Tag: sausage

Kale and Sausage Stir Fry

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This week really picked up at work. We have a mix of project components all due by November 10th. Some components we can complete without roadblocks, but others are data-based, and so we can only progress based on how much data has already been compiled. I added formulas to the spreadsheet we’ve been working on to try and make the process less manual, but to also minimize how many times we have to go back into the spreadsheet. It’s definitely saved us some time overall to commit to other project components. As we enter Version 2 of our project, I’m curious to see if there will be a Version 3, and if not, what my involvement will be in the next steps of the project. I’m excited to see it!

Halloween this past “weekend” was a lot of fun! I spent it with my family and we ordered matching skeleton onesies to make it easier. Although we ended up not going trick-or-treating, we had a lot of fun setting up the candy table for the trick-or-treaters. My dad has a great set-up going with a skeleton who sits behind the table with blinking eyes, bats and ghosts flying in from a nearby pole, and a remote controlled spider/skeleton hybrid. We ended up going out for dinner and drinks dressed in our costumes. It was a fun night!

I was feeling a bit lazy this past weekend so I tried to opt for something that could be very mindless. I didn’t want to have to worry about how long an ingredient was being cooked for or having to add certain ingredients at a certain point in time. I wanted to be able to put everything in the pan and call it a day.

Some of the ingredients for this dish. Placed on a cutting board that was handmade by my dad! They were great Christmas presents from a few years ago!

This week I made a Kale and Sausage Stir Fry which was great to have for work. The skillet I have is large, but not large enough for the quantities I was making. Unfortunately that meant that I couldn’t throw everything in the pan and call it a day, but it was still a very straight forward meal. Cooked red onions tend to lose their strong flavor and add a nice subtlety to the recipe. They also don’t have that distinct onion smell when you re-heat them in the office microwave.

Kale is not an ingredient that most people like. I personally do not like kale. However, when it’s cooked and mixed with other ingredients, I really don’t mind the taste of it at all. The downside to cooking kale is that many of the high nutritional benefits are lost or minimized. In contrast, cooked bell peppers apparently help you absorb the vitamins better. I’m not sure how true that is, but if you’d like to read more on it, here’s the article I found. And finally, there was the asparagus.

Asparagus is low in calories and a great source of vitamins A, C, and K

Pulled from Healthline

Mixed with the sweet potatoes and the sausage, I found this to be an easy but filling recipe. I love adding sweet potato to my recipes. I find to to be a great fall ingredient, it’s always easy to prepare, and there are many ways to make it! I did have a minor cooking accident which made the prep time much longer than anticipated, but all is well and my minor wound healed fine. Check out the recipe below and let me know what you think!

Recipe List below:

  • 1 Bundle Fresh Kale
  • 1 Bundle Asparagus
  • 1 Yellow Bell Pepper
    • Can also substitute for other colors depending on what you prefer
  • 1 Red Onion
  • 3 Small/Medium Sweet Potatoes
  • 1 Pack Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage*
    • I use pre-cooked sausage that takes much less time to prepare
    • This is another ingredient that can be substituted for what you prefer
  • 2 tbsp Olive Oil
  • Medium Sprinkle Garlic Powder
  • Medium Sprinkle Onion Powder
  • Light Sprinkle Salt
  • Medium Sprinkle Black Pepper
  • Medium Sprinkle Sesame Seeds
  • Light Sprinkle Red Pepper Flakes*

Recipe Directions below:

  • Prep veggies and goodies:
    • Peel and cube sweet potato
    • Separate and slice kale
    • Dice red onion
    • Cut up asparagus
  • In a large skillet, add 1 tbsp Olive Oil and sweet potatoes
    • Cook sweet potatoes on medium heat for 6-8 minutes or until golden brown
  • Add 1 tbsp Olive Oil, bell pepper, onion , and asparagus
    • Add garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, sesame seed, and red pepper flakes*
    • Cook for 8-10 minutes or until tender
  • Remove ingredients from skillet and add to large mixing bowl
  • Add kale to skillet and cook for 2-3 minutes or until kale is wilted
  • Add kale to large mixing bowl and add pre-cooked sausage* to skillet
    • Cook for 8-10 minutes
  • Mix ingredients together and serve.
The final product. This was a great mix of veggies and a filling dish for a busy day at work.

