Chicken Sausage & Lentil Salad

So I clearly let myself go during the month of November. I am sorry to all of you who were missing my posts. Life has been very busy and unfortunately has gotten in the way of my posting schedule. But no excuses! Due to some current changes, my posting will likely become less frequent then everyone is used to, but I am going to do my best to crank out at least two posts a week. With that in mind comes this dish of sausage with lentil salad. I love lentils anytime of the year, but there is something so warm and hearty about them for winter time. The salad is easy to whip up and you can either grill or pan fry the sausage to add on top. If you are at all health conscious, you can always substitute the sausage for some grilled chicken.

Recipe yields 6 servings

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup green lentils
1 bay leaf
3 tbsp olive oil
1 cup fennel
1 medium yellow onion
1 large carrot
1 rib celery
4 cloves garlic
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
12 chicken sausage
Salt & pepper, to taste

Finely dice the onion, carrots and celery.

Thinly slice the fennel and mince the garlic.

Cook those sausage!

Saute all of your vegetables in a drop of oil to soften them up.

Cook your lentils in a large pot with the bay leaf and 6 cups of water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer for 20-25 minutes.

Drain them when they are done and remove the bay leaf.

Now that your vegetables are cooked...

..toss in the lentils. Add in your seasonings and give it all a gentle stir (red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, salt & pepper). You don't want to smoosh everything.

Remove to a serving dish and top with the sliced sausage. Enjoy!

Mother's Day Breakfast (Sausage & Veggie Hash + Homemade Cinnamon Buns)

I hope everyone had a very Happy Mother's Day! This year, I treated my mom to a deliciously simple, homemade breakfast. We started off with Sausage & Veggie Hash with eggs and finished things off with Homemade Cinnamon Buns. First up, the hash.

Recipe yields 4 large servings

Ingredients
5 medium red potatoes
4 sweet Italian sausage
1 small red pepper
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
1 medium yellow onion
1 large clove garlic
1-2 tsp salt
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tbsp paprika

8 large eggs (2 per person)

 

Start off by preparing all your vegetables. Finely dice the carrot, celery, pepper and onion. Mince the garlic and cut the potatoes into a small dice.

Coat the bottom of a cast iron skillet with canola oil and heat on high. Add your vegetables and stir to cover in oil. Remove the casing from the sausage and crumble it in the pan with the vegetables.

Cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until potatoes are tender.

Prepare your eggs however you like them, I did sunny side up. Plate the hash and top with your eggs.

Next up is the recipe for a batch of delicious cinnamon buns. This recipe was lightly adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction. Check out her website for many other delicious treats.

Recipe yields 15 cinnamon buns

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 tbsp granulated sugar

1 tsp kosher salt

1 package dry yeast

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup milk

2 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter

1 large egg

Pan Preparation:

1/2 tbsp unsalted butter

3 tbsp brown sugar

Filling:

2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

Glaze:

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp milk

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Combine ingredients using the paddle attachment.

In a separate bowl, add the water, milk and butter and heat until butter is melted and mixture is hot.

Change to the dough hook attachment on your stand mixer and add in the liquid ingredients. Mix on low speed and increase speed as ingredients become incorporated. Add in the egg and continue to mix. Now you have the option of removing your dough and kneading on a well floured surface, or you can leave it in your mixer and increase the speed to medium for 3 minutes. The mixer will knead your dough for you - now isn't that easy.

Remove your dough to a greased bowl and allow to rest for 10 minutes or so. Really all we are doing here is letting the yeast work its magic. In the meantime, you can prepare your baking dish. I chose to use a round dish, but you can use a baking sheet as well if you want to double the recipe and have more room. I greased the bottom and sides of my dish with the butter and then sprinkled it with the brown sugar. This gives the bottoms a little extra sweetness!

During your wait, you can also mix together the sugar and cinnamon for your filling.

Now it is time to roll out the dough. Make sure your work surface is well floured and use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a rectangle. Mine was about 9 inches wide and 14 inches long and it gave me 15 perfect sized buns.

Next, you want to take your softened butter and spread it all over the surface of your dough in an even layer. Make sure to get every last inch covered.

