Anniversary Dinner

Colossal butterflied shrimp, linguine in clam sauce, and garlic parmesan bread

     I cooked a nice dinner at home last night for Matt and I's anniversary.  I love seafood, as I have said many times before, and almost every time I want to cook something nice for dinner, the first thought in my mind is always shrimp.  Anytime we go out for dinner, I almost always order something with shrimp - scampi, in pasta, batter fried, I pretty much love it all.

Everything I made was from Trader Joe's grocery store

    
     Everything I cooked in this meal came from Trader Joe's which is the coolest grocery store in town.  I have only been there a couple times, but each time I do, I find new and fun things that I'm excited to try.  I love a lot of stuff that I get from that place, and the prices are decent too.  I ended up with a box of 15 colossal butterflied shrimp marinated in garlic and herbs, frozen linguini and clam sauce, and garlic and parmesan french bread.
    

Shrimp cooking in the oven

     The shrimp were incredibly easy to cook and tasted like something you'd get at a nice Italian restaurant.  They come with the shell on, and I have never cooked shelled shrimp before, but there are very simple instructions included on the box.  All you have to do is place the shrimp on a baking sheet and pop them in the oven for about 10 to 15 minutes.  When they come out, the shells will have turned red and the insides will be white.  I put a little butter on mine before I ate them and they were great.
    



Linguine "nests"

   
      The linguine came as a frozen package (one of my favorite things!) with the pasta and sauce together.  One nice thing about this package is that the noodles are frozen in little birds-nest looking things, which are separate from the sauce.  This allows it to cook more evenly, since all the noodles and sauce are not frozen into one giant clump.  It cooked really quickly too, about 7 or 8 minutes total.  Once again, all I did was follow the instructions on the bag.
     I served both of these with slices of a fresh garlic parmesan baguette, which went really well with the Italian seafood theme I went with.  Also served with a bottle of White Zinfindel which went so well with the food too.  All in all, the meal was great, and we had an amazing night for our anniversary.

Home-Made Mac & Cheese

Matt loves mac and cheese made with Velveeta.  I prefer the type from the box.  You know, add the cheese powder, milk, and butter, and you magically get cheese.  That's what I grew up on, and was my favorite food for most of my life (and is still a favorite, as you can see, I make it a lot) but now, I've branched out and have decided to work on some variations.  Tonight, I made Matt's favorite version, and although I still love my cheese powder, this stuff was not too shabby either.

18 oz. Velveeta (cut into 1/2 inch cubes)
3 cups uncooked macaroni noodles
1/2 cup milk
Pepper to taste

Bring water to boil in a large pot (I always add just a dash of salt to the water before it boils.  My dad always told me that it makes the water boil faster.  I have no idea if this is true, but I do it anyway).  Add macaroni noodles, cooking until pasta is tender.  Drain and return to pot.  Add milk and Velveeta and pepper.  Cook over low heat until the Velveeta is completely melted, stirring occasionally.

If you prefer, you can use Light Velveeta and skim milk to lower the fat and calorie content.

Chicken Alfredo

This is really really basic, and I did almost no cooking for this meal.  1 pound of ground chicken, 1 jar of Cheesy Ragu Roasted Garlic Parmesan sauce, and a package of fettuccine noodles.  Just prepare the chicken the same way you would ground hamburger for spaghetti sauce, but add some olive oil to the pan, as chicken doesn't have its own grease the way hamburger does.

After cooking the noodles, I mixed the sauce in with the chicken, and poured both the noodles and the chicken sauce into a casserole dish and topped with shredded cheese.  It would probably taste best with Mozzarella cheese, but I only had cheddar in my fridge, so that's what I used.  Bake at 425 degrees for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the cheese on top is melted.

I love seafood!

Last night's dinner was a seafood extravaganza!  Baked salmon, shrimp scampi, and cheese bread!

I started with a pre-packaged shrimp scampi meal by Gourmet Dining, which I found in the frozen food aisle of Russ's Market for about $5.00.  While I was there, I picked up a box of 5 cheese Texas toast (Best Choice brand) for about $2.50.  The salmon is a frozen, single fillet pack, which I found on sale at Hy-Vee at 10 for $10.

I followed the instructions on the shrimp scampi package exactly, it only took about 10 minutes to cook from start to finish.  The garlic sauce it came with was really good and the nice thing about it is that you don't have to add all the sauce if you don't want to, for a lighter garlic flavor.

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This is a recipe I made, just pretty basic baked salmon.

2 Tablespoons olive oil (divided)

Penzey's Sunny Paris seasoning

Garlic salt

1 salmon fillet

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Grease the bottom of a baking dish with 1 tablespoon olive oil.  Place salmon fillet in center of baking dish, and brush on 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  Sprinkle on Sunny Paris seasoning and garlic salt to taste.  Bake on center rack of oven for 15 minutes.

Baked Mac & Cheese

THIS IS SO DELICIOUS!

I got the package of Kraft Homestyle macaroni & cheese, the classic cheddar flavor (I'm not sure if there's more than one flavor, but this is the one I used).  This was honestly the best mac & cheese I've ever had, and Matt agreed with me.  I followed the directions on the back of the bag, finished with the "oven baked finish option."  The only things you need besides the package is milk and butter and, if you want to go the baked route, some shredded cheddar cheese (you don't have to bake it, it's good to go straight from the stovetop if you prefer).  The mac & cheese package includes the noodles, a packet of seasonings, a packet of bread crumb topping, and a packet of cheese sauce.  That's right, no powdered cheese, it's some seasoning mixed with cheddar cheese sauce.  I highly recommend this meal, and the package was only $2.00 at Walmart.  Cheap and great meal, perfect for two people with a little leftover!