cream. Keep it on low heat to let the liquids thicken up a little. I know, I know, I'm not suppose to use cream because of fat or whatever... ehhh...

While the liquid is thickening run your seafood (scallops in this case) under water to defrost them. I love frozen seafood because you can buy it once and have it ready to add to anything you want. As for my vegetables I like broccoli and asparagus for this dish, but it's just a matter of what I have in my freezer or refrigerator. This time I had asparagus in those easy steam bags - 3 minutes and they're done. The kind of veggies I usually have range from fresh organic to frozen organic to cheap frozen. All of it works for me - and this dish, so work with what you got.

By now your sauce should be a little thicker so you can add your pesto, garlic, cheese, pepper and salt to taste. It's really hard to mess up the ratio because everything really goes together.

When that's mixed, add your scallops. Again, shrimp rocks in this too but scallops were on sale. You know how that goes.

Add your pasta to the sauce...

Then add the asparagus....and stir.

   

I threw some Texas Toast in the oven for 5 minutes and had an amazing dinner.  

This meal is so creamy! Seafood is perfect in this dish because it adds a pop of freshness in the rich sauce. It's one of those meals where you keep on eating even after you're full. If you ask me, those are the best kinds of meals! Enjoy!   

Linguine and Clams

So this one is really Mikey's special. Today (or more like on the 4th) we decided to do clams and linguine rather than another attempt at linguine and shrimp- which was equally as awesome. Anyway, the cost for this meal was literally only $2.00. We had everything we needed in the pantry so all we had to buy was mushrooms and half and half. We used fresh mushrooms instead of canned and canned clams instead of fresh. Why? Because it was cheaper. We cut the original (family) recipe in half for the two of us but we agreed that next time we wouldn't. The recipe below is the halved version but next time we would double it and use 3/4 pounds of pasta instead because we like a little more sauce for this dish and basically because it was just more for us to eat...

What You'll Need:

1 (or 2) can of chopped clams

1/2 pound linguine

1/2 T minced garlic

1/2 T dried basil

1/4 t oregano

1/8 t garlic powder

2 T butter

2 T olive oil

1/8 C white wine

1/8 C half and half

6 mushrooms

1/2 T cornstarch if needed

salt and pepper to taste

First we usually do the prep. Today, this meant washing and cutting mushrooms. One of the things we've trained ourselves to do right away is start the pasta water. There's nothing worse than being in the middle of cooking and realizing you still have to wait for the pasta because you forgot. So, we did that right after we cut the mushrooms.

Next we got a large pan, the one we use for pretty much everything, to saute the mushrooms in.

Butter. Mushrooms. Two items and it already smelled amazing. So, add the butter and oil to the hot pan then add the mushrooms. Now is also the best time to start the water for the pasta. Add salt to the water to help the process along.

When the mushrooms look glossy and start to shrink add the garlic. Let that heat through until it smells even more amazing then add the herbs. Turn the heat to low and just let everything heat through together. The mushrooms should be dark now and pretty soft.

Soon after this, the water should be boiling. Add the pasta to it when it is.

Now the mushrooms are ready for a little clams and alcohol. Open the clams and pour both clams and juice into pan and bring to a simmer. Next add wine, half and half, and garlic powder. Cover and simmer 5 to 10 minutes.

Don't forget about the water. When its boiling drain it but don't rinse it.

The sauce is suppose to be thick enough to really cover the noodles. Three things can fix a runny sauce. One is adding the noodles to the sauce so the starch thickens it, another is to let the sauce sit on a low heat for a couple minutes without stirring, or the third is to mix cornstarch into some wine or half and half and pour and stir into the sauce (which is what we did). Cover and simmer an additional 5 minutes.

When the sauce is the right consistency, fold the linguine into the sauce on low heat and mix well.

Enjoy!