Tag Archives: sausage

Sausage and Chayote Stew

2 Mar

In last week’s Bountiful Baskets Mexican themed veggie pack, there was a chayote:

Chayote

 

I had gotten these before in another Mexican themed pack a while back, but this pack only had one.  However, there was zucchini as well, and since chayote is also a member of the gourd family, they both go well in this stew.  Normally, I would put tomatoes in as well, but my husband requested no tomatoes, so I left them out.  This is also similar to the Sausage, Zucchini, and Tomatoes over Rice, but adds a few more ingredients.  I would also suggest serving this over Cilantro Lime Rice, which I didn’t get a chance to make because we had to get to a meeting this week.

Sausage & Chayote Stew

 

 

Sausage and Chayote Stew

What you need:

1 pound Italian sausage
1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 chayote squashes, seeded and chopped (I used 1 chayote and 1 zucchini)
3 green chiles, roasted, peeled, seeded, and diced
3-4 tomatoes, cores and seeds removed, diced (about 2 cups diced tomatoes)
1 can black beans, drained
1 cup frozen corn
Salt and pepper to taste

How to make it:

Place a large pot over medium-high heat.  Remove casings from sausage, crumble, and cook in the skillet until browned.  Add the onion and garlic to the skillet.  Cook and stir until the onions are translucent, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the chayote squash and green chiles.  Cook and stir until the squash begins to soften, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, black beans, and corn.  Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook until completely heated through, about 10 minutes more.  Remove from heat and serve over rice.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Variations on Potato Leek Soup

2 Mar

After ending up with plenty of leeks and gold potatoes after Bountiful Baskets last week, we’ve been enjoying plenty of Potato Leek Soup.  However, my husband complains about the lack of meat.  So, I tried a couple different variations this week, and they were great!

Potato Leek Soup with Sausage:  While soup is cooking, crumble and brown 1 pound of Italian sausage.  Drain excess fat.  Stir into finished soup.

Potato Leek Soup with Sausage

 

Potato Leek Soup with Ham: After soup has finished cooking, add in 2 cups of fully cooked ham (such as Zaycon Foods ham)

Potato Leek Soup with Ham

 

I will update the original post for Potato Leek Soup with these variations as well!

Tags: , , , , ,

Sausage, Spinach, and Rice

7 Jan

Sausage, Spinach, and Rice

One of my favorite dishes I make at Thanksgiving is Wild Rice & Sausage Casserole.  And, while it’s great, it’s a little time-consuming considering it has to go in the oven.  So, I decided to try a little variation, use Italian sausage in place of breakfast sausage, add spinach, and do it in the skillet.  Turns out, this makes a nice, quick standalone meal!  The Italian sausage has enough spices that you don’t really need to add any more seasoning.  My kids both gobbled it down!

Sausage, Spinach, and Rice

What you need:

1 pound Italian sausage, hot or mild, casings removed
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 pound fresh spinach, chopped
2 cups cooked rice, wild, brown, or white, your choice
Grated Parmesan cheese

How to make it:

Break up and brown sausage in a large skillet.  Add onions, and continue to cook until onions are soft and translucent.  Add spinach, and cook until wilted.  Stir in rice and cook over medium heat for a few minutes.  Serve into bowls and sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese onto each serving.

Tags: , , , ,

Sausage Spinach Crescent Calzones

16 Dec

Sausage Spinach Crescent Calzones

 

I had no idea or plan for dinner last night, which seems to be happening all too often for me lately!  So, I had gotten spinach from Bountiful Baskets in the morning, and wanted to incorporate that in somehow.  Then, I remembered I had 2 cans of crescent rolls about to expire, so, I thought I could use them calzone style with spinach, Parmesan, and mozzarella.  But, my husband would complain there was no meat, so I decided to use sausage, which I luckily have a stock of in my freezer ($2.99 at the commissary plus $.50 off 1 coupon = excellent price for Johnsonville Italian sausage!).  These turned out really great, and you could still them with a variety of meats, veggies, and cheeses.  Yum!

 

Sausage Spinach Crescent Calzones

What you need:

1 pound Italian sausage
2 cans crescent rolls
1 cup chopped spinach
1 cup shredded mozzrella
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Olive oil
Italian blend seasoning

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Brown the sausage in a large skillet; drain fat.

Open crescent roll cans and unroll, leaving as rectangles.  You will get 4 rectangles per can.  Lay crescent roll out on a baking sheet and press the diagonal cut to seal it.  Add sausage, spinach, and cheeses to one half.  Fold the other half over the filling and press edges to crimp and seal.  Repeat for remaining crescent rolls.  Brush or spray tops with olive oil and sprinkle with Italian blend seasoning.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown.  Serve with warm pizza sauce, if desired.

