Sausage and Peppers Penne

I'm making an "oldie but a goodie" recipe tonight; Sausage with Peppers Penne.  I think the name was originally longer and more discriptive, but my mom wrote it down for me when we got married, and I have made it a few times since, therefore I don't remember what it's actually called anymore.

It's a really simple recipe.  The problem I have incurred is that it calls for Emeril's Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic Pasta Sauce... which doesn't seem to exist anymore.  So, I make due with Newman's Roasted Tomato and Garlic Sauce, or what Emeril used to call his "GAAAAAALIC" Pasta Sauce, now boring-ly Emeril's Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce.

Basically, you take cooked Penne (it says 6 cups... I used a small package, whole wheat) and top it with the rest.
Cook a package of Italian sausage, in casings, over medium-medium high heat, turning to prevent burning the casings.  I use a package that has 6 sausages, and I used the mild kind, though you could get sweet or spicy.  I think spicy would be great, but I wasn't sure if my daughter would eat some.   You can also get them straight from the butcher.

Remove the sausage from the pan (use a large, flat pan, preferably with a couple of inches of height to keep in the ingredients), wipe out the pan and add vegetable oil (to lighten the dish and make sure you have the right amount of oil, about 1 TBS -- this is optional, but will prevent it from having pools of grease on top of the finished dish).

Add 1 cup of green bell pepper (2 medium peppers), 1/2 cup (or 1 medium) each yellow and red peppers, cut into 1/4"-1/2" strips.  I would definitely not substitute or leave out a color, here.  All three have distinctive tastes.  Without the red pepper, it would definitely not taste right.  With too much green, it wouldn't be sweet enough.  And the yellow is sweet and pretty.  Also slice up and half one medium onion.  Put these in the pan and saute about 6 minutes; the veggies should still be pretty crisp.  Add 6 cloves of minced garlic (no, it's not too much.  I added 8, in fact.)  Saute another 1-2 minutes.  Add back the sausages, cut diagonally into 1-2' slices (diagonal helps with the casing being chewy and looks prettier).  Add 1 24 oz jar of some sort of roasted pepper/tomato a/o garlic tomato-based pasta sauce such as the one described.  Most 'normal' sized jars are 24-oz.  Simmer on low for a few minutes until everything is heated through and the flavors combine; don't simmer for more than 5-10 minutes, or the peppers will be mushy, which it VERY undesireable to the discerning palate.  The recipe says to add 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese at this point, removing from the heat and stirring until melted.  I don't really like mozzarella and it makes it hard to clean.  I just add a little bit of parmesan or a parmesan/romano blend, and top with a pinch of the parmesan (as stated in the recipe).  I don't think the mozzarella is necessary, but feel free to try it with or without.

For one cup of the pasta and 2/3-3/4 cup of the sauce mixture, it is about 450 calories.  I don't know the other specs off-hand, I just remember it saying "453 calories" on the recipe card my mom wrote out for me.  But I think that's really good.  It's very filling and it is warm and comforting, with rich tomato flavor and PASTA!  One bowl has a ton of veggies, but in my opinion, you should probably have a salad or something on the side to get the right proportion of veggies/protein/grains.

 One more issue with this recipe:  24 ounces of tomato sauce is usually 2-4 ounces shy, if you like your pasta to have some sauce cover it a bit.  So, you can do a few things: you could buy two jars and save the remainder of the second in the fridge; you could add some water, but I don't think that's actually going to make it better for you; you could add some stock... still not going to really help it too much, though it will loosen the sauce slightly; you could buy a tiny can of tomato sauce, the plain kind for sale by the chopped tomatoes, and add as much of that as you'll need.  That will add some extra sauce and loosen the sauce up a bit without compromising or watering down the flavor.  Or, you could just eat it as is, if you don't really want the sauce and the pasta to combine.

Overall, it's a great recipe that's low-calorie, satisfying, and it's easy and quick to make.  I suggest you try it some night!

Dinner With the Family - Sans TV

We had dinner tonight as a family, but because I have a small kitchen table and used it for my cooking, it was not cleared off enough for the three of us to eat at (me, my husband, and my 3-year-old), thus we ate in the "front room"... Not a large enough room to call a living room, and not really utilized in the traditional "living room" style, but basically, that's what it is. There are 3 chairs, set up in a kind of "conversation pit" style, though one is an armchair, one is a glider with a stool, and one is a toddler armchair. Regardless, this is where we ate dinner, which I don't typically like. I really believe in the old concept of a "family dinner." Why else would dinner be the perfect place to go on a date? You look each other in the face, if not the eyes, you talk about things that are important, or about your day, or whatever, and you get to know the people you're engaged with.

I admit, I've done my share of dinners in which the toddler was watching a show, and I was trying to get my food eaten before I had more to do with her or cleaning up or what have you, however I firmly believe in having at least one meal a day that the family eats together, distraction-free. This is a very important part of being a happy, healthy family, in multiple ways: physical, emotional, and relational/psychological health. Paying attention to my daughter fosters her self-confidence, shows her I love and respect her, and allows her to tell me about things that she might want to talk through. Actually, I'm sure it does that for me and my husband as well. In the book "The Five Love Languages" by Gary Chapman, one of the languages is quality time, while another deals with speech and conversation. By utilizing the family meal, you are hitting at least 2 of 5 ways that humans communicate love to one another. Why not try it for a week and see if it makes a difference?! Or do what I do, and try it for 21 days.

