Healthy dinner ready in 30 minutes? Yes please!

We all have those days when we just don’t have anything prepared for dinner, everyone’s in a hurry and really hungry! Drive-thru or takeout has become a too easy go-to for too many of us, but how do we possibly come up with something healthy and quick when we didn’t pre-make dinner? Problem solved.

The ingredients to this weeks recipe are all things you can have on hand. Add them to your next shopping trip, buying 2 of everything. The shrimp and peas will keep in the freezer, and the rice and broth are great pantry stock items. Serve it with a salad or fresh vegetable (It was awesome served with asparagus.)

Serves 4

Prep time 5 minutes, cook time 25 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

· 1 TBLSP unsalted butter

· 2 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable broth

· ½ cup frozen peas

· 1 cup uncooked converted/instant brown rice

· 4 tsp olive oil, divided in half

· 1 – 1 ¼ pounds peeled and deveined shrimp

· 2 TBLSP grated Pecorino Romano cheese

· 1 TBLSP chopped parsley (for garnish)

DIRECTIONS:

· In a large heavy skillet melt the butter over medium heat. Add the rice and sauté for about 2-3 minutes.

· Add the chicken/vegetable broth and peas, and bring to a boil. When just about all of the liquid is absorbed (just skimming over the top of the rice) cover and reduce heat to low.

· Cook, covered, on low heat for 20 minutes, until rice is cooked through. Shut off heat and let stand covered, for 5 minutes.

· Meanwhile, in a second large skillet, heat 2 tsp of the olive oil over medium heat until hot.

· Season shrimp with salt* and pepper. Add seasoned shrimp to the hot skillet. Cook about 2-3 minutes, until the shrimp is slightly pink and cooked through. Remove shrimp from the pan and set aside.

· Add the 2 remaining tsp of olive oil to the skillet on high heat and add the cooked rice, shrimp, grated cheese and parsley. Sauté another minute or two to slightly crisp, mixing well.

*I skipped the additional salt since there is a lot of salt in both shrimp and broth (even a low sodium broth!)

Thanks to skinnytaste.com for the original recipe