I don’t know about you but I love to cook long elaborate meals, but during the week there is nothing better than a homemade meal that is quick and easy. Last night’s quick and easy meal was shrimp with couscous and sun-dried tomato pesto en papillote. En papillote simply transfers to “in parchment,” which is a steaming method in a pouch. If you haven’t ever cooked with parchment, go ahead and give this a go.

What you’ll need:

Pesto: 4 oz sun-dried tomatoes in oil, 1 Tbsp slivered almonds, 1/2 cup fresh basil, pinch S&P, 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan.

Shrimp and couscous: 1/2 pound shrimp, 1/2 cup slivered onion, 1/2 cup red bell pepper, 1 Tbsp olive oil, 1/3 cup uncooked couscous, 1/2 cup chicken broth.

To start the pesto, in a food processor add the sun-dried tomatoes, almonds, basil and S&P and pulse until pesto like consistency.

Then in a bowl mix in the parmesan cheese and set aside.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Warm the chicken broth and then add the couscous, cover and remove from the heat. Let the couscous sit covered for 5 minutes. While this sets slice your onion and bell pepper. Then in a mixing bowl combine couscous, bell pepper, onion, salt and pepper and mix well.

Then take your parchment paper and cut into two pieces. Fold each piece in half to make a crease and then unfold and place couscous mixture on one side of each sheet. Arrange the shrimp in a single layer over the couscous mixture and top with pesto.

Fold and tightly seal the edges with narrow folds, place them on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes you can cut open the packages and serve ’em right up!

Happy eating!