seafood and creamy garlic shells and more!

It all started a few weeks ago when we were all shopping.  I was just going up and down the aisles, seeing what was on sale and looking for any staples I might need for the house.

 

 

Emily saw these "shells" and said, "We could eat those with our ocean animals!"  In case you may have forgotten, when our family took a vacation earlier this year, we bought three of these "seafood combination" packs.

 

Since the pasta was $1 a box, we bought one box of "small" and one box of "medium".  Since last time I cooked the "ocean animals" I just did them in butter and herbs (and lemon juice and vinegar) I decided to do tonight's in a cream sauce: First, I poured the frozen "seafood combination" into a frying pan and set it on the stove.  I added about 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup water, 1 Tbsp vinegar, and the following seasonings:

 

Then I put on a lid, turned the heat to a "six" (medium-high) and let  cook.

 

 

I boiled about 3/4 of the medium shells first, then realized that would be enough and saved the "small shells" for another meal.  I strained the shells and set them aside while I made the cream sauce.  All I did was put 2 cups of milk and a half-stick of butter in the empty pot, and add the same five flavors I put in the seafood, plus a dash of red pepper for some "zing".  When it was boiling up, I sprinkled in 1/3 cup of flour, a little at a time, while stirring with a slotted spoon.  This was just enough to thicken it without turning it into a gravy.  Which, let's face it, would have been gross. Then, I added the shells I had set aside and stirred them in, and turned off the heat.

 

 

 Speaking of gross, although the kids devoured the seafood mix the last time, I didn't like it too much, so I pulled out some alternatives for myself: The fish in the ziplock baggie was caught by Andrew earlier this year, so it was free.  I added it to the seafood mix and put the lid back on.  The scallops and shrimp would've been great, but each little baggie would've been enough for only me, and I didn't want the kids mooching, so I put the scallops and shrimp back in the freezer, and just cooked (steamed in glass bowls in the microwave) about 1/3 the cauliflower and 1/4 of the peas. 

 

Even with the mountain of pasta I'd cooked (shells expand about 70% when boiled) I didn't think cauliflower, peas, and shells would satisfy me, so I pulled out this can of whole cranberries I'd bought last Thanksgiving.  (My eyes were bigger than my stomach - there was soooo much left over)  Still, I had a veritable feast and stayed under $10.  I told each kid to pick three things out of the five on the table and I served.  Then they had to clean their plates.  (This also gave me an "out": I ate peas, cranberries, and pasta)

 

 

Andrew's 3: Cauliflower, pasta, seafood

 

 

Emily chose all five, but then decided
she didn't like the berries and gave them to me.



Everybody did clear their plates, and Lucas had seconds of pasta, while Emily had seconds and thirds of the seafood.  We still had soooo much left over; I ate as much of the cranberry sauce as I could but put the rest in the compost.  We saved the shells for another day (seriously, I didn't even cook the whole box and we had half a plate left over!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone was so full that only Lucas wanted dessert - and while I thought for sure he would want applesauce (which is what I bought) he wanted cereal for dessert.  Of course, when Emily saw this she wanted some too.

 

 

 

And so our total for tonight was... Seafood mix: $5.99, 3/4 a box of shells, 75 cents, 2.5 cups milk, 55 cents, 1/3 bag cauliflower, 63 cents, 1/4 bag of peas, 38 cents, 1 can cranberry sauce (no idea because I bought it a year ago but let's just say $1) Side note: canned corn, creamed corn, and green beans are only 39 cents each at Costas today and tomorrow.  That's a heck of a deal, folks.  Back to the total: the cereal was "generic", $1.88/bag which says 13 servings per bag, so 2 servings for my kids was 29 cents.  So $5.99 + 75 cents + 55 cents + 63 cents + 38 cents + $1 + 29 cents = $9.59

 

So I'm under $10 AND I have 2 servings of delicious creamy garlic shells left over.  Hurrah!