Cheap {yummy} Cuisine – Shrimp Scampi over Whole Wheat Pasta

I’ve been increasingly dining in lately. Not just due to limited funds (I’m saving up for a vacation), but I love adding new recipes to my culinary repertoire. Every week I’ll hit you with a delicious meal that’s easy to make and doesn’t require expensive or an extensive list of ingredients.

This week I made Shrimp Scampi over Pasta. I based it on All You‘s recipe. With just a few ingredients, I knew I could easily prepare a hearty Sunday dinner. I omitted the crushed red pepper (because I didn’t have any) and added in some cremini mushrooms and parmesan cheese (because mushrooms and cheese make everything taste better).

The meal was yum-o! This is a dish you can whip up in a pinch (it only took 10 or 15 minutes) and impress your dinner guests.

Tags: cheap meals, food, recipe

Dining On a Dime – Restaurant Week Recipe

With my crazy schedule I haven’t had time to dine anywhere for Restaurant Week but fortunately there was a food truck near my job offering $6 cups of soup from some of the hottest restaurants in NYC.

I chose the corn, crab and chorizo chowder from Delmonico’s. No, $6 isn’t cheap for soup, but it normally costs $15 at the restaurant.

This soup was divine. Not too heavy, not watery, but just perfect. And it came with a chewy baguette from Tom Cat Bakery, which was perfect for dipping.

I seriously wanted to go back for more but I figured why not make my own version? And mine wouldn’t cost $15 per serving.

I swapped out crab for lobster (partially because I’m using the remaining lobster to make lobster mac and cheese) and based it on a recipe from the Food Network.

Here’s the price breakdown:
potatoes, $1.35
chorizo, $2.99
garlic, $1.29
onion, 39¢
heavy cream, $2.99
chicken stock, $3.79
*i forgot my $1 off coupon for this at home
langostino tails, $8.99
*I only used about a third of the pack
bread, $2.99

Total: $24.78 for 4-5 hearty servings

Results: It was yummy of course. It had a nice creamy texture and wasn’t watery, which I was afraid of. With yesterday’s crappy weather in NYC, it was great having a nice hearty soup to chow down on. Every bite had several chunks of potatoes, chorizo and langostino. However, next time I think I’ll make it without the chorizo or maybe I’ll chop it up more, the pieces were too big.

This could easily be a vegetarian meal by swapping out the meat and even more wallet friendly by leaving out the langostino or substituting it with shrimp.

Tags: dining out, recipe