whole wheat pasta Archives - Pretty Little Apron

This pasta though! Move over fancy-pants Italian restaurants because this pasta just swooped in to remind everyone cooking Italian food at home is SO EASY! That’s right, if you have 25 minutes and a few fresh ingredients then you are on your way to this delicious pasta soaked in a creamy sauce, and topped with fresh basil and parm cheese. You in?

Of course you are in or you wouldn’t be here, gawking at that pour shot like a 13 year old boy with a ~~nudie mag~~. I mean, not that I was ever a 13 year old boy or anything, but I was just thinking.. well.. ya know what forget I ever said that and let’s get back to the food porn!

And now…. it is food blogger confession time brought to you by 3Boys Unprocessed! Confessions are as followed:

This pasta is not whole wheat
I’m not as excited about this post because it isn’t a cupcake
I’ve recently become obsessed with cupcakes
Did I mention the word cupcake?

Yes, you read that correctly. I’m using refined pasta but baking whole wheat cupcakes. That totally makes sense doesn’t it? Hmm… I know, I know it’s totally crazy but just let me go on with my crazy self and let’s all pretend they are both whole wheat so I can feel a little less crazy.

My refined pasta was imported from Italy and had a sparkly and official “Italy” sticker on the bag. You know, like the best sticker EVER that we all longed for in Elementary School. A seal of approval, if you will. I looked at it EVERY TIME I was at the grocery store, longing for it’s beautiful ridges to take pretty pictures of and plop some big bad shrimpies on top of. Last time I was at the grocery store somehow it ended up accidentally falling into my cart and I totally thought it was whole wheat when the cashier swiped it over that cool scanner. You know, because my kids were yelling about wanting coloring books and other crap they throw near the cash registers to lure all the parents into buying. Even though I totally said NO WAY to the coloring book, somehow the pasta slipped by my radar. Ok, truth is, it looked cool so I bought it! A slight lapse in Real Food judgment but hey, we are all human right?

And about those cupcakes… you see I was always kind of obsessed with cupcakes (hence a big ol’ pink cupcake tattoo on my foot), but my cupcake obsession was lying dormant for a while I was on an ice cream binge.. I mean eating healthy. 😉 I kid, I kid! The ice cream binge never happened but babies did and I just haven’t had all the time in the world to bake pretty things. Now I have a food blog as an excuse so the cupcake madness just might be back for good!

Now that all my dirty food laundry is aired I guess we can get back to this creamy and delish pasta that could be served up for any occasion, including a Monday night! You can totally throw a curve ball in your life by making this epic pasta on a Monday and surprising your spouse like you are newlyweds or something. Remember, it only takes about 25 minutes to put together so throwing this together on a weeknight is do-able and easy!

Just a little FYI, I used a homemade chicken stock that I did not season yet. If you are using a boxed stock, check the ingredients for MSG (labeled MSG, autolyzed yeast, yeast extract) and choose a stock that is lower in sodium and doesn’t contain anything you wouldn’t put in your own stock. If you are interested in making your own (super easy I promise!) check out my post on Everything you Need to Know About Making Your Own Chicken Stock.

And then that pesky sauce went all up on the side of my sauté pan to ruin this beautiful picture. Please ignore and maybe it won’t happen again! 😉

My husband went away for an over-night trip with friends and dropped one of my boys off at his Meme’s house on the way. Boy, did my house seem eerily quite! I don’t know if any other moms can relate but don’t things seem so weird even if just one child is gone? Sheesh it was like I was on a vacation from my life or something! So naturally, I decided it would be a great time to cook a spectacular meal seeing I was dealing with a 1 year old who could obviously care less, and a 7 year old who was convinced I was trying to hide copious amounts of broccoli in his food (it was parsley!!) Off to Wegman’s I went to purchase the biggest, most beautiful wild caught shrimp I could find. I came home and slathered those babies with a creamy sauce, cheese, and generous amounts of Cajun seasoning and boy did I ever feel bad that the rest of my family was gone when I sat down to eat this meal!

I mentioned that naturally the baby would care less about this pasta. How wrong did he prove me when he was begging and begging for more! Not only did he beg for more, he continued to climb into his high chair over and over until I fed him more pasta. Then when he was done with that he grabbed his brother’s plate off the table and proceeded to park his little tushy on the floor and have a little feast by himself! How could I really be mad at that cute little face covered in sauce though? 🙂 Plus, he was eating broccoli so that made Mama happy!

For the noodles in this dish I used whole wheat lasagna sheets and cut them in half (they were really narrow to begin with). I have been looking for whole wheat lasagna sheets for the longest time and was finally able to find some! Funny how a product that is so widely used is so hard to find in whole wheat. Regardless, you can use any pasta you’d like for this dish because the pasta doesn’t really make the dish. I did enjoy a different type of noodle in this but if you want to switch it up a whole wheat rigatoni or penne would work fantastic! I used 8 ounces of pasta total.

Here are the Steps I Took to Cook this Meal:

Cook the Pasta: I used 8 ounces of lasagna noodles, you can use any kind of pasta you’d like!
Season and Roast Broccoli: Sprinkle broccoli generously with Cajun seasoning and roast in the oven for about 25 minutes while you are cooking your other ingredients.
Boil the shrimp: Self explanatory! After you boil the shrimp peel them if needed.
Make the sauce.
Layer in skillet.
Bake.
Be Amazed at How Delicious it Was! Ok this is bordering on being a gimmicky catch phrase food bloggers use, but seriously it is really good!

The quicker way to do this would be to boil the pasta, and within the last few minutes throw in the shrimp and broccoli. I prefer oven roasted broccoli so that is why I didn’t do that, but if you are looking to save time this would be the way to do it!