Skinny Shrimp and Scallop Scampi

So I woke up this morning and immediately began planning out our day. I had high aspirations of making shredded chicken using my crock pot and stand mixer so I could freeze it. I had seen a recipe posted from one of my favorite blogs and I'd been wanting to try it out. I planned on getting all the bedding stripped and washed, going to the gym, and exploring our new Kiwi Crate project box. For dinner tonight I planned on pulling a meal from the freezer that I'd previously made. All in all it was supposed to be an easy laid back day.

Then I remembered that the boys started swim lessons today and the lessons carry through the rest of the week conveniently during dinner time. So I decided to hold off on the freezer meal so I could do it later this week and instead decided to make dinner tonight. I wanted something easy and quick though and I wanted to use ingredients on hand... because let's be honest... after swim lessons, I did not want to be trekking my three to the grocery store to go shopping. I decided on making shrimp scampi. After scouring my pinterest boards I decided to try out the following recipe with some adaptations: Skinny Shrimp Scampi.

I thought the recipe came out pretty good. I'll definitely make it again. The original recipe called for shallots which I didn't have so I just added an extra clove of garlic. The original recipe also called for 3 Tbsp of white wine.. so I upped the ante a little and just went for a 1/4 cup. What can I say... I like my wine. I didn't have fresh parsley so I just sprinkled some dried parsley on at the end. And I was too lazy to measure out the lemon zest and juice so I just zested my lemon and juiced the lemon right into the pan.

I served this with a side of steamed asparagus and it was a light filling meal. I have to be honest and admit that I knew that Thing 1 and 2 probably wouldn't eat it, so I heated up some spaghetti sauce and mixed in a little shredded chicken (which I did end up having time to make and freeze) for protein and gave them that instead.

Ingredients:

• About half a box of pasta (I used linguine and how much you need depends on how many you are feeding)
• 1 Tbsp of butter
• 5 cloves minced garlic
• 1 lb raw shrimp (cleaned and peeled)
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• lemon zest
• juice of one lemon
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1/2 lb bay scallops
• optional garnish: Parmesan cheese and parsley (I used dried)

Directions:

Begin cooking the pasta according to the directions on the package. I always add a little olive oil to my boiling water to keep the pasta from sticking to the pot.

Melt butter in a large saute pan over medium high heat. Add garlic and saute for about a minute. Add shrimp and sprinkle crushed red pepper, salt, and pepper over the shrimp. Cook shrimp until the shrimp is pink on both sides.

Use a zester to zest the lemon directly onto shrimp in pan. Then cut lemon in half and use a juicer to juice the lemon into pan. Add chicken stock, wine, and scallops and stir to combine. The scallops cook even faster than the shrimp so I wait til this step to cook them so they don't get over cooked and rubbery. Cook until the scallops have cooked through and the mixture has cooked down.

Drain pasta and pour pasta into serving dish. Pour mixture over top and add Parmesan cheese and/or parsley.

Serve and enjoy!