It was one of those days around here, which is pretty often, when dinner time was upon us already and nothing was on the stove, in the oven or on the grill. So, what’s fast?  Pasta!  I had remembered earlier that we had a half package each of frozen large shrimp (uncooked) and Langostinos (cooked) and we could make a pasta with them.  Langostinos are a crustacean, like crayfish, just about 2 inches long.  I got these ones from Trader Joe’s. 

We took the frozen packages out and thawed them in 2 separate bowls of cold water.  Put some water on to boil the pasta. Chopped a couple of cloves of garlic, one shallot and 1/4 red onion (because that’s what we had in the house).  Sautéed them all in olive oil for a few minutes and added chopped organic white mushrooms (I tend to buy certain things organic and some conventional) a pat of butter, sea salt and fresh ground pepper.  After a few minutes added some white wine (please use what you’d actually drink and don’t ever buy “cooking wine” it would leave the same awful flavor in your food as in a glass)— about 1/4-1/2 cup and some more olive oil.  Added the drained shrimp that was cut into half (smaller bites) and took off the heat while the pasta is cooking. Once it’s finished and drained, added the pasta to the garlic, mushroom, shrimp mix, stirred in the Langostinos, package of baby organic spinach and 3/4 package of micro-greens and put back on heat stirring regularly for about a minute or two.  No need to really “cook” the vegetables or Langostinos, just heat them.  All done!  It was less than half an hour in total. 

The micro-greens I got from Trader Joe’s too (one of my favorite stores) and are the sprouts of Red Russian Kale, Red Cabbage, Purple Kohlrabi, Purple Radish and Beet Greens.  They are intensely flavored and only about an inch long- root and all.  Some of these ones are quite peppery too.  Micro-greens are really rich in nutrients too.  Because of their intensity, you don’t need other herbs with this dish, but you wouldn’t go wrong with some fresh chopped basil. 

We hadn’t done this dish as such before, so I wasn’t sure how the kids would react except I knew that my middle son would whine, “I don’t want that” per most every dinner.  Today he added, “I told you I wanted just plain pasta with butter.  Didn’t you remember that?”  Of course I did, I just ignored it.  My kids get plain pasta with butter often when we go out to eat.  It’s funny because we don’t usually have the things listed on the kids’ menu at home I let them order from it out.  It’s a treat we’re out, so I let them have a treat of chicken nuggets or plain pasta with butter!  The funny thing is as soon as the whine is out of the mouth, the fork is in.  He ate it all and really enjoyed it.  This was also one of the cases where he said he didn’t like mushrooms unless they were in a cream sauce, so I had him try it… he ate the rest without complaint.   

I’m sure some kids would love to eat cookies, candy and ice cream instead of all the good foods but as parents we know they wouldn’t survive on a diet like that.  Well, they need the nutrients in vegetables and fruits and if they’re served regularly they will eat them.  We got a taste for them at some point, so will they.  Kids have to be introduced to them to understand they should be eating them every day.  There won’t be the struggle some have over just a few veggies if they just have them in front of the kids every day.  And when there are so many quick (and yummy) ways to do it, it becomes easier for all involved.  

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