Sometimes I get in a dinner rut and forget how much I enjoy cooking with certain ingredients. I was recently reminded that I hadn’t used chicken sausage in a long time after seeing a few delicious and quick meal recipes on Meghan’s fantastic blog, You’re Gonna Bake It After All. Chicken sausage is so versatile and easy to use when you forget to defrost chicken or don’t have time to cut up and sauté the raw stuff! Since it’s precooked, all you have to do is warm it up in the microwave. It’s also great for hot summer nights when you don’t want to heat up the kitchen. So, I decided to try a new brand at Costco a few weeks ago (Benetino’s Smoked Mozzarella Chicken Sausages with Artichokes and Garlic – yum!) and made a delicious pasta dish with it!

This pasta is on the lighter side because it doesn’t have a thick sauce, but it’s still very flavorful since it’s packed with sun-dried tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. My favorite kind of pasta dishes are those that contain both the veggie and protein components of your meal all in one pot!

Chicken Sausage Pasta with Broccoli and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 pound whole wheat penne pasta
8 cups frozen broccoli florets
5 chicken sausages, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Directions:
Cook pasta according to package directions. Warm broccoli florets and chicken sausages in the microwave according to the package directions. Toss pasta with broccoli florets, chicken sausages, olive oil, vinegar, sun-dried tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese. Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition: 467 calories, 14.6g fat, 11.1g fiber, 29.4g protein per serving
Cost: $1.48 per serving

Please don’t judge this recipe by the picture. It’s not the best looking pasta dish to begin with and my hopeless photography skills definitely don’t help do it any justice, but I can guarantee you that it’s worth making! I was recently asked whether I usually end up trying new recipes or cooking old favorites during the week. You can probably tell from my blog that I’m always trying new dishes or experimenting with flavor combinations, but there are a few pasta dishes that I crave often and make at least once a month. One is my peanut sauce pasta and another is this toasted almond and roasted red pepper pesto pasta. Both are very comforting dishes that are so good that I inevitably end up sneaking back to kitchen to eat more forkfuls over the pot….

This recipe comes together in 20 minutes, so it’s perfect for a quick weeknight meal. The pesto is made of shallots, garlic, toasted almonds, roasted red peppers, and tomato sauce. I threw the fresh basil in because we have an abundance of it in our little balcony herb garden right now, but I’ve also made the pasta without it, so you don’t need to buy a package of basil just for this recipe. Goat cheese is perfect on top because the creaminess balances nicely with the crunch of the almonds. So simple, but so good!

Toasted Almond and Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Pasta
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 pound whole wheat fusilli pasta
1 1/2 cups (9 ounces) whole raw almonds
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chopped shallots
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 12-ounce jars roasted red peppers, drained
1 1/2 cups of your favorite tomato sauce (I’m a fan of Prego)
12 fresh basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon salt
2 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain the pasta in a colander, return it to the pot, and keep warm.

Place almonds on a cookie sheet and toast for 10 minutes at 350ºF or until almonds are golden brown.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil over medium heat and sauté shallots for 5 to 7 minutes, or until soft. Add garlic and sauté one additional minute.

Place toasted almonds, shallot mixture, red peppers, tomato sauce, basil, red pepper flakes, and salt in a food processor. Pulse until a smooth pesto forms. Toss pesto with pasta in a large pot until well mixed. Place pasta on serving dishes and garnish by sprinkling goat cheese over each serving. Makes 6 servings.

Nutrition: 489 calories, 24.8g fat, 11.8g fiber, 17.7g protein per serving
Cost: $1.28 per serving

I’m back from San Diego and it was quite the trip! I’m already looking forward to going through my pictures and posting a recap this weekend, but for now, all I want to do is curl up and go to sleep. For some reason I thought it would be a great idea to take the red-eye back to Boston on Sunday night so I’d be able to go into work on Monday. I can usually fall asleep anywhere, including planes, but there was turbulence the entire time and I didn’t get a wink of sleep at all! I’m not the best flyer to begin with because I get motion sick and a little nervous (my physics loving hubby always makes fun of my fear of mechanical failure), so you can imagine how much I enjoyed the flight. I was just exhausted by the time we landed at 7am and took a long nap before going to work, but I’m still tired today. I was actually in the mood to cook something tonight though after eating out for so many days in a row. So, here is a quick and healthy shrimp fried rice recipe that is filling enough to be a main dish.

