Home Cookin'

Mint alerted me that I had exceeded my Food & Dining budget for the month.  No surprise with stops at Buddakan, Mo Bay and a variety of other restaurants.  But hey, it's not like I can't throw down.  In my effort to continue my day of cheap eats, I decided to make dinner.  I snuck out of work a little early to run some errands.  Sadly I didn't actually get home until about 10.  But I was still determined to make dinner (even though I have plenty of leftovers).

I decided to combine two of my favorite proteins shrimp and chicken.  I've been eating a lot of rice lately so I made this a pasta dish.  Since it was so late when I started, I tried to short cut it as much as possible.

Shrimp & Chicken Rigatoni
1 box rigatoni
1 clove garlic, diced
1/4 cup onions
1 chicken breast, cut into cubes
1/2 lb shrimp
1/4 cup fresh tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup broccoli, cooked
1 jar pasta sauce
1 tbs olive oil
2 tsp crushed red pepper
salt and pepper to taste

Boil water and cook the pasta.  While the pasta is cooking, get to work on the sauce.  Heat the oil in a medium skillet.  Once it gets hot, add garlic and onion.  Once the onions are tender, add crushed red pepper and stir around for a minute or two.  Next add the chicken (seasoned with salt and pepper).  Let the pieces cook on one side for 2 minutes then turn over to the other side.  The bite size pieces should be done after 5 -7 minutes.  Check on your pasta, it's probably done!  Next, push the chicken pieces to the side and add the shrimp in the middle of the pan.  Shrimp only needs about 2 minutes on each side.

After the shrimp is cooked, stir everything together and add the tomatoes and the broccoli.

Stir then add the pasta sauce.  Cover the pan and let it simmer for 5 minutes.

After the sauce is cooked, I usually toss the pasta in it, but you can always serve it on top of the pasta.

If it wasn't so late, I would have made garlic bread or some side.  I also realize I haven't baked in a while so perhaps I'll do that sometime soon.