Alfredo Pasta with Shrimp

I have never had the cleaning skills as my daughter Hannah.  My Mom and I joke that I don’t know how Hannah came out of me because I was the kid whose room looked like a tornado went through it.  It could be like that for months until I couldn’t stand it anymore and then would do a clean sweep.  It may have lasted a week, or a year like that, I just never knew.

I of course have gotten better as I’ve gotten older.  Our house is pretty much always “company ready” meaning I wouldn’t mind if someone just knocked on our door without notice.

Saturday, however, my cleaning was out of control.  So much so that Tony thought that at one point I was going to start cleaning him!  I deep cleaned the kitchen, cleaned under the stove, and de-cluttered our back room.  With Tony’s help I moved our bed so I could vacuum underneath it – there was so much dog hair I am not sure how our dog still has any hair!

One thing I’ve noticed lately is that when Tony and I eat a late breakfast, neither of us has any lunch, so I felt I could splurge with deep dish pizza!  Here is the recipe for it – I know it sounds long and complicated, but it isn’t. 

Yesterday was such a weird weather day – started out chilly, then got warm, then stormy.  I cooked up my SIL’s food for the week – she lost 3 pounds last week!  I watched some stupid shows while Tony watched football – here was a weird one: “Style by Jury.”   A woman sits in front of a one way mirror while a “jury” describes what they see.  The episode I saw was a woman who was 35, but they jury thought she looked 45, was weak, lacked confidence, etc.

Then the show spends 7 days with her to change everything about her, and then all of a sudden she looks like a model and the jury now declares her “strong, athletic, someone I’d want to be around.”  It was so stupid, but yet I stuck with it for an hour!

As I was going to the grocery store yesterday, I was flipping stations and stopped on a channel that had Journey playing.  Then a Phil Collins song came on – and yes, if you are wondering, I do sing at the top of my lungs in the car.   I looked down to see what station I was on and saw this:

What??!!  I was on the “oldies” station?  Since when is Journey and Phil Collins considered the oldies station?  Ugh, guess I am just getting old!

Again, we ate a late breakfast Sunday, so dinner was a bit of a splurge too. 

Shrimp Alfredo Pasta

• makes 2 servings, 623 calories, 21 fat, 68 carbs, 3 fiber and 41 protein

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces uncooked pasta, cooked according to package directions
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 6 ounces shrimp
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Cook the pasta according to package directions, then drain.  In a small pan, melt butter.  Add flour and cook for 1 minute.  Slowly add the milk, stirring, until thickened.  Remove from heat and add the Parmesan cheese first (I mistakenly salted the mixture before adding the cheese and it was almost too salty – the Parmesan cheese is salty), then season to taste.

In a non-stick pan, heat olive oil over medium high heat.  Add shrimp and cook for just about 2 minutes.  Then toss the pasta and shrimp with the cheese sauce, stir, and garnish with chopped parsley.

I accidentally left my camera on all day, so this is from my phone – not the best picture, but this was super delicious and worth the calories!

And now it’s back to the grind.  Can I just say that after sleeping in these last three days the alarm going off sucked just a bit?!

Charlie, I was going through some of Dad’s old negatives and a while back got some of them onto a CD.  This must be about 1969 or 1970??  Mom, have any idea?

You look so cute!  I love you Charlie!   And, um, you really need to update your blog and let everyone know how you are doing.