Easy Cheesy Shrimp Alfredo

Lately, I’ve been looking for a bit of variety in our dinners. We’ve been having the same few easy meals for a while. I sat down, created a menu for the next 5 dinners, and did the shopping. First on the list, Shrimp Alfredo. For many houses, alfredo is a regular thing. But we were tired of chicken and wanted something a little different.

Ingredients:

1 60-80 count bag of frozen shrimp ½ medium onion, diced 1 ½ tablespoons minced garlic (I buy mine in the jar) 1/4 of a stick of butter 2 tablespoons flour 1 of those small cartons of heavy cream 1 ½ cup milk 1 lemon 2 tablespoons dried Italian seasoning 1 tablespoon pepper Fresh Parmesan cheese Fettuccine Pasta

Start off by boiling water in a pot to cook the pasta. While that’s coming to a boil, get the shrimp ready. If you pulled it out of the freezer in time to defrost on its own, awesome. If not, place the frozen shrimp in a colander and run them under COLD water. This will maybe take 5 minutes and is a safe way to defrost shrimp. After the shrimp is defrosted, melt some butter (not the recipe amount, just a pad) in a pan. I added a little bit of garlic (also not from the recipe amount) and I also juiced half of a lemon. Cook until the shrimp is nice and pink and ready. Set this aside. By now your pasta might be ready to drain. Drain the pasta and set that aside.

In the pot you cooked the pasta, start the sauce. Melt the butter (okay we’re back to recipe amounts), then add the garlic and onions. Cook over a medium heat until the onions are translucent. Try to avoid browning the butter, but if you do, it’s no big deal. Add in the flour, whisking to keep it semi smooth (I have no skills, which is why I said “semi”). Whisk in the milk, and continue a slow whisk until the milk is heated. Then the heavy cream. Whisk this slowly as well, it should start thickening up. Add in the Italian seasoning, pepper, and the juice from the other half of the lemon. Once everything is heated through, it’s time for the cheese. This is where I kind of went overboard. Normally, I would recommend no more than a ¼ cup of cheese. I decided I wanted this to be incredibly cheesy so I added a full cup. It probably didn’t need that much, but it was so delicious. It ended up making my sauce more like a wet dough, though. So I’m just going to go ahead and let you decide how much cheese you think you need.

Once everything is cooked through, and the cheese is melted, throw in the pasta and shrimp and mix together. That’s basically it! We served this with a Caesar Salad and some cheesy Texas Toast. There were even leftovers that tasted pretty good the next day as well! Hope you enjoy!