Five minute dinner or take that Rachel Ray

With work & kids you don't always have the time you would like to prepare a home cooked meal but here's one I did the other night on the spur of the moment.

Knowing time was short I picked up some cherry tomatoes on the way home.  We also had a pound of langastinos (think of shrimp that have a lobster texture and taste) steamed and pealed that I picked up on sale from the store a day before.  Having children we also pretty much always have some cooked pasta on hand.  So in a frying pan I melted a tbsp of butter and added an equal amount of olive oil (combining gives you a healthier mix and adding the oil also raises the smoking point of the butter). Once the oil was warm I tossed in the langastinos and let them start to warm (they were already cooked so I didn't want to dry them out another reason for the oil).  Then I tossed in a couple of hands full of pasta (we actually used alphabets but any small pasta like orzo or ditalini would really work here).  Once the pasta was warm I tossed in the tomatoes and added some salt and pepper and garlic powder (all to taste so be sure to taste as you go).  At the very end before the tomatoes got mushy (really hate mushed tomatoes) I added in some fresh time leaves, tossed the pan once or twice and dumped it all on a plate and served with my fresh semolina bread.  Total cooking time 5 minutes.

A balanced healthy meal chock full of proteins, veggies and some starch (not much actually) and it was full of flavor and even the boy gobbled it down.

Swaps for the langastinos could be shrimp, bay scallops or small chunks of a firm fish like tilapia or cod.  Instead of tomatoes you can use any veggie at all just about (except for Brussels sprouts and okra which are against my religion).  In short this can be thousands of separate dishes.  To pack in more flavor vary the herbs or even add sauteed mushrooms, onions or even crumbled bacon.

You can even do the whole meal during one commercial break of 30 minute meals.