Sausage with Spinach

Ready for a great meal good for any night of the week?  Or maybe you are looking for a super bowl for Super Bowl?  Throw this in the crock and it will be done just in time for dinner time or half time.  Yumm.



Ingredients:
6 sweet Italian turkey sausages (I used regular sausage)
1 1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
1 (1 pound) bag frozen pearl onions, thawed
1/2 cup golden raisins
large pinch kosher salt
large pinch black pepper
11oz package of baby spinach
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
3 cups cooked rice

Directions:
1.  Spray large heavy skillet with nonstick spray and heat over medium-high.  Add sausages and brown.  Set aside.
2.  Add broth to skillet and cook, scraping browned bits from bottom.
3.  Transfer to 5 or 6 quart slow cooker.  Stir in onions, raisins, salt and pepper.  Top with sausages.  Cover and cook until until fork tender, 4-6 hours on high or 8-10 hours on low.
3.  Transfer sausages to cutting board and slice. 
4.  Stir spinach into slow cooker, cooking just until wilted.
5.  Stir in sliced sausages and vinegar.
6.  Serve with rice.

I'm unsure where I got original recipe but think it is from the Weight Watchers magazine.

Sausage Stuffed Peppers

A few months back I scored a subscription to Redbook magazine for $5 on Amazon.com. It has paid for itself in spades because I've gotten some yummy recipes from it such as this one that I bring to you today.

My husband devoured his and finished off the ones 2 of my kids wouldn't eat. My oldest loved it and 2 days later even asked me when I could make them again. I LOVE hearing things like that from my kids about things that I make!

I had left over stuffing mix and my husband took that to work for lunch. Boy, I sure got mileage out of this recipe!

Ingredients:
4 red, yellow, or orange bell peppers, cut in half length wise and seeds removed
olive oil spray
3 cups of brown rice (I used white)
8 oz. spicy Italian chicken sausage links, fully cooked and diced (I used regular sweet sausage)
4 scallions, sliced
2 cups marinara sauce
2 Tbsp. fresh oregano
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 400degrees F
2. Place halved peppers in a large roasting pan, cut sides up and coat with olive oil spray

3. In a large bowl, toss rice, sausage, scallions, oregano, marinara sauce and mozzarella sauce.



4. Fill pepper cavities with mixture.

5. Cover peppers with foil and bake 20 minutes until peppers are tender.

6. Serve with extra marinara sauce.

Side idea: serve with mixed green salad

I Might Love Biscuits more than Chocolate

I'm not good with bread though...I have been known to burn:

Toast

Biscuits

Rolls

Pizza 

To be blunt I never have been able to make anything resembling bread go into my oven and come out edible. 

 

It's always burned...either completely unrecognizable or the bottom is rock hard brown/black. 

 

In fact if you were in my house at dinner time -- I might knock you down in my haste to get back to the bread that I forgot about in the oven.

 

So imagine my surprise when this combination of cheese, sausage and bread came out of MY OVEN incredibly yummy.

 

Side note:  This recipe sadly only makes 6 scrumptious biscuits...granted my kids were at their grandparents - so Hubby and I were able to split them. 

 

Biscuit Sausage Cheese Balls
Katie Barreira
Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine 2010

Ingredients:

1/2 pound spicy Italian sausage
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream - tad bit more for basting.
1 ounce American or sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a large skillet , crumble sausage and cook, stirring often, over medium-high heat until browned., about 5 mintues. Drain and let cool.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in heavy cream and sausage into dry ingredients. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface, press into a disk and cut into 6 even triangles.



Cut cheese into 6 cubes and place 1 in the center of each triangle; roll into a ball. Place the dough balls on a baking sheet, brush with some more cream and bake until golden, 12 to 15 minutes.

Farmhouse Hash with Your Egg Choice

I sometimes wonder if I will ever get tired of the Food Network...while watching this week I caught a new show -- Sandra's Money Saving Meals w/ Sandra Lee. I always liked Semi-Homemade Cooking - so I sat down to watch -- what a terrific resource if you are trying to trim your grocery budget.

Not only did I take away several recipes...she gave lots of tips on how to save money in the grocery store and at home.

One tip that I already do: buy your veggies whole -- then clean and chop them yourselves...they are so much cheaper that way!

This is a recipe that was one of many that were featured on the show...and since it used ingredients that I already had on hand (everything except the Italian sausage) I thought that I would give it a try...You can find the full recipe here.

This was so simple and easy to prepare...it was a great way to have breakfast for dinner. I also loved that it was a one pot wonder...easier clean up!

In the original recipe she calls for a poached egg but since I don't like them (as in never tried them) I opted for a fried for the adults and scrambled for the kids.


Ingredients

1 tbl spoon canola oil (I used olive oil)
2 stalks celery diced
1 carrot diced
1/2 med yellow onion diced
2 large red potatoes diced ( I used 5-6 for my family)
1/2 lb sweet Italian sausage
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp chopped garlic
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
eggs




Notice from my picture that I left out the garlic, red pepper and paprika? I didn't do that on purpose...I was going by memory while cooking...should have checked out the recipe first...but even without the spices it was really good.


Directions:

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, sausage, paprika, garlic, red pepper flakes and salt/pepper to taste.

Saute stirring frequently, until the potatoes and carrots are tender, and the sausage is cooked through, about 12 minutes.

At this point Sandra and I took a different path -- so if you want to see the directions for poaching an egg -- click here.

I just fried a couple of eggs in butter and then scrambled 4 more with milk for the kids.

Divide the potato mixture between your bowls and top with eggs.




Greg and I both thought that this was sooo yummy!! We both give it a rating of 5 spoons...we both wanted more but it was all gone!!



The kids were a little bummed that they didn't get to have fried eggs...but I just didn't think that it was safe for them to eat.



Since I didn't get a chance to post the Mcklinky this past Sunday, I wanted to give everyone a chance to link up this week. Thanks so much for following along with us on this food adventure. We can't wait to see what's on your table!!






Mellisa