Spaghetti Alfredo with Crab & Broccoli

It's snowing here in St. Louis. Which means every body drove like a psycho during the evening commute. As a result, I had some extreme tension in my neck and back which of course aggravated the whiplash I got last week when some jerk rear ended a Toyota, who then rear ended me. All I wanted when I got home was some quality time with my level 80 Draenei Paladin and something incredibly fast and delicious for dinner.

Spaghetti automatically wins. Toss in some "exotic" ingredients and I was sold. This recipe comes from Living A Better Life -- The Free Money-Saving Tips Ezine. While her website is incredibly cluttered and rudimentary, and the recipes are few, there are a few gems in there. This one jumped out at me because of it's simplicity and it's use of my absolute favorite vegetable.


Spaghetti Alfredo with Crab & Broccoli

• 8 ounces spaghetti, cooked and drained
• 1 jar of Alfredo sauce
• 2 medium broccoli heads, stemmed and cut into bite-size pieces OR 1 bag frozen broccoli, cooked
• 1 pkg. artificial crab or lobster pieces

Directions:

In a large pot combine sauce, broccoli, crab, and cook over medium heat.  Once heated through, remove from heat and set aside.  Place cooked spaghetti on plates and add sauce over top.  Serve with garlic bread and tossed salad.

Akari's Musings

Why, yes, that is a bowl of shrimp. You see, when I went to Aldi to buy groceries on Wednesday night, I thought that I would surely be able to find imitation crab. They have freaking lobster and Fillet Mignon right now. You'd think that Krab would be there some where. Nope. Not even a freaking CAN of crab. But they had shrimp, which is way better than stupid Krab. Yes, I went with frozen broccoli this time. The fresh stuff was way to expensive for too little pay out. Plus, I didn't want to deal with steamer again. I want to point out the can of cream of mushroom soup sitting there. This little 10.75oz can is such a life saver. There's hardly anything that I hate more than pasta with too little sauce. I was afraid that one jar of Alfredo wasn't going to be enough with the jumbo shrimp and the broccoli. My darling husband suggested a can of cream of mushroom soup. I figured it couldn't hurt. The butter and spices you see were for giving the shrimps a little bit extra flavor.

I took the extra five minutes and pinched the tails off the shrimp. I was 98% effective in getting the shell off with the tail meat intact. In the times I wasn't, I found that Jack was right: shrimp nubs really do have a surprising amount of meat in them. I melted 3 tablespoons of butter and added the shrimps. After they sizzled for a bit, I sprinkled them with garlic & onion powders and couple grinds of sea salt. I put the broccoli bags into the microwave to steam and got the water boiling for the pasta. (On the tiny burner of doom. OMG...)

Once the broccoli was done, I added it to the skillet and gave it a couple good turns in the seasoned butter. I lowered the heat and wandered off to contemplate garlic bread. I ultimately decided against it. I was too hungry to wait. I had just run The Battle of Mt. Hyjal and I was starving by this time. The smell of the spices and the shrimp and the broccoli was getting to me.

Classico Alfredo sauce is the only way to go. I've tried every single one of their varieties and I haven't found one yet that I didn't like. My absolute favorite is the Roasted Red Pepper, but the Sun Dried Tomato (featured here) is a very close second. I can only find the Roasted Red Pepper at one particular grocery store chain here and they charge out the nose for it so I only get it on special occasions. Classico isn't the cheapest Alfredo sauce on the shelf, but it's worth the extra couple pennies, in my opinion. I brought the sauce to a slight boil before killing the heat down to low while I waited for the water to come to a boil.

The water finally came to a boil and I added the pasta. Tri Color Rotini! Yum! I honestly don't know if the colored pastas actually taste different. I've always covered them in sauce. While I puttered around the kitchen, I remembered the bucket of Italian Seasoning that I bought at The Main Street Market Place in Old Town St. Charles, MO. I added a half teaspoon to the sauce and then filled up my spice jar. I love the smell of good spices. I could just sit there and breathe in the smell. It's amazing.

I used a ladle to serve this. Not because it was soupy, but because I was just that hungry. I wanted maximum servability. Or something like that. (It's nearly 3am and I've been awake for nearly 24 hours.) It's certainly colorful with the bright green broccoli, the pink shrimp and the orange tomato pasta. It was certainly a pick me up. It's been shades of grey around here for months. This was like a big pot of spring time! (I heard once that when you've gone 19 hours with out sleep you have the same judgment impairment as some one who is legally drunk...I completely agree with this statement.)

I finally got the main light in the kitchen fixed, and it's adding all kinds of weird shadows to my pictures. I'm going to have to learn to to avoid them. A dusting of parmesan cheese (Not fresh, but the generic stuff I got at Walmart) and I was good to go. James' idea of adding the cream of mushroom soup was utter brilliance. It extended the sauce with out cutting out any flavor. The herbs from the Italian Seasoning just complimented every aspect of this dish. The shrimp were awesome. I was really glad I decided to saute them first before adding the sauce. I think the garlic and onion gave them a depth that helped the dish.

I guess I didn't really make this recipe so much as I used it for inspiration. I can't imagine that Krab would be a could addition or substitution in this creation, but if it turns you on, go for it.

This gets my stamp of approval and will definitely be made again and soon!

I seek my bed now...I've been up way too long...