Tags: , ,

Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms and Crescent Rolls

4 Dec

Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms and Crescent Rolls

 

After attending the Taste of Home Cooking School show and watching these being made, I have wanted to try this out.  The stuffing is all ingredients I tend to always have on hand, and then when I got mushrooms in this week’s Bountiful Baskets, I knew it was time to make them!  I only had 3 packages of mushrooms and ran out of mushrooms before running out of stuffing.  I had thought this stuffing would go great in crescent rolls too, so I got out a can of crescent rolls to finish up the stuffing.  Both were great and well received by my family (minus my 3-year-old who did not eat any because she is sick).

 

Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms
Original recipe from Johnsonville

What you need:

48 mushrooms or 24 crescent rolls (3 cans)
1 package Italian sausage
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 400 F.  Line 2 baking sheets with foil.

Remove sausage from casings.  Place in a skillet over medium heat and crumble.  Cook until no longer pink and drain.  Stir in bread crumbs.

While sausage is cooking, mix together cream cheese, parsley, lemon juice and garlic.

Add sausage mixture to the cream cheese mixture.  Fill each mushroom or crescent roll with the stuffing.  Lay out on the baking sheets.  Sprinkle with the grated Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, or until mushrooms are tender and lightly browned, or until crescent rolls are golden brown.

Tags: , , , , ,

Stuffed Acorn Squash

13 Jun

 

I feel like this is more of a fall dish than a summer dish, but when I got acorn squash from Bountiful Baskets this week, I knew this was what I wanted to make.  I first tried this in 2010, in my first few months of participating in Bountiful Baskets.  I can’t remember where I got the idea to stuff them, but I wanted something that would be a meal all in one.  I combined a few ideas from recipes online for this, and I really am pleased with the final product.  This time around, it’s also given me a chance to use some of my fresh herbs from the pack I got a couple of weeks back.  My kids like the stuffing, but weren’t fans of the squash tonight.  Oh well, more for me and my husband!

 

Stuffed Acorn Squash

What you need:

3-4 acorn squash
1 cup wild rice blend
2 cups chicken broth
2 teaspoons fresh sage, chopped
2 teaspoons fresh thyme, chopped
4 fully cooked turkey sausage patties
1/2 cup onion
2 tablespoons butter
1 small Granny Smith apple, cored and chopped
How to make it:

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Put wild rice blend, chicken broth, sage, and thyme in a pan and cover with a tight lid.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer.  Simmer for 50 minutes, or until fully cooked.

Meanwhile, cut the acorn squash in half and scoop out seeds. Also, cut a small part off the outside so squash will sit flat. Spray a baking sheet and place squash so the cut insides face down and bake for 30 minutes.

Prepare sausage patties according to package directions. After heated through, chop up and set aside (this can be omitted if making vegetarian)

Using the same pan from the sausage, saute onion in butter until translucent. Add in chopped apple, cooking until tender. Remove from heat. Mix in sausage and rice.

Flip the acorn squash over and fill with the wild rice mixture. Place back in oven and cook for 20 minutes.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Copycat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana

20 Mar

This is one of my favorite soups.  I haven’t made it for a while, but with the recent cold snap in the weather here, I thought it would be perfect for dinner.  I served it with roast beef and swiss on sourdough melts.  Delicious!

Copycat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana
Serves 8 as a side, 4 as a meal
Original recipes here and here

What you need:

1 lb Italian sausage, casings removed
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 tablespoons bacon bits, optional
2 cans (or 4 cups) chicken broth (I used my Homemade Chicken Broth)
4 cups water
1 pound potatoes, cut in 1/4 inch round slices
2 cups chopped kale or chard (or another leafy green, like salad savoy)
1 cup heavy whipping cream or half and half

How to make it:

In a large pot, break up and brown sausage.  Remove from pot and set aside.  Put onion, garlic, and bacon bits in the pot, cook until they have softened.   Pour in water and chicken broth, then add potatoes.  Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until potatoes are soft.  Add sausage, kale and cream or half and half.  Heat through, do not boil.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Classic Pizza Margherita with Sausage

1 Mar

Back in January, I talked about a Johnsonville Pizza Possibilities House Party I had won a while back.  This pizza recipe is another recipe from the book that came in the party box.  I used some fresh spices, red onion, and tomatoes I had gotten from Bountiful Baskets to make this.  It was very good, a lot of sausage, but I think it’s one of those recipes you can add more or less sausage to.

