Workout Queen's One-Pan-Wonder

Dinner couldn't be better after a workout. Especially a dinner that gives you the right amount of protein, carbs, and veggies. We like veggies....RIGHT?? Well, check out this one-pan-wonder filled with yummy ingredients that are SUPER EASY to make.

Ingredients:

• 150mL Turkey Sausage - comes in a package that is already ground and mixed together
• 1/4 cup Fettucini
• corn, carrots, zucchini, cauliflower
• cumin
• salt
• garlic powder to taste
  
• 1 tsp olive oil

Procedure:

1. Boil water and cook pasta. Set it aside.
   
2. Put the olive oil in a pan and heat the stove.
3. Add the Turkey Sausage and add the spices that you like.
   
4. Once the turkey sausage is cooked, which should be quick, add veggies to the mix.
5. As soon as the turkey sausage and veggies are cooked, add the pasta.
   
6. Mix it all together. The natural oils from the turkey sausage should be like a sauce for the pasta.
   
7. Serve.

Wait....did I mention easy? Yeah...you didn't think it would be that easy. Well...some of the best and healthiest options are the ones we make ourselves. So when you're hungry and need to scrap together a few things, just whip this recipe up. And don't forget to keep up with the workout! Happy Eating!

His name is Raul...Slow Cooker Turkey Sausage and Kale

For the love of Crock: Crocked Turkey Sausage and Kale





Minimum Effort---Maximum Result---Satisfaction Guaranteed

Nutritious and Delicious

Yes, the summer winter romance continues (that’s what they call it when an old man, my crockpot, hooks up with a young girl right? PS- the young girl would be me)

We’d had a bag of kale in the freeze for probably 3 months and I decided enough is enough so I got together with Raul (this is the pet name for my new love) and made magic ;)


Prep Time: 5 minutes (possibly faster if you an electric can openr)
Cook Time: 6 hours
Serves : 6

Ingredients:
• 4 handfuls baby carrots
• 1 half red onion chopped
• 6 Turkey Sausages Chopped into ¼ inch pieces
• 1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 bag chopped kale
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 3 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 3 teaspoons red pepper flakes
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:
Place all ingredients into slow cooker. Stir around so tomatoes coat everything and seasoning is thoroughly mixed in.

Let cook, covered, on high 3 hours or low 5-6 hours.

Serve over brown rice or whole-wheat cous cous

Note: I put this together at night prior to going to bed. Then when I woke up it went straight from the Crock-Pot into the to-go containers and soon after my stomach…it was tasty!




Raul has yet to disappoint, it was definitely NOT one of those morning where you wake up thinking what the F did I just do.

kitchen katastrophe: easy maple bacon weenies

this recipe has been handed down a long way in my family - my brother's girlfriend to him to me. well, not actually me, i watched my brother make these for our family christmas a few weeks ago. WARNING: not for the faint vegetarian.

these are actually probably the easiest thing to make in the world - the only catch is how long to cook them. my brother calls these OIYM (orgasm in your mouth). for vegetarians or non-pork eating jews, these could be called Easy Maple Bacon Weenies.

Basically just put these three ingredients together:

• sausage weenies
• bacon
• brown sugar

bake in the oven at 350 degrees until done (about 35 minutes).

first, if you buy bacon in long strips, cut them into thirds as below.
oh, be sure your hands are clean. then, wrap the bacon around the weenies and place on a cookie sheet.
this can be a bit time consuming. when finished, dust the tops with brown sugar.
then bake. the final product (again, no camera at the family christmas) is delicious (or so they told me, i dont actually eat red meat) for meat-eaters. they should have a nice honeyed glaze on the top.

enjoy!

i was just thinking, if you are a vegetarian and you have kept reading this, then you just might be thinking these sound good but for some reason dont want to eat them. maybe there is a vegetarian option out there - vegan sausage with fake bacon? anything surrounded in brown sugar is probably good...

RISOTTO CHALLENGE: Entry One

Strawberries and Cream Risotto, with Sausage Crostini

These are two recipes from Italy’s Joy of Cooking, which as you can guess is way better than dowdy ol’ American Joy. It’s called The Silver Spoon, and you should all buy it, or get a roommate who owns it, as we did.

This risotto is definitely unusual. For one, there is no cheese whatsoever in it. Also, it smells a lot like the strawberry filling we added to a puff pastry dessert a while ago. But it is more of a savory than sweet dish.

The Risotto

ingredients

• 6 ½ cups Vegetable Stock
• 7 tbsp butter
• 1 chopped onion
• 2 cups risotto rice (Arborio in our case)
• 1 ½ cups white wine (pick one you'd like to drink with dinner, naturally)
  
• 2 ½ cups mashed strawberries
• 1 cup light cream
• salt and pepper to taste

(Serves four, though we cut it in half for the two of us.)

In one pot, bring stock to boil. In another pot, melt butter and add onions. Cook for 5 minutes. Add rice and cook until you’re sure it’s all covered in butter. Then add the wine. Once wine evaporates add a ladle of stock and cook till it’s absorbed. Do this over and over until the stock is used up (about 18-20 minutes). Halfway through, add the mashed strawberries. At the end, add the cream and season with salt and pepper.


Sausage Crostini
ingredients

• 3 Italian sausages (skinned)
• 5oz of cheese (they called for straggiano, which we couldn’t find and replaced with parmigiano reggiano. If you do this, it won’t need any extra salt)
• 1 tbsp fennel seeds (strangely, the sausage we bought already had them in it!)
• baguette slices

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix sausage meat, cheese, and fennel in a bowl. Add salt to taste. Spread mix on bread, put in baking dish and bake for 15 minutes. Serve hot.


The crostini was delicious. It's really just cheese and sausage on bread, you can't go wrong there (in fact, we ate it for breakfast the next morning and it was still good).


This risotto met mixed reviews. It didn't turn out gluten-y, which is a plus, but it took on an unexpected brown color from the vegetable stock. The strawberries maintained some of their taste, but were blanched while cooking and got lost visually and texturally in the rice. We were a little wary of the whole thing, but were surprised that the more we ate, the more we liked it. And Shake's Silver Spoon-owning roommate approved, and we trust her, so it must have been good.

Our recommendation is that if you try making this risotto, add the strawberries later while cooking. They won't lose as much of their color or shape that way.