Three Ingredients, Twenty Minutes, Dinner Done.

I am not immune to "I don't want to cook" moods; perhaps it was a lousy, and too long of a, day at work.  It could have been one of adventuring all day with my adorable husband, and food is the last thing on my mind; sleep sounds a lot better.  More than likely though, I'm just feeling lazy.  The convenience of packaged, canned, or premade meals is hard to resist at these times; it's the chemical additives that make me hesitate in purchasing them.  Then again, I do not resist buying those packages of rice and noodle side dishes; that convenience I'm not willing to give up.

It came to be, one evening, that I was staring into the freezer; spying a bag of frozen shrimp and a package of sugar snap peas, a stir fry seemed the answer for dinner.  *sigh*  I just didn't want to get out the Asian ingredients, and I know my hubby always wanted fried rice when we did Asian.  No, this wouldn't do; maybe I had some Knorr Rice Sides with an Asian flare; nope, I had already used the last package up.  Wait though, two packages of herb and butter sat behind the ones of Spanish rice. 

I used the microwave to carefully defrost the shrimp and snap peas; I didn't want them to cook before their time.  Getting out the five quart cooking pot, I began the rice according to package directions.  After it began boiling, I turned down the heat, added the shrimp and snap peas, covered the pot and waited the required seven minutes.  Testing the rice, it was still too firm, so covered the pot for two more minutes; turned off the heat, uncovered and within two more minutes, the entire dish was ready for eating.

The shrimp was pink and had a lovely scrunch to it; the sugar snap peas popped in the mouth; the herb and butter rice was perfect in texture, the herbs and butter adding flavor to the shrimp and snap peas.  The naysayers who only make everything from scratch, and it better all be organic, will probably be saying how gross my meal was.  Guess what?  It was delicious!

 

Shrimp, Sugar Snap Peas and Rice

 

 

Ingredients:

 

2 (5.4 oz.) packages Knorr Rice Sides, herb and butter flavor

1 lb. jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 (10 oz.) package frozen sugar snap peas, defrosted

 

Preparation:

 

Using a 5-quart cooking pot, prepare rice according to package directions; at stage where the pot is covered and heat turned down, add the shrimp and snap peas.  Check rice for doneness after 7 minutes; cook 2 minutes more if necessary.

 

Remove from heat, uncover and let rest for 2 minutes before serving.

 

Makes 6 servings.

 

Mary Cokenour