Italian Sausage with Saucy White Beans

I have been dragging my feet about posting this recipe.  Unfortunately it is due to my own vanity.  There is nothing wrong with this dish, in fact it is incredibly tasty.  The reason I was dragging my feet is because I was not happy with the pictures I took.  However I decided my photography insecurites is no reason to deprive you of such a tasty dish. 

I made this over a week ago for Hubby.  I needed something quick and easy because he had a softball game that night.  Because of the rush there are no step-by-step photos and the ones I do have are “okay”.  I am probably just being really hard on myself.

Enough complaining let me tell you about this dish.  The inspiration for this dish was the Italian Sausages with Balsamic Tomatoes that I made the week before.  It is basically the same dishm just adding in some white beans.  Hubby and I were very impressed with how the beans came out.  They were flavorful and saucy.  This dish is perfect to serve with some bread to scoop up the beans.   It will become a new kind of comfort food for me.  Previous to this dish I had only had Spanish beans over rice.  In fact I thought it was weird when people would eat beans straight up, man was I missing out.

Ok so here it is, really simple.

 

Italian Sausage with White Beans  (serves 2, with leftovers)  Print Recipe

• 4 Italian Sausages
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 1 can White Beans
• 1 can Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes
• 2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 2 Tbs tomato paste
• fresh basil
• salt and pepper

Place the sausages, garlic, onion and peppers in a large baking pan, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Shuffle the sausages around until well coated.  Bake in the oven for 15 mins at 350 degrees. 

In a large bowl combine tomatoes, tomato paste, beans and balsamic vinegar, stir.  Pour the bean mixture over the sausages.  Return to the oven for an additional 15 minutes. 

Garnish with fresh torn basil and Parmesan cheese.  Serve with toasted bread.

Chicken Salad Stuffed Tomatoes

If you didn’t know apparently the southern part of the Midwest is in the clutches of a heatwave…and it’s not burning in my heart.  Did you get that? It’s a little joke.  You know like the song…..ok maybe it wasn’t so great, sorry moving on.  Needless to say it is hot, like really hot, like if you wear shorts and sit on a leather seat or worse pleather seat, you and the seat are sure to become one and in this case it does not end in happly ever after.  Not to mention you may have 1st degree burns.

Well this heat doesn’t give me much of a desire to cook.  Especially since my kitchen is so well ventilated…..NOT!  Unfortunatly in order to say alive we must consume some form of sustanance, which therefore requires me to cook.  In an effort to keep myself and Hubby alive and well norished, while at the same time trying not to pass out from a heat stroke, I came up with this light yet filling dish.  Oh and there is a bounus, it is actally healthy.  I stayed away from anything heavy, starchy,  cheesy or fried. 

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Italian Sausage and Balsamic Tomatoes

Sundays are usually my biggest cooking days, it is how I “rest”.  Although now the summer is here and my kitchen has no exhaust system, so I am sweating like a piggy in my kitchen.  Especially if I am using the oven.  Although pigs don’t sweat so um…. yeah, maybe like a dog?  Well this was an oven roasting recipe and my kitchen felt like an inferno.  Opening the windows does very little because it is so stinking hot outside.  The kitchen has a ceiling fan, but it blows the flame on my gas stove and just swirls around hot air.  It doesn’t really cool off.  Oi, vey!  

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Grilled Stone Fruit Antipasto Plate

I saw this recipe a long time ago and had it in the back of my recipe box, just in case.  I was very curious about this combination and just the idea of it was very different.  Today I happenned to have some stone fruit and I needed a quick lunch, something light.

Surprisingly enought this was very yum-E.  The dressing heightened the sweetness of the fruit and I like the contrast of the tang that came from the vinegar.  I was plesantly surprised.  This dish is a great appetizer option for a special event. 

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Blueberry Balsamic BBQ Chicken Pizza

Today I had to finish up a homework assignment and I needed to get dinner together quick, really quick.  So I decided to reuse the blueberry-balsamic BBQ sauce and throw it on a pizza.  I just made the sauce and put it all together.  I had a premade crust, cooked diced chicken breast, some real bacon bits and monteray jack cheese. 

I layered the pizza, sauce, cheese, chicken, bacon, onion a little more cheese and a sauce drizzle.  This was quick easy and delicious.  Who knew how versitale this sauce could be.

Blueberry-Balsamic BBQ Turkey Meatballs

 

I know I have been MIA for a few days, mostly because I’ve been working on updating my site. Finally the weekend is here and to top it off it’s snowing, so I decided that today was a good day to get back into the kitchen. Last night I had taken out some ground turkey meat and I had to do something with it today, so I decided on some meatballs. I make BBQ meatballs every once in awhile, but I wanted to give them a twist and I remembered a blueberry-balsamic bbq sauce I saw in one of my cookbooks, so I went digging around for it.

The sauce has a great sweet & tangy taste and my husband said that the meatballs tasted like meatloaf….lol. It was super easy to make. However be sure not to repeat my mistake and make the effort to find the lid to your blender. After cooking the sauce in the pan you have to putting into the blender. Well, I couldn’t find my lid so I got a bowl and set it on top of the blender. (I am sure you can imagine what happened next.) When I turned the blender on it sprayed out. There was blueberry-balsamic bbq sauce everywhere, on the counter, wall and coffeemaker. Amazingly enough I didn’t get any on the ivory turtleneck I was wearing. Mental note, wear darker colors when making this sauce.

Anyways, these meatballs turned out great and the sauce will go great with any protein. I think I may try this sauce on some ribs….Mmmmmmm.

Print Recipe
 

Blueberry-Balsamic BBQ Turkey Meatballs (14 meatballs)

Meatballs

• 1 lbs of ground turkey meat
• 1/4 cup of minced parsley
• 2 small onion, minced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper

Sauce (from Cooking Light Annual Recipes 04)

• 2 cups blueberries
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 3 Tbs sugar
• 3 Tbs ketchup
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

1. To prepare meatballs, combine all the ingredients for the meatballs into a large bowl, mix together working with hands. Shape meat into about 14 1 inch balls. Set aside.

2. Place all ingredients for bbq in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 mins. Remove from heat and transfer into a blender, process until smooth.

3. Place meatballs into the same saucepan over a medium heat and brown. Pour sauce over the meatballs, cover and simmer for about 8 mins or until meatballs are done.

Enjoy!

Eggs For Breakfast Again?

Hubby is a HUGE fan of eggs.  We buy the big pack of eggs at the supermarket (I think it has 18) and they are usually gone in just over a week.  This morning we wanted eggs for breakfast but I didn’t want to do the usual scrambled or fried egg.  For our wedding we got this little omelet pan.  It is a small egg pan that closes and it two sided.  So I decided to spray the pan with some non-stick butter spray and drop two eggs in, then I sprinkles grated sea salt, cracked pepper and a bit of garlic powder.  I then diced some fresh basil and tomatoes, sprinkled them on top, drizzled a bit of balsamic vinegar and sprinkled fresh grated Parmesan cheese.  I closed the the pan and let is cook for a few minutes without flipping it.  If you like an soft yoke becarefule not to cook it to long.  Serve with toast. Yum!