One Pot Smoked Sausage Skillet Pasta

I got this one-pot pasta recipe from Damn Delicious. This is pretty much like mac and cheese except with sausage and prep work.

Ingredients

(From the pantry)

• 1.5 tbsp olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cubes mushroom bouillons
• 12 oz macaroni
• salt and pepper, to taste

(From the market)

• 1 large onion, diced
• 500g smoked sausage (we used Polish and Ukrainian smoked sausages)
• 3 tomatoes, cored and diced
• 2 cups milk
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium high heat.
2. Add garlic, onion, and sausage. Cook, stirring frequently, until sausage is lightly browned, about 3-4 minutes.
3. Stir in bouillon, 3 cups of water, tomatoes, milk, and pasta.
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer until pasta is cooked through, about 10-12 minutes.
6. Remove from heat and top with cheese.
7. Cover with lid until cheese has melted, about 2 minutes.

It was pretty good. Simple, filling, and not a lot of dishes to wash afterwards. I may make this again in the future instead of my farmer style mac and cheese (which calls for bacon).

One Pot Burrito Bowls

Another quick and easy recipe to get us through the week. This One Pot Burrito Bowls recipe was found on I Heart Naptime.

Ingredients
From the pantry (or market)

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/3 cup salsa
• 1 cup Uncle Ben's brown rice
• 1 vegetable bouillon
• 1 tbsp taco seasoning
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• salt & pepper to taste

Fresh (kind of) from the market

• 1 small red bell pepper (about 1/2 cup diced)
• 1 small sweet onion (about 1/2 cup diced)
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can corn, drained
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 2 jalepenos
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Heat olive oil in large pan over medium heat.
2. Saute onions and red bell peppers.
3. Add ground beef and cook until brown.
4. Stir in salsa, black beans, corn, tomatoes, jalepenos, taco seasoning, and chili powder.
5. Pour in 2 cups water and add bouillon and then bring to a light boil.
6. Cover pan and reduce heat to low.
7. Cook for an additional 20-25 minutes, or until the rice is all the way cooked.

I don't know if it's because the dish was so quick to make or if I am craving meat and everything tastes good, but I really liked this recipe and would definitely make it again. We also served it with the extra cabbage from yesterday's Pork Stir Fry recipe.

One-Pot Red Beans and Rice

As with the Tandoori Quinoa, we picked this recipe for the "one pot" aspect. We got this recipe from Southern Bite and just tweeked a little bit. We were able to split it into four generous dinners for two people, keeping mostly the same measurements.

Ingredients
From the Pantry (or market)

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 chicken bouillons
• 2 cups Uncle Ben's wholegrain brown rice

From the market

• 1.5 lbs (700g) Italian sausage,* sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 green pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 rib celery, chopped
• 1 28oz can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

*Note: we used Italian sausage because it was the cheapest option available at the market

Instructions

1. Heat vegetable oil on a pan over medium heat.
2. Add sausage and cook for 4 to 5 minutes.
3. Add onion, green pepper, and celery, and cook 7 to 8 minutes or until onions are translucent.
4. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
5. Add chicken bouillons and 2.5 cups water and bring to a boil over medium high heat.
6. Stir in beans and rice.
7. Reduce heat to a simmer.
8. Cover and cook for 20 minutes (according to cooking instructions on rice packaging) or until rice is tender.

This recipe was really tasty and I don't think there's anything else we would change aside from perhaps adding some herbs to it next (i.e. parsley or thyme). I know we changed a lot already - went away from the cajun sausage and the creole seasoning, but the ingredients were good and the dish ended up being quite tasty.

One Pot Tandoori Quinoa

We got this recipe from Yup...it's Vegan! mostly because it said "One Pot" and it looked really quick and easy to make. As usual, just a few tweeks to the recipe, but all the measurements remained the same. We were able to have it for lunch Monday through Friday, for two people.

Ingredients
From the pantry (or market if you don't already have these)

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp ginger, minced
• 2 tbsp garam masala
• 1 cube vegetable bouillon
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• salt and pepper to taste

From the market

• 1 sweet potato,* diced into small cubes (~ 1cm)
• 1 small onion,* finely chopped
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
• 1 cup red quinoa
• 1 15oz can chickpeas, drained
• 2 on the vine tomatoes, diced
• 1 lime
• 1 bunch cilantro, chopped

* Note 1: the sweet potatoes in the Vancouver are white - the orange kind on the website are yams

* Note 2: we didn't use the red onions because they were really big and we didn't want to waste food

Instructions

1. Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium high heat.
2. Add sweet potatoes, cook for about 6-8 minutes (until softened), stirring frequently.
3. Add onions, cook for another 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Add garlic, jalepeno, and ginger, cook for another minute (until fragrant).
5. Stir in garam masala, cook for 30 seconds.
6. Add quinoa, vegetable bouillon, 1 and 1/4 cup water, chickpeas, tomatoes, and sugar, and stir to combine.
7. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover.
8. Cook until the quinoa and sweet potatoes are cooked through, about 20 minutes.
9. If there seems to be too much liquid, uncover for a few minutes to evaporate excess.
10. Add salt, pepper, and additional garam masala to taste.
11. Mix in lime juice and chopped cilantro.
12. Serve with Srirarcha.

I must admit splitting it into basically 10 servings was kind of on the smaller side. Next time, we will probably add a yam in and maybe multiply the quinoa by one-and-a-half. Otherwise, it was really easy and quick - tasty too if you're into Indian food.

Steak and Instant Mashed Potato

As I mentioned yesterday, there's a sale at Safeway every first Tuesday of the month. Taking this opportunity, we purchased some meat to barbecue. We used the leftover cilantro from yesterday, a bit of whisky we have lying around, and some olive oil to marinate the steak overnight. Today we just added a bell pepper.

Barbecuing is so easy, just turn on the barbecue, plop the food on, and let it cook. When you're done, brush it up and you can pack it away.

Another meal under half an hour.

Tofu Stir Fry

We had a bottle of General Tao stir fry sauce sitting in the fridge so we decided to put it to use tonight. These stir fry sauces from Superstore are great for a quick meal.

It's the first Tuesday of the month and Safeway has a 10% discount so we saved all our grocery shopping for tonight. Since we had to do the grocery shopping tonight, we had to make a quick dish - stir fry.

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg fried tofu
• 1 small head of broccoli
• 1 leek
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 inch ginger
• 1 clove shallot
• 1 carrot
• handful of mushrooms (about 4 large)
• half a bunch of cilantro
• 1 bell pepper

Steps:

1. If you want to serve it on rice, start the rice now.

2. Chop all your ingredients up and drain the tofu.

3. Cook the onion family first (garlic, shallot, and ginger). Then add the vegetables that take longer to cook (broccoli and carrot). Last, add the vegetables that don't require too much time to cook (cilantro, mushrooms, and bell pepper). Mix in the tofu and sauce.

4. Serve on rice and you're done!

5. Of course for me, no dish is complete without a bit of chili sauce.