*Optional additions. This sausage addition helps make the recipe a bit more filling. I add the red pepper flakes because they’re one of my favorite additions to any meal.

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Skillet Sausage and Zucchini

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Hello and welcome back (to me)!

For winter break from grad school, I went back home to New Jersey for about a month. I initially had intended to keep posting every two weeks like normal, but that obviously didn’t happen. The week before break I had finals, and also a scheduled post which I ended up missing due to studying. I was planning to just post it the following Wednesday, but then I flew home, and it was SO nice to just relax and not have any responsibilities regarding school. I was able to sleep in until 11 everyday, have a beer with my dad, go for walks with my mom, and then watch TV or play videos games. It was a perfect vacation. Benefit being that it was also Christmas!

Some of our Christmas decorations!

Soooo I ended up not writing any blog posts.

I will say though that the break was really good for me. During the Fall semester I was still trying (and struggling) to figure out a daily schedule in order to do the things I needed to do, like school, and do the things I wanted to do, like cook, workout, play video games, watch TV, etc. My eating schedule was a mess and sometimes I’d miss meals because I was doing work and then eat the meal I missed 3 hours later but then not be hungry for dinner. Or I would wake up early to try and workout but then by 1pm I’d be knocking out for an accidental 2 hour power nap and then be wide awake at 10pm when I was ready to go to bed. So the holiday was really good for reducing stress and emphasizing relaxation.

The holidays this year were very different, due to the obvious reason. I was able to fly home, and after completing the NJ quarantine post-flight, I was able to spend time with my mom and dad. My sister and her boyfriend stayed in California so we were unable to see them this year. Additionally, my dog passed in April so this was our first Christmas without him. Although it was very different, we still made the most of our time together and we tried to connect at least once every week so it was almost as if they were in NJ! We Zoom’ed for Christmas and we also started doing family game night via Zoom (everyone’s new favorite system). The two games we’ve been playing so far are Azul and Tiny Towns. They’re both strategy games (in my opinion) but they’re easy to learn and a relatively quick play. We tried to play one or two rounds every time we had game night. So that made the holidays really enjoyable. Honestly, there was so much more that happened and I’m so happy that I got to go home. There were so many enjoyable moments and as happy as I am to be back in my apartment, it was sad to leave.

Regardless of me sleeping in until 11am, I did do a lot of things for myself (yes, I was productive). Over the break I: a) spent time planning out a meal schedule for the semester of exactly what I’m going to be cooking for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks; b) created a realistic (catch that bolded word) schedule for myself so that I can do more of the things I want to do instead of drowning in the things I need to do; and c) spent some much needed time with my family.

Speaking of that meal schedule…. I’m very excited to share that the re-vamped schedule is SO good and I’m SO excited to share these recipes and try them out. But before I get to that, I will share the last recipe I made which was before winter break even started! The recipe I made was a sausage and zucchini dish which can be found here, from the blog Counts of the Nether World.

For me, this was such a great mix of veggies and meat and really easy to make, which is always my favorite. As the recipe says, it only took about 10 minutes to make (unless you buy uncooked sausages, which I did once, and it took me ages). I’m essentially always in a jam with time, so having the pre-cooked sausage made this recipe a breeze to make because all I had to do was heat it up. Additionally, I didn’t have to mince or dice any of the veggies. As you can see from the blog and from my photo here, the veggies were cut into chunks which made the whole process really quick.

I didn’t end up buying enough of the ingredients to make a full meal out of this (for the whole week), so I ended up pairing it with some rice to not take away from the focus of the meal. To have as a stand alone meal I think is realistic because the sausage on its own is filling, and the addition of the vegetables is not only filling but also adds more nutritional value to the meal. Had I enough to make a proper portion size of the recipe, then I would have easily made this a stand alone meal. Paired with the rice this was also really good, and for me it was good because it just added a bit more variation to the meal.

A little short today regarding the food, but I would still recommend trying out the recipe if you need a quick weeknight meal. I mostly wanted to give and update. Like I said, I’m super excited about the recipes that are to come (including some that I made while home with the Master Chef, aka, my dad). I’ve also got a whole mix coming up, not just dinner recipes! I’ve added some breakfast recipes I’ve found, as well as lunches and side dishes. I’m looking forward to either sharing a new food blogger for you to follow or a new magazine for you to buy based on where the upcoming recipes come from! The break was SO nice, but I’m happy I’m back to posting and trying out new recipes.

