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.

Cheesy Chicken & Potatoes

Yet another frozen entree (can you tell I love these?).  So easy and quick to make, nice for the evenings when I've had a long day and I don't want to have to fuss over dinner much.  This one is Bird's Eye brand, and I got it at Hy-Vee for about $4.  The entrees are called Voila! and there are several varieties, the one I prepared being Cheddar Chicken Potato.  It honestly only took 10 minutes from start to finish, and includes all you'll need for an entree for two people.  Also needed are a cup of water and a 10" skillet.  So easy, anyone could make this.

Since the entree was SO easy and quick to make, I whipped up some homemade garlic bread to go along with it.  Baked it while the chicken and potatoes were cooking, and so the whole meal really only took me about 15 minutes from start to finish.  Amazing!

*~*~*~*~*

SIMPLE EASY GARLIC BREAD

Hamburger buns

Butter

Cilantro

Garlic salt

Butter the bread sides of the hamburger buns and place on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle on garlic salt and cilantro to taste.  Bake at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes.

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.

--------

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!