Baby Shrimp Scampi

My daughter loves seafood, and in land-locked areas (like north central PA), it's expensive. 

However, there are a few ways to make affordable seafood, and this method is one of them.

For our shrimp, I bought this pack of salad shrimp for $2.99.  I cooked a half a $1 box of "thin spaghetti" (actually what it says on the box; thinner than standard spaghetti, thicker than angel hair).  While it was boiling, I put the still-frozen shrimp in a skillet, added a half a stick of butter, a few pieces of diced onion, salt, pepper, a few teaspoons of lemon juice (I just splashed some on there, really) and some garlic.  I buy diced garlic in water in a glass or plastic jar. I used about a Tbsp here.  Even if I buy the dirt cheap stuff, it's about $4 - 6 for the size of a standard jar of peanut butter, depending on if it's on sale when I buy it.  However, since it's much more potent (you can spoon some garlic-flavored water on for some extra bang for your buck, too) than fresh garlic, and since it won't go bad for roughly a year (something that can't be said for whole cloves) I prefer it, hands down, for all of my garlic-y recipes.  You can also use garlic powder, if you don't have a jar of the diced already in your house.  Traditional recipes call for white wine to be added; however, I have no white wine and would not be very thrifty if I bought some just for this recipe.  If you have some, by all means, add it.  You could probably also add white vinegar as a substitute for white wine, which is what I would have done if I'd had any.  I had cider vinegar, which is awesome in BBQ but I had my doubts about adding it to scampi, so I went safe and omitted it altogether.

The scampi heated up (over medium heat) just in time for the pasta, which I strained and added to the skillet, leaving the whole thing on simmer while I made the salad.  The best salads are the simplest ones, and I like to put myself on a "five ingredients or less" limit (not including dressing).  This salad was just lettuce, onions, green olives, and mild banana peppers.

The kids ate the meal, although my youngest one kept asking if these were "baby shrimp" or "mama shrimp".  Every.  Single.  Bite. 

Before he discovered its inherent tastiness, the only way he would eat seafood was if I told him that's what sharks ate.  Which is true.  Ish.

Anyway, they ate so well, that only one person at the table had enough room for dessert: Me.  The older two jumped down as soon as they were allowed, leaving just my youngest to change his mind when he saw what I'd planned for dessert: ice cream cones.  You can buy a box of generic Nutty Buddies (the cones with the chocolate in them and the nuts on top and now I really want some) for $3 which averages 50 cents a cone, OR buy a pack of 12 waffle cones for $1.50 and a quart of ice cream for $3, which averages to 38 cents a cone, but you lose the deliciousness of the chocolate-lined cone BUT you gain the choice of ice cream flavors inside the cone and the benefit of cheaper desserts.... for me, it's a toss-up.  What I had in the house was "Option B".

We all scream for ice cream.  Literally.

So the price of tonight's three course meal was: $2.99 for shrimp, $0.50 spaghetti, $0.50 lettuce (head of lettuce was $1.38, used roughly a third of it) and I'm estimating another $1 for all the extras combined.