shells with shrimp, sauteed peppers and garlic

I made a decent dinner tonight, and though I didn't manage to get a picture of it (Sorry Mom and Michelle. I was too hungry!). Basically, I wanted to have a noodle dinner we could eat with a spoon and the dish is constructed to that end (and from stuff left in our fridge). Here's what I did:

I cooked a pound of small shell noodles, gave the kids their portions with some sauce from the fridge mixed in and set the rest aside.

We bought some raw shrimp a few weeks ago. I cooked them in just a little bit of olive oil until they had only just just turned pink and set them aside.

I diced three cloves of garlic and set the small pile aside.

We had three halves of bell peppers (red, orange, yellow). I diced them into very small squares and started them sauteing in some butter and olive oil.

While the peppers cooked, I cut the now cooled shrimp in small chunks and then added it to the peppers with a bit more oo.

I added the garlic now and turned down the temperature (cooking with garlic is tricky--it cooks quickly and therefore burns quickly too. I usually add it as late as possible).

In the pot that I cooked the pasta in, I started about 2 cups of whole milk heating up. When it started to steam, I added about a cup of graded parmesan.

After that cooked down just a bit, I poured in the shrimp/pepper/garlic mixture and let it cook some more (oh yeah--I added the shells now too). At this point, I realized that I probably shouldn't have used so much milk--it was taking a long time to thicken up--but it did eventually.

That was it! What was cool about it though was that the sauce had this really nice roasted pepper/shrimp flavor. I don't know if it was the fact that we started with raw shrimp, but they were especially tender. I served it with slices of lime which I added, but Tina didn't.

I was pleased--especially since I was flying by the seat of my pants. You should go for it too.