Now you can sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon mixture over the butter in an even layer.

Starting at one of the long edges, tightly begin to roll your dough into a long tube. Roll it nice and tight.

Once it is all rolled together, it is time to slice the tube into little buns. The best trick for this is to use a piece of unscented dental floss. It will make a perfect edge without squishing down the roll. Make the buns about 1 inch wide each. Arrange in your dish and lightly cover with tin foil.

Now we have to wait for our buns to rise, about 1 hour and 15 minutes should do it. I know, I know its grueling and painful when all you want to do is eat them. To keep my mind busy, I prepared my dough early in the morning and cooked the rest of my breakfast while I was waiting. The buns went into the oven once we were finished eating our eggs. With about 20 minutes to go, preheat the oven to 375F degrees. Once ready, pop the buns in the oven and bake for 28-30 minutes. While in the oven, whip together your sugar glaze by combining all ingredients with a hand mixer or a whisk.

Once the buns are ready, drizzle with a generous amount of glaze and serve warm. I hope you enjoy these delicious treats!

Sausage & Shrimp Jambalaya

This is a simple, one-pot Jambalaya that is packed with your favorite Cajun flavors. It is balances by hearty sausage and light shrimp to fill you up. This is a great dish for a busy weeknight because the flavors come together in under 1 hour, there is only one pot to clean and everyone will surely leave the table with smiles on their face.

Recipe yields 4 servings

Ingredients
1 cup long-grain brown rice
2 cups water
8 oz can of tomato sauce
14 oz can of diced tomatoes
3 beef bouillon cubes (or 1 tbsp of beef bouillon granules)
1 medium yellow onion
1 tbsp parsley
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (bump it to 1/2 tsp if you like a nice kick)
1 bay leaf
1/2 lb smoked sausage (preferably kielbasa or andouille)
3/4 lb cleaned shrimp with no tails (these little guys snuck out of the picture)

Start by preparing your ingredients. Dice the onion and slice the smoked sausage into 1/2" slices.

In a large stock pot or Dutch oven, add all of your ingredients (leaving out the shrimp). So into the pot goes the rice, water, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, chopped onion, sliced sausage, beef bouillon cubes, black pepper, salt, garlic powder, ground thyme, cayenne pepper, parsley and the bay leaf.

Give all the ingredients a good stir and place on the stove top.

Bring the mixture to a rolling boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover. Cook for 35 minutes.

Once the time is up, your mixture should have thickened up and the rice should be plump and tender. At this point, toss in your shrimp and bring the heat up to medium/medium high.

Cook for an additional 5 minutes or until the shrimp are pink and cooked through.

Transfer to serving bowls and serve alongside a warm loaf of sourdough bread for dipping. Enjoy!

Sauteed Broccoli & Sausage Crumble Pasta

On a lazy, rainy Monday you want to whip up a quick dinner that is not only delicious but maybe even healthy, too. This pasta dish comes together in no time and will cover all your major food groups. Plus, it heats up really well the next day, so be sure to make extra to take for lunch tomorrow!

Recipe yields 4 servings

Ingredients
1 lb pasta of your choice (I used farfalle)
1 lb Italian sausage
1 lb broccoli
1 large head of garlic
8-10 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large skillet. Peel the casing off the sausage and add the meat to the skillet. Break apart and cook until browned.

Heat two large pots of water to a boil - one for your broccoli and one for your pasta. Once boiling, add your broccoli to the pot and cook for 6-7 minutes, until tender. (Place your pasta pot to the side for now.)

Once your sausage is cooked through, remove it to a plate and set aside. Chop or slice your garlic. Add the remaining olive oil to the skillet and saute your garlic.

Add your cooked broccoli to the garlic and add back the cooked sausage. Lower heat to medium and cook for 8-10 minutes.

While the broccoli and sausage are cooking, add a handful of sea salt and your pasta to the second pot of boiling water. Cook for 8 minutes until the pasta is al dente. Drain your pasta and add to the skillet.

Toss to combine all ingredients and empty into a large serving dish.

Serve with lots of grated Parmesan cheese. Enjoy!