Sausage, Butternut and Spinach Pasta

We loved this pasta. It was full of flavor and texture and yes, you can make a delicious sauce from winter squash! Which is awesome because we still have squash leftover from the fall farm shares and got a few in the beginning of the winter shares as well. I'd pureed a bunch and put it in the freezer,but still had some others whole. Just a little sage brings a lot of extra flavor. Spinach bulks up this dish already brimming with good for you stuff like chicken sausage and squash. I thought I would like it, one of those eh, try it once kind of recipes. But I really enjoyed. More surprising, however, was how much Dave liked it. So much that I made it again a shortly after we polished off the leftovers. If you enjoy pasta but want an alternative to tomato based or heavy cheese sauces, this could be your new favorite.

Spanish Chicken and Rice

One pot meals at like heaven for weeknight dinners. Less stuff to clean up and easy to just throw everything together, layering in the flavors for a delicious, hearty meal. And this Spanish Chicken and Rice is one amazing dinner. Chicken and chourico get amped up with garlic, onions, peppers and seasoning, then cook with rice for a lot of flavor and a filling meal that gets done in less than an hour and is perfect for a cold winter evening. We all loved this dish and it will definitely be in my dinner rotation. It's definitely a full meal, but we added bread and a salad for a more rounded dinner.

Freezer Breakfast Sandwiches

I grew up in Pennsylvania and Dave and met in college there.  In our tiny college town we were lucky to have not one but two(!) Sheetz stores, the gas station equivalent to Amazon, carrying everything from gas to bait, including the MTO (made to order) food that makes Sheetz so awesome.  Frequent study sessions were interrupted by a midnight run for nachos or subs.  And even though I live over 300 miles from the nearest Sheetz (and will make travel plans around being able to stop at that particular Sheetz on the way to and from Pittsburgh), I swear by the joy that is a Schmuffin.  It's my favorite MTO and no matter what time of day, it's the one that I must get every time I go there.  While I've never had an Egg McMuffin, I just love that breakfast sandwich, especially with cheese and bacon (and all the other varied fixin's Sheetz lovingly will top it with).  Now, whenever the craving strikes, we can reach right into the freezer.  These make ahead egg sandwiches are perfect and totally customizable.  If whole wheat English muffins aren't your thing, use a the regular kind. Or a mini bagel.  Choose cheddar instead of American cheese.  Fried egg or scrambled.  Bacon or sausage.  It's like an MTO station in my very own house!  (Minus the other options.  And the touch screen.  And someone else making it for me.  But otherwise, exactly the same.)  In less than 20 minutes, I prepped a dozen sandwiches, wrapped them, labeled and into the freezer they went, ready for a quick pop in the microwave any morning, regardless of how busy we might be.

Sausage, Peppers & Onions

We're fans of sausage around here.  It's a great main meal alternative to chicken or beef and I like that you can make it into a simple sandwich or a dressy main dish.  This recipe for sausage incorporates peppers and onions in a chunky tomato sauce which is perfect on top of pasta.  We've made this dish a few times and this is definitely a recipe that makes me enjoy sausage more and more.  Alternatively to serving over pasta, you could leave the links whole and serve them on toasted rolls piled high with the sauce and veggies, maybe topped with a little cheese.  Yes, that really sounds good now.

Mini Pancake Muffins with Blueberries or Sausage

I love pancakes.  But I also love muffins.  So these little guys are just little bites of breakfast heaven that give you the fluffy, tender pancake flavor that you love in a perfect mini muffin form with a golden crust.  Flavored up with blueberries (or any fruity mix-in) or sausage (sweet and savory!) and served with maple syrup, you'll have breakfast bites that can be nibbled on the go or would be easy for little hands.  Traditional blueberry or amped up with sausage bits snuggled into these pancake bites, these mini muffins are a great make ahead breakfast option that you can freeze in advance and heat in the microwave for busy mornings when scratch pancakes just won't happen.  And a fun new way to enjoy your pancakes!

Breakfast Pizza

I enjoy making breakfast on a weekend morning, but I'm usually not a fan of making eggs.  I enjoy eggs, but if that's what's headed to the table, I usually have Dave make them.  Leave the pancakes, waffles, and muffins to me.  Or, something a bit more exciting.  Like this breakfast pizza of a crescent roll crust topped with sausage, cheese, hash browns and eggs.  Now this is a breakfast dish I'm happy to get up and make.  Which is exactly what happened last week when I got out of bed before everyone else and put this together for a hearty morning meal.  Filling and delicious, there is no doubt I'll get requests for this in the future

Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Boats

As the zucchini harvest slows and these last few days of summer make you want to spend more time savoring the fun of summer rather than cooking up elaborate meals, this recipe will be a special treat before we switch into fall-mode with back to school, activities and cooler weather.  There is a lot of flexibility in the flavor of these zucchini boats, depending on what kind of sausage you use.  Of course, Italian sausage would be fine, but to lighten them up, use a chicken sausage which can come in a variety of flavors.  The tomato, basil, and mozzarella chicken sausage from Casual Gourmet that I used was delicious and played well with the rest of the veggies and added cheese.  As a full meal or just a side dish, these zucchini boats are delicious and easy.

Last month a friend shared a link to this Skinny Taste recipe for another friend, Erica.  After Erica comment how good these were, I jumped on board to try them myself.  I used my own marinara sauce, but you could use jarred or your own version.  And I had some huge zucchini (one green and one yellow), so I only needed two of them to get to 31 ounces, which was fine because that made four boats that I was serving as the main meal for dinner. (Yeah, Dave had pizza.  Sigh.)  Gina at Skinny Taste recommends cutting the sausage out of the casing, and then crumbling and cooking it.  I couldn't separate the casing, so I just diced my sausage and it was fine.  I also cooked the veggies with the sausage, rather than removing the sausage from the pan.  These were pretty easy to put together and the stuffing cooked up quick, although the cheese in my sausage just melted and cooked out, so it created more of a sauce than another flavor of sausage might.  But since the boats are topped with additional cheese anyway, it was no big deal.  Leftovers were still delicious, so you can make this one night and enjoy another lingering summer evening dinner later.