I make this recipe all the time and it comes together in 20 minutes because the prep time just involves chopping up a few green onions and then adding frozen edamame, corn, and red peppers from my favorite Trader Joe’s  succotash mix. On nights I don’t want to get out the rice cooker, I make the 10 minute boil-in-a-bag Success brand brown rice to speed things along. I also like using precooked shrimp to save time (I always have a huge bag from Costco in the freezer because they are great to throw on salads). It was so nice to fill up on something homemade and nutritious after feeling bloated from so many restaurant meals loaded with salt! Don’t get me wrong, we had some amazing meals that have inspired a few recipe ideas, but there’s nothing better than returning home after a long trip!

Shrimp Fried Rice with Edamame, Corn, and Red Pepper Succotash
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 green onions, chopped
1/2 bag Trader Joe’s frozen succotash
2 eggs
4 cups cooked brown rice
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
3 cups frozen precooked shrimp

Directions:
Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet and sauté onions for 2 to 3 minutes or until soft. Add frozen succotash and heat for an additional minute or until thawed. Crack eggs into the pan and stir constantly until eggs are cooked through and scrambled. Add rice, soy sauce, sesame oil, and shrimp, and stir until all components are well mixed and the shrimp is warmed through.  Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition: 430 calories, 13.9g fat, 6.8g fiber, 30.3g protein per serving
Cost: $1.80 per serving

Back in February, our friend Catherine invited us to stay at her family’s house by the Berkshire East Ski Resort. It was only my third time skiing, having grown up in the flat Midwest, and I’m a bit of a klutz, so I was cautiously looking forward to it. Catherine’s boyfriend Jonathan, a skiing phenomenon who just missed making the US Olympic team, gave me a lesson and by the end of the day I could actually get off the ski lift without falling off and make it down all the green runs successfully. It was an amazing experience and now I’ve got a bit of the ski bug and can’t wait to go again next year! Everyone in Catherine’s family was so warm and hospitable and we felt right at home!

After a long day on the slopes, Catherine’s mom served us a fantastic Italian meatball lasagna. I had never had lasagna with meatballs in it before and loved how cute and tasty they were and immediately knew I was going to come up with a version at home. I finally got around to experimenting with this idea and decided to do a twist on her recipe and pack my lasagna with Greek flavors!

Now, this is not a quick and easy weeknight dish. Multiple steps are involved and it takes some time, but I think it is completely worth it! I like to put cooked veggies in my meatballs because I think it helps keep them moist, so I packed the meatballs with onions, red peppers, and garlic, and layered the lasagna with the mini-meatballs, roasted eggplant and zucchini, ricotta, and feta. Yum – it was super tasty and filling and I’ve already looking forward to leftovers!

Greek Meatball Lasagna with Roasted Eggplant and Zucchini
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 eggplant, sliced into 1/2-inch thick rounds
2 zucchinis, sliced into 1/2-inch thick rounds
1/4 cup olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 pounds ground turkey
2 eggs
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons ground oregano
1 package whole wheat lasagna noodles
1 15-ounce package part-skim ricotta
5 cups of your favorite tomato sauce
2 cups crumbled feta cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 450ºF. Place sliced eggplant and zucchini on a large cookie sheet and drizzle with 3 tablespoons olive oil. Toss the veggies to make sure they are evenly coated with the oil and bake at 450ºF for 20 to 25 minutes or until roasted.

Meanwhile, heat remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet and sauté chopped onions and red pepper for 5 to 7 minutes or until soft. Add garlic and sauté one additional minute. Let cool to room temperature.

Reduce oven heat to 350ºF. Place cooled onion and pepper mixture with ground turkey, 1 egg, breadcrumbs, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon oregano in a large bowl and knead until well combined. Roll into 35 small meatballs (will be about 1 1/4-inches in diameter) and place onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350ºF for 20 to 25 minutes or until no longer pink in the center.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook lasagna noodles according to the directions on the package. Mix the ricotta, remaining egg, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon oregano in a medium bowl until smooth.

To assemble the lasagna, place a layer of 4 noodles in a greased 13×9-inch pan and top it with half the ricotta mixture, half the roasted veggies, all the meatballs, 3 cups tomato sauce, and 1 cup feta. Top this layer with 4 more noodles, the remaining half of the ricotta mixture, the remaining half of the roasted veggies, 2 cups tomato sauce, and 1 cup feta. Then place the remaining 4 noodles on top and sprinkle evenly with all mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350ºF for 45 minutes or until cheese is melted on top. Makes 12 servings.

Nutrition: 442 calories, 21.6g fat, 5.6g fiber, 29.3g protein per serving
Cost: $1.56 per serving