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Diet-friendly meal: Angle-hair and Shrimp |
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Written by Kathy Manweiler, MCT
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Monday, 20 August 2007 |
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Not all fast food comes in a paper bag or a pizza box.
If you keep some quick and healthy ingredients and a few time-saving gadgets in your kitchen, you can have a diet-friendly dinner ready in the time it would take you to visit a drive-through.
Angel-hair pasta cooks in a snap, and multi-grain varieties like Barilla Plus contain more protein and fiber and a dose of omega-3 fatty acids.
Add some seasonings along with pre-cooked shrimp, which is available frozen, and you've created a nutritious version of shrimp scampi in less than 10 minutes.
I came up with this recipe one night after coming home hungry from a long day at work only to realize that my cupboards were pretty bare. Most of the ingredients I had on hand would take a while to cook, and I needed to find a sensible option fast because pizza was sounding better by the second.
I pulled out the box of multi-grain pasta, remembered the shrimp in my freezer and looked up a recipe in "Cooking Light" that I could work with.
While the water for the pasta was boiling, I put the frozen shrimp in a colander under cold, running water for about five minutes until the shrimp was thawed. If you thaw shrimp like this, it's important that the water is cold.
As the pasta was cooking, I put some olive oil in a skillet and sauteed a little garlic for a minute. Next, I threw in the shrimp along with some white wine, lemon juice and spices. At the last minute, I included some chopped parsley.
I have a mini food processor, so I let it mince the garlic and chop the parsley for me. That cut the prep time for this recipe quite a bit. And a handheld juicer made getting a little fresh lemon juice easy.
When the pasta was drained, I topped it with the shrimp mixture and sat down to dinner about eight minutes after I started cooking.
I tinkered with the "Cooking Light" version a little, using multi-grain pasta, pre-cooked shrimp, just one clove of garlic, more lemon juice and a little less white wine.
CalorieKing.com says a typical serving of shrimp scampi with pasta can contain 500 calories and 25 fat grams.
But you can have a serving of this shrimp scampi with pasta for just 287 calories and 3.3 fat grams.
Shrimp scampi with pasta
- 8 ounces Barilla Plus angel-hair pasta
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 28 pre-cooked large shrimp
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- ¼ cup dry white wine
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain and divide it among four plates.
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, add the olive oil and minced garlic. Saute for 1 minute. Add shrimp, wine, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and cook for 30 seconds. Add parsley, tossing well to coat.
Top each plate of pasta with ¼ of the shrimp mixture (about 7 shrimp).
Serve immediately.
Makes 4 servings.
Per serving: 287 calories, 3.3 fat grams, 402 mg sodium, 19 grams protein, 4 grams fiber, 26 carb grams, 75 mg cholesterol.
Slightly adapted from a Cooking Light recipe.
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