Whole Wheat Spaghetti w/ Shrimp and Peas and Garlic Butter Sauce

I got the 100 % whole wheat spaghetti, which I was not really the fan of because it's not that chewy as normal pasta. But I want to replace the habit of eating white flour to whole wheat flour for the health benefit. We consume so much of flour product, and benefit of white flour is really nothing besides it helps to make stomach bigger. Whole wheat pasta has more than twice the fiber ( ave.5g fiber for 2oz dry pasta) than normal pasta (2g fiber for 2oz), which we all know how good fiber does in our body. What I don't  like about the whole wheat pasta is that the texture of pasta and surface of the pasta doesn't absorb spaghetti sauce well. To ease this problem, I cook pasta little bit longer to make softer and add small butter right away to mix with hot pasta. And add this sauce! The richness of the sauce and lightness of whole wheat pasta matches pretty well.

 Shrimp and Peas w/ Garlic Butter Sauce
( Serving: 2, Cooking time: 15 min.)

Ingredients

1. Uncooked shrimp
   
2. Yellow Onion: 1/4 medium large chopped
3. Green Onion: 3 sprig chopped
4. Green Peas (frozen)
5. Crimini Mushroom (Fresh Italian Brown Mushroom) sliced
6. Olive oil : 3 tablespoons
7. Garlic: 1 clove chopped or pressed
8. Butter: 1/2 tablespoon
9. Parmesan Cheese
10. Salt / Freshly grounded Pepper

Direction:

1. In a pan, put olive oil and heat it. Add onion and green onion and sautee for about 5 min. 
2. Add shrimp, garlic, mushroom, 1 tablespoon water, little bit of salt and pepper and cook till color of shrimp change to orange. Do not cook to long as shrimp will get dry and tough.
3. Add Parmesan cheese and butter, cook additional 1 min.
4. Pour over cooked whole wheat pasta!

*It's like pasta with cream sauce, but no heavy cream. 

Super easy Spaghetti Bolognese Sauce

 I love Italian food. I don't have Italian mom, but this is my mom's recipe I grow up with and tweaked little bit in my way. This is the simplest spaghetti sauce ever and taste pretty good. Hardest part is chopping the vegetable. The finer, the better taste of sauce. I can use this sauce for many dish. Spaghetti Bolognese, Lasagna, and my new breakfast menu:  omelet ! 


BOLOGNESE SAUCE


(Prep time: 15 min., Cooking time: 1 hr 45 min.)

Ingredients

1. Ground Beef: 1 lb (15/85 is my favorite, use 5/95 for less fat)
   
2. Organic Celery: 2-3 stalks finely chopped, make 1 cup
3. Organic Carrots: 2 large or 3 medium finely chopped, make 1 cup
   
4. Onion: 1 medium large finely chopped, make 1 cup
5. Crimini Mushroom (Italian Brown Mushroom): 4 oz chopped
   
6. Olive oil: 6 tablespoons
   
7. Red Wine: 4 tablespoons
8. Low sodium Tomato juice or Tomato base Vegetable juice: 2 qts (64 fl oz)
9. Bay leaves: 3
10. Salt / Pepper: 1/8 teaspoons sea salt, freshly grounded pepper
11. Beef broth concentrate if necessary for extra taste

Direction:

1. In a 2.5 qts sauce pan, sautee chopped celery, carrots, onion with olive oil. Keep stirring for10-15 min with medium low heat.
2. Add ground beef, red wine, salt and pepper and sautee till it becomes lightly grown for about 3 min.
3. Add 1 1/2 qts of tomato juice, bay leaves (and beef broth concentrate). Cook with medium low heat for 45 min. Stir the sauce occasionally. 
4. Add mushroom and the rest of the tomato juice (1/2 qts) and cook for additional 45 min.

* Sauce tastes the best next day
* I use the low sodium tomato (or vegetable) juice because the normal tomato juice has too much salt in and this will make sauce too tangy. The lower the salt intake, the better for your health too. The sauce tastes slightly varied depends on the tomato juice.

My Shopping Cart: Low Sodium Garden Patch (vegetable juice) 64 fl oz
Where: Trader Joe's