Look for the next post soon! There are so many to choose from so look forward to the surprise 🙂

To be continued…

Gabriela

White Bean and Sausage Rigatoni

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I think I need to start taking notes of what happens every week because half the time I end up forgetting. Last week is a bit of a blur, and this week, Monday felt like the longest day, and Tuesday felt like Thursday. And it’s only Wednesday…

Not too many updates. Module 2 of fall semester is going well. I feel like I’m actively participating in class and actually retaining and learning the information, whereas Module 1, it felt like it was going in one ear and out the other. Even though I’m taking an extra class this module, I feel that I have more time for myself and a better handle on everything.

Honestly, it’s probably all due to my calendar update. I re-vamped the whole thing. It’s a little scary to look at because it’s so overwhelming, but it really keeps me on track. I’ve put EVERYTHING, like literally ~everything~ into my calendar. This includes when to wake up, my morning routine, reminder for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, homework/study time, gaming time, bed time, everything. And it’s been really great actually. I used to feel like I couldn’t do certain things like working out or playing a game because it didn’t fit into my schedule. But now that I’ve allocated time to do those things, it’s actually really easy to do them and a lot of the time I end up being ahead of schedule rather than behind schedule. And if something ends up not fitting, I don’t feel bad because I know I’ve accomplished so many other things in my day. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, I would highly recommend doing this, it really helped.

I also started using these notepads that my sister gave me a while back. They’re called “Today’s Plan of Attack” and its split up into most critical, would be nice, and not a chance. It’s pretty limited space which is good because it means I can’t over-pack my day. And then I get to cross things off as I finish them, which is really satisfying and makes me feel like I’ve accomplished so much, even if it’s just a minor task.

Anyway. Halloween weekend a friend of mine won a brownie and cookie making kit, but wasn’t going to use it, so I ended up making it. Just the brownies, the cookie box is still on my counter. I’m not a great cook, but I’m very comfortable cooking and following cooking recipes to make something edible. Baking on the other hand is a whole other story. I don’t think I have ever baked something that has turned out how it was supposed to. I don’t know why. I follow the directions and things still turn out burnt, or undercooked, or just plain ugly. These actually turned out kinda okay! It was really exciting. They were really painfully sweet, but good all the same. I didn’t take a picture, but the box came with a coffin cut out and some icing, so we (I) got to decorate the brownies to look like coffins, post-Halloween. It was a lot of fun!

Aside from my questionable baking skills, I made a rigatoni recipe which turned out delicious (I think I say that every week…). I had a bit of help cooking the sausage because anything other than chicken makes me a little nervous that I’m undercooking it, and we definitely don’t want that. The recipe was really straight forward, and there actually wasn’t a whole lot of prep time, mostly cooking time for the sausage. I also thought I took photos, but apparently I only took like 3… soooo sorry about that. Must have slipped my mind.

The recipe for this week is from Better Homes and Gardens, New Cook Book, 16th Edition. As you can probably guess, this recipe is located in the Pasta section of the book. The book is like 700 pages long, so there are a lot of other really good recipes and ideas in here, some of which I’m hoping to try and share with you in the future.

I had nearly double for everything except for the beans and I think I should have bought 2 cans. They weren’t overwhelming but there also wasn’t really enough to realize that they were there. I think it would have been nice if there were more. I also noticed that the sausage the recipe recommends is PRE-cooked. That saves a WHOLE lot of time. So, for next time, I will buy already cooked sausage so I don’t have to struggle again. This turned out really great. I didn’t add in the dried basil, but having the fresh Basil added on top was a really nice touch. And I of course added loads of Parmesan cheese. Since I decided to cook the sausage, it took me much longer than 20 minutes to prepare this, but overall the recipe was really quick. It was a good cozy meal.

After preparing this, the rest of the night consisted of watching yet another episode of Monsters & Myths. We finished The Haunting of Bly Manor the night after Halloween. The whole season was SO good, and the ending kinda sucked. It was just so underwhelming. Like they had this great buildup and then were like “oh, we need to wrap it all up in this last episode.” It was a little disappointing. But overall, the show itself was really good. Next up: Christmas Movies!!!

Deciding between a zucchini dish or a pork dish for next time. We’ll see 🙂

To be continued…

Gabriela