yummy dinner

This is the dinner I didn't have the energy to make tonight. Blueberry has been sick for about a week and today I think my energy plummeted. I'm waiting for Mr. Silly Pants to arrive home with a bottle of wine and dinner. While I'm waiting, I'm watching Bravo and surfing the net. So, for those of you tired of my "big sober thoughts", I do have a lighter side. :-)

This dinner is the hands down winner in our household - everyone loves it and I love making it. I make it once a week, by family request. The recipe follows:

Curry and The Kitchen Sink: All in One Pot Meal
30 minutes from start to finish.
1 package of Apple & Gouda Cheese Chicken Sausage by AmyLu
1- 2 T. curry spice
4 T. olive oil
1 pint grape tomatoes (yellow and/or red) kept whole
1-2 red or yellow peppers sliced for sautemushrooms, sliced thick
*any other veggies you have in the house
1 package whole wheat penne pasta (optional)- cooked

Warm the olive oil and curry in a very large saucepan. Slice the chicken sausage into bite sized pieces and add to the warmed oil and curry. Saute for about 3 minutes until the sausage is nicely curry "crusted." Add the rest of the cut/cubed vegetables one by one, from hardest to softest - saute as you go along. (Here is where the kitchen sink comes in - use what you have!). Consider the saute finished when the whole grape tomatoes are soft and tender on the tongue. While sauteing, cook the whole wheat pasta al dente. Drain and set aside while the veggies and sausage are cooking. When the veggies and sausage are tender (not mushy!) stir in the cooked pasta and mix well in the entire pan. The whole dish should have a nice orange hue from the curry.Serve in large pasta bowls. Sometimes we top the dish with a little bit of fresh feta cheese or a bit of fresh grated parmesan cheese.

I made this one up! The sausage keeps super well in the freezer so this is our "go to" meal when stock is low and/or my houseful of teens and baby are hungry and I only have 30 minutes to cook. We like it with a lot of curry, so you can experiment with the taste. Also, sometimes I substitute other spices for the curry, although the curry is the hand's down winner (Penzey's Turkish spice with a pinch of Penzey's chipotle spice is great too!)Finally, go organic on as many ingredients as you can for this recipe.