Fast Five Ingredient Dinners: Shrimp Broccoli Delight

When temperatures plunge below freezing, chore time takes a little  longer here at Grouse Creek.  Frozen water troughs need thawed, hoses need extra care and sometimes water has to be hauled in by buckets. Extra hay is needed to help the animals stay warm, and clean, dry bedding is crucial.  What normally takes thirty minutes to accomplish can easily take over an hour. 

Having a quick dinner really helps the evening to go smoothly after working so hard outside. Who wants to spend hours in the kitchen after all that?  Not me!

Thursday is Seafood night around here.  Usually we have tuna casserole or salmon patties.  But, salad shrimp was on sale at Winco, and I've been holding onto a bag.  Tonight was the perfect night to pull it out.  Jayme was so excited--shrimp is her favorite!

With only 5 ingredients and about 20 minutes worth of time, we enjoyed this lovely shrimp broccoli delight.

Here's the lineup of ingredients:

1/2 cup Butter
Garlic
Whole Wheat Spaghetti Noodles (uncooked)
1 pound frozen salad shrimp
1 pound frozen broccoli
 
First, I threw a cube of butter into a large frying pan to let it slowly melt. (Definitely not a low fat meal!)

Meanwhile, I filled a large pot with water and turned it onto boil. When the water boiled, I threw in a box of 100% whole wheat spaghetti.  It cooks in 11 minutes (we like it tender!)

Noodles Cooking

 While the noodles were cooking, I added a pound of frozen shrimp to the garlic broccoli mixture and turned it down to low. The lid on top helped it to steam nicely.

The shrimp and broccoli taking a garlic butter bath.

 Once the noodles were finished, I dumped them into the stainer.  Then they made their way into the garlic mixture above.  A good stir incorporated the ingredients.

 

A couple more minutes with the lid on helped the garlic to saturate all of the noodles.  Make sure your temp is low enough you don't burn these!

Remove the lid and take the pan off the heat.  Inhale all the lovely garlic fumes.  Scoop out onto plates and serve.  We enjoyed a banana-orange Maggie Milk smoothie with ours.

What are your go-to meals when you're cold and in a hurry?

This post was linked up at Raising Arrows.