SHRIMP & AVOCADO PASTA.

Again, I'm so sorry for the lack of posts!! It's been very crazy last week of traveling and doctors appointments and family visits, but I have to say that I am very happy to be back in Georgia with my man and my puppy girl.

So like I previously mentioned I make dinner pretty much every night. I try to plan the meals for the week on Sunday before we go grocery shopping so we're not spending mindless money and so that making dinner is less of a chore later in the week. I LOVE pasta. Ben not so much. For those of you that don't know, I have Celiac Disease (more on that later, since it is Celiac Awareness Month), so I am supposed to maintain a gluten free diet. I use gluten free pasta and I think that's one of the reasons Ben doesn't like it, because let's just be real- it's not as good no matter what you do to it. Some kind of pasta dish is usually on the menu once a week and I'm always struggling to find new and interesting recipes- instead of just making pasta and sauce. Ben is usually really nice and pretends he likes it a lot when usually what he's thinking is, "eh, its not bad." I FINALLY found a recipe we both love that's simple to make. The only catch is that, it involves shrimp, so for those on a budget- use less shrimp and you can make the bag last longer.

Ingredients:

1 ripe Avocado

2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice (I really did squeeze this from a lemon; so much better than from the bottle)

1/4 cup of evoo

1 box of linguine (this can really be your choice of pasta)

2 tablespoons of butter

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 lb medium shrimp (peeled & deveined) - like I said you can use less because this is more     than enough

1/4 cup chopped scallions

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

- I followed these ingredients but found that for our taste, next time I will use less oil and less butter.

1. Cut your avocado in half, remove the pit and remove avocado from the skin. Add avocado, parmesan cheese & lemon juice to a bowl and mash together with a fork until you get a paste like consistency. If you have a food processor, it's obviously much easier to use that but we don't, so I had to do things the old fashioned way. Here you can add half of your evoo to the paste as well (next time I'm going to leave this out completely). Season your paste with salt & pepper to taste. Set aside for later.

2. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add your linguine/pasta of choice and cook according to directions on the packaging. If any of you are going to brave the world of g-free pasta the best advice I can give you is to constantly taste test. You can't walk away, because g-free pasta can go mushy and past the point of no return in a matter of seconds. Once your pasta is al dente, drain & set aside. 

3. Add the rest of your evoo & butter to a large skillet over medium heat. First, add your minced garlic & let that simmer for 40 seconds. Then, add our shrimp and cook each side until its pink. I don't want to give your a time limit because it really depends of on the size of the shrimp & the temperature of your skillet. Turn your heat to low; add the scallions & red pepper flakes. Then add your cooked pasta & avocado-parmesan paste. Use tongs to toss and combine. Serve immediately & season to taste with salt, pepper & grated parmesan cheese.

Bon Appétit!!!