Classic Pizza Margherita with Sausage
Original recipe found here 

What you need:

1 package (19 oz.) Johnsonville Mild Italian Sausage Links
1 package pizza dough crust mix, prepared according to package instructions for the dough
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 tablespoon parsley, minced
1 tablespoon oregano
Sea salt and pepper
8 Roma tomatoes, sliced (divided-save 10 slices for the top)
1/2 medium red onion, minced
2 cups Mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 cup Fontina cheese, shredded (I didn’t have these cheese, so I didn’t use it)
10 fresh basil leaves, divided
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded

How to make it:

Put oven rack on lowest shelf and preheat to 425 F.
Lightly oil a pizza pan. Roll out dough as thin as possible. Let rest 10 minutes.
In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil and cook sausage until browned.  Always cook sausage to internal temperature of 160°F.  Remove from pan and slice.
In the same pan, cook onion and parsley to golden, then stir in garlic and oregano for a few seconds.  Add tomatoes to pan, crushing them as they are mixed (do not substitute crushed tomatoes). Boil, stirring 5 minutes or until thick.
Spread sauce over crust, sprinkle with half the basil, Mozzarella, Fontina, sausage, and the remaining slices of tomatoes. Spray with olive oil.  Sprinkle generously with pepper, then with a little sea salt.
Bake for 10 minutes.  Using a spatula and an oven mitt, slip the pizza off the pan directly onto the oven rack, bake for two minutes.  Slip pizza back onto pan, remove from oven.  Or, I just baked for 12 minutes on the pan.
Sprinkle with the remaining fresh basil and Parmesan cheese, cut and serve.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Johnsonville Pizza Possibilities House Party

24 Jan

If you like to try out new products and host parties, you should look into HouseParty.com.  Manufacturers that want to promote a product work with House Party to get those products out to people who are interested in hosting parties.  Previously, I have hosted a Shutterfly Photobook party, a Febreze Set & Refresh party, and a Huggies Pull Ups Potty Dance party.  Each time, I got free products to share with guests, plus coupons and idea booklets for them to take home.  They all went really well.

In October of last year, I applied and was selected to be a Johnsonville Italian Pizza Possibilities party hostess.  I am already a big fan of Johnsonville sausage and brats, but had never used the sausage for pizza, so this was a good fit for me to try something new.  Unfortunately, some things came up in life and I wasn’t able to host an actual party.  So, now that things have slowed down a bit, I’m able to tell you about Johnsonville and share some of the recipes that were in the booklet with the party.

To start, let’s first talk about what I received in my party kit.

Shown above is an apron, recipe booklet, oven mitt, pizza cutter, paper plates, napkins, and a spoon for spreading pizza sauce.  Also included were coupons for me to get free packages of Johnsonville Italian Sausage and Sargento shredded cheese to use for the party, plus $1 off coupons for the party guests (which I did distribute to some friends).  If you would like to see the recipes in the booklet, you can find them here.

 

So, tonight I made the Sausage Florentine Pizza.  I didn’t have mushrooms, but used onions instead.  I used a homemade pizza sauce for it (recipe coming soon), and because my sauce had lots of fresh spices in it, I did not add the oregano and basil called for in their recipe.  I also used fresh spinach that I chopped instead of using frozen spinach.  I used 2 packages of pizza crust mix to make the pizza a little larger, on one of my baking sheets, so I also used more sauce, spinach, and cheese than what their recipe calls for.  It was great and the family loved it!

 

I’m not sure which recipe I will try next, but they all sound delicious!  So, stay tuned to see what I pick.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Biscuit Waffle Breakfast Sandwiches

5 Dec

Last week I posted about making Biscuit Waffles, and said that I thought they would be perfect for breakfast sandwiches.  Well, I was right!

 

So here is what I used to get 8 breakfast sandwiches:

1 can Grands biscuit, each biscuit split in half, then reshaped to a biscuit shape, giving me 16 biscuit waffles
1 package Jimmy Dean fully cooked turkey sausage rounds, 8 count
2 eggs, beaten, then cooked and divided into 4 sections (I did half with eggs, half without)
Shredded Mexican blend cheese

For the eggs, I sprayed a small skillet, then added the eggs.  Once they started to cook up, I flipped the whole thing.  Once fully cooked, I divided it into 4 pieces.  I then put some of the shredded cheese on each piece of egg, then added them to 4 of the sandwiches.  The other 4 sandwiches I left as just the biscuit waffles and sausage.  2 thumbs up from my family!

 

Tags: ,

← Older Entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 413 other followers

%d bloggers like this: