Cake, Batter, and Bowl

Mediterranean Chicken Sausage and Chickpea Skillet

Main Dishes

We’re back! Our trip to Lithuania was amazing and I’m going to work on sorting through all our pictures this weekend so I can share a recap with you. There were two things I couldn’t wait to do once we returned home though – one was sleeping in our own bed because we splurged on the best mattress ever and I always miss it when we travel, and of course I was also itching to get into the kitchen.

Since Lithuanian cuisine is pretty heavy, I was craving a healthy meal after we had settled in and restocked on groceries. I made this excellent Mark Bittman recipe that I found on Adrienne’s blog a few months ago and was inspired to make a dish of my own featuring chicken sausage, spinach, and chickpeas. I decided on a Mediterranean twist and added in roasted red peppers, feta, pine nuts, and lemon juice. This definitely hit the spot and got high ratings from Apolinaras.

p.s. The winner of my Ad Hoc cookbook giveaway was number 27 – congrats Erin!

Mediterranean Chicken Sausage and Chickpea Skillet
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 12-ounce package chicken sausages, cut into 1/4-inch thick slices
1 red onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
16 ounces fresh baby spinach
Juice of one lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 12-ounce jar roasted red peppers, drained and chopped
2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, drained
1/2 cup crumbled feta
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts

Directions:
Heat olive oil in a nonstick pan over medium high heat and cook chicken sausage slices 5 minutes or until browned; remove from the pan and keep warm. Add onion to the pan and sauté for 5 to 7 minutes or until softened; add garlic and sauté 1 additional minute. Place half the spinach in the skillet, cover with a lid, and heat 3 to 5 minutes or until wilted. Stir well and repeat with remaining spinach. Mix in lemon juice and salt. Stir in browned chicken sausages, roasted red peppers, chickpeas, feta, and pine nuts. Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition: 658 calories, 27.4g fat, 16.0g fiber, 38.3g protein per serving
Cost: $2.82 per serving

Mediterranean Portobello Mushroom and Eggplant Stacks

Although I make vegetarian meals a couple times a week, it’s usually because I’m feeling too lazy to really cook. I often whip up simple meals like pizza, tofu fried rice, or breakfast for dinner when I’m super busy, but I rarely put extra effort into making really...

Maple Pecan Salmon over Roasted Potato, Apple, and Bacon Hash

I don’t usually buy a lot of produce at Costco, since it’s tough for just the two of us to eat our way through their large packages of fruits and veggies before it all spoils (although I do regularly make an exception of their Brussels sprouts and berries because we...

Chicken and Soba Romaine Salad with Thai Vinaigrette

If you happened to peek in my fridge last weekend, you would have known I was on a sugar high. Imagine tins of cupcakes and bowls of custard and ganache precariously balancing on trays of brownies, cheesecakes, and tarts. I've been hard at work creating recipes for...

Cheesy Caramelized Onion Tart with a Mashed Potato Crust

When I posted the recipe for my Fiesta Potato Pie a little over a year ago, I got a lot of comments about the fact that I used instant mashed potatoes to make the crust. I know, I know, I don’t normally buy instant mashed potatoes either, but I actually developed...

Red Curry Risotto

One of my favorite meals to whip up when we’re low on groceries is a red or green Thai curry. We always have coconut milk, Thai curry paste, and rice in our pantry, and even if we don’t have any fresh produce, I can usually at least dig up some frozen veggies to round...

Crab Topped Mahi Mahi with a Lemon Sauce over Brussels Sprouts

Apolinaras recently sold one of his business ventures so I decided to whip up a celebratory meal with several of our favorite splurge ingredients – lump crabmeat and wild Mahi Mahi fillets! I made a crab cake mixture and piled it high atop the fish. Apolinaras loves...

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

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...

Goat Cheese Risotto with Yellow Squash and Zucchini

It’s Wednesday night, and if all goes well, this post will go live on Friday. I’m leaving for San Diego early tomorrow morning for another work conference and thought I’d see how the scheduled post function works! Hopefully by the time you’re reading this, I’ll be all...