Posted in easy, Pasta, Recipes, Sausage

Sausage Pasta Skillet

Here is another easy recipe that I found in my Evernote account.

This is an easy skillet dish. Enjoy with easy peasy garlic bread.

sausage skillet pasta

Sausage Skillet Pasta

Stars of the recipe:

  • 1/2 box of penne pasta or any other small pasta
  • 1 pound sausage (Italian, mild, or hot)
  • 1/2 onion, diced
  • 1 (15 oz.) can of crushed tomatoes
  • 1 Tbsp. sugar
  • 1/4 c. sliced black olives
  • 1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
  • 1/4 c. Italian cheese blend or Parmesan cheese for serving

Steps:

  1. Cook pasta following the directions on the box. (You can use any small shape)
  2. In a separate pan, brown sausage. (I used mild.)
  3. After it’s almost fully browned, add diced onions. Cook until the sausage is fully browned.
  4. Add crushed tomatoes, and sugar to cut the acidity of the tomatoes and 1 Tbsp. Of Italian seasoning, and sliced black olives.
  5. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.
  6. Add the cooked pasta.
  7. Sprinkle Italian cheese blend or Parmesan cheese over pasta and sauce.

Happy eating,
Traci

Posted in Electric Pressure Cooker, Sausage, slow cooker

Sausage, Peppers, and Onions – Pressure Cooking Or Slow Cooker

I found this recipe and decided to make this for our dinner.  We loved that it was made in a pressure cooker.  Hubby got a lesson on how the pressure cooker works.  He saw how long the recipe was supposed to take so that he could gauge what time dinner was going to be on the table.  The problem is that he didn’t factor in the fact that the pressure cooker has to reach pressure before it starts cooking the food.

Hubby and I loved this dinner.  It was simple and delicious!

We ate it over rice I had cooked earlier in the pressure cooker.  I reheated it with butter, salt, and a Tablespoon or two of water.  Then I warmed it up in the microwave for about 3 minutes.  Afterward, I fluffed up the rice.

This would also be delicious over pasta.  We will save the rest of the sauce and use it over pasta for a quick dinner.  Yum!

sausage

I used basil garlic pork sausage from Fresh Thyme.  It’s bulk sausage, so you can choose how many sausage links you want to buy.  I only bought two sausage links since they are huge.  Then I cut each one into 4 pieces for a total of 8 pieces.

Sausage, Onions, and Peppers

adapted from Pressure Cooking Today

Happy eating,
Traci

Posted in beef, Chicken, Crockpot, Menu planning, Sausage

Menu Plan Monday – November 2, 2015

Can you believe it is November already? Thanksgiving will be here before we know it.

Countdown to Thanksgiving

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I have 9 new recipes to share between now and the third week of November. This means I’ll be posting 3 or 4 recipes a week. All but one of the recipes have been tested and approved by my family. One of the recipes is for a turkey breast that my mother-in-law has raved about.

The majority of the recipes are for the slow cooker. Anything to make it easier for you. A week before Thanksgiving, I’m going to give you my plan for making the food in stages so as not to do it all on Thanksgiving.

This will be our first year hosting Thanksgiving, so that will be fun. Last year I made the side dishes and then transported them to my mother-in-law’s house. We’ve already invited my mother, sister, and mother-in-law to Thanksgiving. We have a few other people we want to invite also.

I’ll post my first Thanksgiving dish on my Cooking It Slow blog. It’s for Makes It Owns Gravy Turkey Breast and Easy Gravy.

Menu Plan Monday
Menu Plan Monday

I created a printable menu but am changing the dates on a few meals. We have leftover side dishes that would go better with the meatloaf than the beenie weenies. So I’m flip-flopping the meatloaf and beenie weenies.

As you can see, I’m still using the crockpot for my meals. It’s so much easier to use the crockpot for our meals.

Monday – Crockpot Meatloaf, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, and veggies

Tuesday – Chicken fajitas, Spanish rice

WednesdayBeenies Weenies (We didn’t make them last week.)

Thursday – Sausage and cheesy hash brown casserole

Friday Barbecue Chicken Legs, pasta side dish, veggies

Printable Version

What’s on your menu this week?

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday.

Countdown to Thanksgiving Pinterest Page
Countdown to Thanksgiving Pinterest Page

Happy Eating,
Traci

Posted in 31 days, chili, Pumpkin, Sausage, slow cooker

Chili Seasoning and Pumpkin Chili – 31 Days of Slow Cooking (Day 8)

Please view my welcome post introducing you to my newest blog dedicated to slow cooking.  This is a continuation of my I’m Hungry blog.

Last Saturday, I planned my dinners for the week.  It was cold and rainy.  The temperatures had dipped into the ’40s, so chili really sounded good.  However, Ohio’s weather can change by the minute, so by the time we had this dinner, it was in the 70s.  Not really chili weather.  Even so, this dinner was delicious!

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Hubby swears that once October hit, there was a real push for pumpkin everything.  Pumpkin coffee, pumpkin bread, pumpkin Oreos, etc. . . .

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My chili features pumpkin.  The pumpkin makes the chili thick.  

The family loved this chili.  Wee One, my youngest, placed the corn muffin we served with the chili on a plate.  Then he poured the chili over the corn muffin.  He then ate it that way.