I learned when I was a child that it takes 21 days to change a habit or for your brain to make a change. Now, as an adult, I try to persevere in something that I am trying to change, or something new that I'm trying, for 21 days. After this amount of time, I feel it's possible to assess whether or not this change is truly desired, or whether it has made a positive difference. Now, recently, I heard that it only takes 3 days for a preschooler to adopt a change. This was nice to hear, as my daughter has a few habits that, frankly, I've been afraid to get rid of, because I didn't want to deal with a month or two of poor sleeping or other consequences. I know, this isn't the best example of great parenting! But it happens. Now I'm not so afraid. I can plan that, for the next 3 to 5 days/nights, I can expect a struggle, and then it will fade or dissipate altogether, and that is reassuring as well as motivating.



Anyway, back to dinner: tonight I made an old recipe of my mom's, which I believe she took from a Cooking Light magazine in the late '90s. It amounts to "Penne Pasta w/ Sausage and Peppers", though I'm not sure the exact name of the recipe. Here it is:

6 4-oz hot Italian turkey sausages
2 cups (or about 2) green pepper, sliced approx 1/4" thick and 1" long
1 cup (or about 1) red bell pepper, " " " " "
1 cup (or about 1) yellow or orange bell pepper, " " " " "
6 garlic cloves, minced (or more, depending on your taste! This sauce is not garlicky)
1 onion (I used a medium white one & that was great), halved and sliced
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese (I used fresh, low fat from the cheese part of Whole Foods, shredded)
3 TBS grated fresh parmesan (for garnish)
6 cups hot cooked penne pasta (cook while making the sauce)
* 1 25-oz bottle of Emeril's Roasted Pepper and Garlic pasta sauce *

* I could not find this ANYWHERE this time, and I'm pretty sure now he has either "Roasted Red Pepper" sauce, or "GAAAAHLIC" sauce. I couldn't find the Roasted Red Pepper, so I made do with fire-roasted tomato from Newman's Own (a favorite brand), and combined it with the "GAAAAHLIC" sauce, which was fine, but it would be great to find the pepper sauce again. I know, picky picky. You can however look the recipe up and make it yourself, by Google-ing (yes, spell-check, that is a word now) "Emeril's roasted pepper and garlic sauce."

On another note, Emeril's sauces are great because they really ARE all-natural, even though they don't have to be just because they say it on the label. As far as you can tell from the ingredients, there are no "natural flavors", "artificial flavors", preservatives, or anything else that would indicate that it is not 90% natural. Okay, on with the recipe:

Directions:
- Heat a large skillet (here is says "coated with cooking spray" to which I say "w/ a TBS or two of cold-pressed high-heat vegetable oil") over medium-high heat (my stove ended up needing to be medium). (I would also start your water pot for the pasta, so it's boiling by the time you need it and you don't have to wait for the pasta to finish cooking.) Add sausage, cook 8 minutes turning occasionally. ( I did not time this, I just cooked each side until browned.) Remove from heat, let sausage rest, and when ready, cut into 2 inch thick slices. (I cut these much smaller, probably smaller than 1 inch, and I liked this better, personally. But my sausages were also quite thick.)
- Wipe pan with paper towels and re-coat with cooking spray (or if you are me, just return it to the stove; the sausages, being turkey, don't make much grease). **This would be the stage I would throw the pasta into the water, so it will be done by the time you're ready to eat.)
- Saute peppers and onions for 6 minutes (I turned the heat from medium to medium high for this step).
- Add sausage back in, saute for 2 minutes.
- Add garlic, saute for 2 minutes (try not to burn it, as it will turn very bitter).
- Add sauce and simmer over low heat for 5 minutes (up to 10, if you need the extra time)
- Remove from heat, add mozzarella, stirring constantly until melted.

The serving size is 1 cup pasta, with 1 cups sauce over top and sprinkle with parmesan. If done this way, it should make 6 servings at "483 calories" a piece.

I'm not sure why they don't just say "about 480" because they have no idea if it's 483, or 458, or 501 calories that particular time you've made it. But, I guess it makes people feel better. All-in-all, I like Cooking Light recipes (my mom has gotten me 2 of the "Annual Recipes" compilation cook books, and I use them!), but you have to tweak a little bit if you want to be 'healthy' and not just 'low calorie' or 'low fat'. As you do with everything! Eating low-cal and low fat does remove a big chunk of the things that cause dis-ease and poor health related to diet, however, it's not even close to enough, and sometimes it can add unhealthy ingredients into your diet. For example: aspartame and other artificial sweeteners. I could go on, but you get the point. You have to look at the ingredients that are going into your body, and not be afraid to change to something that is inherently healthier!

That's all for the evening, folks! Have a lovely Tuesday night.