use what you have

Right now, we are on a shopping freeze until we use some of the stuff we already have in the fridge and freezer (with the exception of essentials - i.e. milk, bread-see previous post). I kind of feel like we're eating like kings right now because of this, so it's not necessarily a bad thing - ha! Earlier this week, we had BBQs to use the turkey burger we had. On Thursday, we had thawed some shrimp so made a pasta/shrimp dish to use those things. And today, Keith made ribs because we had that in the freezer, too (will post that later when I can ask him how he did it - they were delicious!). And, thawing in the fridge now, is a venison roast. I feel like I need to go for a walk just thinking about all of this... wow.

The shrimp/pasta dish was tasty, so I'm posting that here. Please excuse the quality of the photo; I left my camera at my parents by accident last weekend so I'm relying on my camera phone. When I get it back, I'll be able to post about the sweet potato pie we made when I was down there... but I digress. :)

I found a version of this on Allrecipes.com, which is one of my favorite recipe sites. I modified a bit to adjust for what I had/wanted and ended up with this:

Shrimp & Rotini
1 - 16. oz package rotini pasta
2 Tblsp. olive oil
1/4 c. chopped yellow onion
1 Tblsp. chopped garlic
1/4 c. white wine
2 cans (15 oz) diced tomatoes with green chilies
1/2 tsp. italian seasoning
1 pound shrimp, peeled/deveined
Parmesan cheese

In a large pot, make the pasta as directed on the box. Drain and set aside when done.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in onion and garlic, and saute until onion is soft. Mix in wine, tomatoes, and italian seasoning and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add shrimp and cook 5 minutes, until opaque. Pour mixture into the large pot with the pasta and toss ingredients to combined. Serve and top individually with Parmesan, as desired.

My notes:

• it's spicy, so if you're not into that I recommend using plain diced tomatoes or doing a can with chilies and one without.
• the original recipe says to use red onion; I didn't have it, so used yellow.
• it also says to mix in 1 c. Parmesan cheese; that seemed like a lot, so we just sprinkled our own amount on top
• this was tasty and seemed lighter than when you would have this with regular spaghetti or creamy sauce, which was nice.
• garlic toast would be great on the side; we didn't have the right kind of bread for good garlic toast, so just didn't have it.

I'll try to post about the ribs/bbq sauce Keith made tomorrow. yum...