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Before we get to the pumpkin chili, I will share a chili seasoning blend that we really enjoy in our chili.   I love to do-it-yourself spice blends because you control the ingredients.  We don’t like cumin, so I put less in my spice blends.

Chili Seasoning Blend

adapted from Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures

Stars of the recipe:

  • 1/2 c. dried parsley flakes
  • 1/2 c. chili powder
  • 1/4 c. minced onions
  • 2 Tbsp. salt
  • 2 Tbsp. cornstarch
  • 1 Tbsp. garlic powder
  • 2 Tbsp. ground cumin (I use 1/2 Tbsp. to 1 Tbsp.)
  • 1 Tbsp. dried basil
  • 1 Tbsp. dried oregano
  • 2 tsp. paprika

Steps:

  1. Combine the ingredients in an airtight container.
  2. Use 3 Tbsp. of seasoning mix when you make chili.

Pumpkin Chili

Adapted from All Four Burners

Stars of the recipe:

  • 1 lb. of ground sausage (I used mild.)
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 sm. onion, diced
  • 2 – 14.5 oz. Can diced tomatoes or 1 big can (around 28 oz.) of diced tomatoes  – do not drain it
  • 1 – 28.5 oz. can of pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie ready)
  • 1 – 15 oz. can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed off
  • 1 – 4 oz. can of mild diced green chilies
  • 1 c. frozen whole-kernel corn
  • 3 Tbsp. chili seasoning

Steps:

  1. Heat oil in a large pan over medium-high heat.
  2. Add the onion and garlic and cook for 5 to 7 minutes.
  3. Add sausage and cook until browned.  (I cooked my sausage in my small slow cooker overnight, so I skipped steps 1 -3.)
  4. Drain the fat.
  5. Place the sausage mixture in a 5 to 6-quart crock pot.  (Since I had cooked my sausage overnight, I added the garlic and onion.)  Add the remaining ingredients to the crock pot.
  6. Cook for 7 hours on low.
  7. Enjoy with cornbread!

If you like this post, please share it on Facebook or Pinterest.  This is the link to my Facebook page and Pinterest page.

Please visit my post about the 31 days of slow cooking on my I’m Hungry blog.

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Happy Eating,

Traci

Posted in breakfast, Breakfast for Dinner, Hubby, Ingredients, Recipes, Sausage

Sausage Gravy

My absolute favorite breakfast besides granola and yogurt is sausage gravy and biscuits.  Sometimes I treat myself to an order of them at our local farmer’s market.

Since I was on winter/Christmas break and life was back to normal or almost normal, I decided I needed to make some for Hubby and my lunch.  The Wee One and the Imaginative One won’t touch the gravy with a ten foot pole.

So if you are looking for a delicious lazy Saturday type of breakfast, this recipe is for you.

Sausage Gravy

Crumbs and Chaos

Stars of the recipe:

  • 1 pound of bulk sausage
  • 1/2 c. flour (I used whole white wheat)
  • 4 c. milk or 2 c. milk and 2 c. half and half
  • 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
  • black pepper and seasoning salt (or white salt) to taste

Steps:

  1. Brown crumbled up sausage in a skillet on med. heat.  Don’t drain the grease off.
  2. Add the flour and stir until all of the sausage is coated with flour.
  3. Cook for about 2 minutes.
  4. Add the milk and Worcestershire sauce to the skillet.
  5. Turn the heat up to high and allow the mixture to boil.  (Keep an eye on the mixture.)
  6. After it boils, turn the heat down to med. low and allow to cook for 5 more minutes or until the gravy is thickened.
  7. Enjoy over biscuits!  Some biscuit recipes from my blog are 7-up biscuits, buttermilk biscuits, or buttermilk biscuits revisited.

Printable Recipe

Posted in Crockpot, Ingredients, Main Dish, Meat, Recipes, Sausage

Sausage and Sauerkraut (GF, DF)

Sausage and Sauerkraut

Stars of the recipe:

  • 1 package of smoked sausage
  • 1 jar or bag of sauerkraut, drained and rinsed off
  • 3 Tbsp. of brown sugar
  • 3 Tbsp. of Dijon mustard

Steps:

  1. Cut the sausage into rings.
  2. Mix the sauerkraut, brown sugar, and Dijon mustard in a bowl
  3. Place sausage and sauerkraut into the crockpot.
  4. Cook on low for 4 hours.
  5. Enjoy with mashed potatoes or roasted red potatoes.  (I also had corn and baked apples with it.)

Printable Recipe

Posted in Cream Cheese, Crockpot, Dips, Ethnic, Ingredients, Mexican, Recipes, Sausage, Snacks, Tomato

Sausage, cream cheese, and Rotel dip

Yummy! Three ingredients that sound strange together come together in gooey, gooey deliciousness goodness. We had a family game night scheduled for my church. I decided to make a recipe from a while ago and a new recipe. I have Stephanie O’Dea’s slow cooker cookbook. This is one of the recipes in it.

Sausage, cream cheese, and Rotel dip

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Stars of the recipe:

  • A pound of breakfast sausage
  • 8 oz. block of cream cheese
  •  1-10 oz. can of Rotel
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Steps:

  1. Brown sausage and then drain.
  2. Place browned sausage, Rotel, and cream cheese in a 1.5 or 2 qt. Crockpot.
  3. Cook on high for 45 minutes or low for 90 minutes.
  4. Enjoy with tortilla chips.

Printable Recipe