Baked Ziti with Broccoli and Sausage

Baked Ziti With Broccoli and Sausage
(No idea)

salt & pepper to taste
8 Ounce sausage
2 Tablespoon butter
2 Tablespoon all purpose flour
2 Cup milk
8 Ounce ziti
1 1/2 Pound broccoli, cut into 1" pieces
1/2 Cup grated parmesan

Instructions:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease and 11x7 baking dish. In a large skillet over medium high heat, cook sausage, stirring and breaking up meat, until no longer pink, about 3 minutes. Add butter and stir well/. Sprinkle flour on top and stir for 1-2 minutes. Slowly pour in milk and cook, stirring constantly until smooth and thickened, 3-4 minutes. Season sauce with salt and pepper.
Add ziti to boiling water and cook until tender, about 5 minutes, then add broccoli and cook for 3 minutes. Drain ziti and broccoli in a colander and transfer to a baking dish. Stir in sausage mixture.
Sprinkle Parmesan on top and bake until golden brown and mixture is bubbling, about 25 minutes. Serve hot.

Serves: 4
Prep Time: 10 m
Cook Time: 35 m
Total Time: 45 m

Calories: 440
Cholesterol: 129 mg
Fat: 22 g
Saturated Fat: 5 g
Protein: 50 g
Carbohydrates: 10 g
Sodium: 714 mg
Fiber: 3 g

Opinions: Good! Pretty easy to alter a little. Doesn't re-heat well with the broccoli.

Hash Brown Sausage Bake

I love breakfast foods. One of my favorite things it to have 'breakfast for dinner'--something we had growing up a few times. I'm sure Mama did it as an easy meal, but I LOVED having french toast, bacon, eggs, etc. for dinner. Amazing.

Unfortunately, Nate's not as fond of that. (Crazy boy.) With my recent hypoglycemic diagnosis, I am trying to actually eat breakfast (not that I wasn't before. cough.), so I am getting in 'real' breakfasts most days now. But, I still crave that breakfast-at-dinnertime occasionally. This is one of the recent recipes I've tried, which fit the bill. :)

Hash Brown Sausage Bake
(TOH)


20 Ounce frozen shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed
1/3 Cup butter, melted
1 beef bouillon
1 Pound pork sausage
1/3 Cup chopped onion
1 Cup cottage cheese
3 eggs, lightly beaten
4 Slice American cheese, chopped

Instructions:
In a large bowl, combine the hash browns, butter, and bouillon. Press into the bottom and up the sides of a greased 10" pie plate. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.
Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook sausage and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. In a large bowl, combine the sausage mixture, cottage cheese, eggs, and American cheese.
Pour into crust. Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting.

Serves: 8
Serving Size: 1 slice
Yields: 8 slices
Prep Time: 15 m
Cook Time: 1 h 15 m
Total Time: 1 1/2 h

Calories: 291

(So, I probably shouldn't have had my red-striped potholder in the picture. Oh well.)

Opinions: Nate liked it better than the other hashbrown-for-crust recipes I've tried. Quite a bit more, actually. I also think that the inside wasn't ALL egg was a bit selling point for him, too. I liked it--it's not very healthy, but it is yummy.
I will admit, I was nervous about the cottage cheese. (Another 'yuk' from childhood.) The texture/look has always been horribly off-setting for me, but I wouldn't have even known it was here if I didn't make this myself. :)

So... make again? Yes! Nate says not often, but definitely a repeat.

Sausage Cheese Balls

Have I mentioned my feelings for Bisquick before? I like it because it's easy... I dislike it because everything you put it in tastes like Bisquick.

These are tolerable, but I would DEFINITELY use a substitute for the baking mix. (To be fair, the recipe called for baking mix... which basically means Bisquick.

Definitely something I would love to try again, but need to substitute the Bisquick.

Sausage Cheese Balls
(Jimmy Dean)

2 Pound pork sausage
1 1/2 Cup Bisquick
4 Cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 Cup finely chopped onion
1/2 Cup finely chopped celery
2 Teaspoon black pepper
2 Teaspoon minced garlic

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375. Combine all ingredient in a large mixing bowl; stir well. Form into 1" balls. Place on ungreased baking sheet; bake 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven; cool 5 minutes before removing from pan. Serve with cocktail forks or toothpick.

Yields: 6-9 dozen

Sausage Rolls & Herbed Corn!

Well, these are from last night's dinner... and I keep debating back & forth on whether I want to post recipes that I will never make again. Oh well, someone out there must like it, so I might as well, right? :)



Sausage Rolls
(From TOH)

1 tube (8oz) refrigerated crescent rolls
8 sausage links, cooked
1/8 Teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 Teaspoon rubbed sage
1 Egg
1 Tablespoon Water
Parsley
Paprika

Instructions: Unroll crescent roll dough and separate into four rectangles; seal perforations. Place two sausage links end to end along long side of each rectangle. Sprinkle with garlic powder and sage. Roll up jelly-roll style; seal the seams with water.



Place seam side down on a greased baking sheet. In a bowl, beat egg and water; brush over rolls. Sprinkle with parsley and paprika. Cut into 2" pieces. Bake at 375 for 11-13 minutes or until golden brown and heated through.

Please ignore the fact that I desperately need to clean my oven... I forget until I go to use it, and at 350 I don't think that's a wise idea. :) (Although the mess in there IS Nathan's fault! Really!)

So...this is the recipe that I probably won't try again. I bought the large cresents, which only makes 6, so I used two packages & almost all of my sausages. Not really a good idea. They were too buttery, and in general I didn't really like them. I might just be picky though. :)

I was even SO proud of myself, and took pictures/had Nathan take pictures during the process! And of course, we don't even like the recipe. (Which is not entirely true... Nate liked them well enough, I was just REALLY disappointed.) Darn.


Herbed Corn
(TOH)

1 Cup frozen corn
Water
Parsley
Salt
dill weed
garlic powder
italian seasoning
Thyme


Cook corn according to package directions. Strain, add seasonings to taste.

This recipe was obviously a lot more specific when I got it originally, but it also called for 12 cups corn. Ummm... no, Nate & I can't (and won't) eat that much corn. So, I just did things my mother's way--throw things together, and they magically taste great!!

...Except, when my dear mother does it, it actually does taste great. This? Mediocre. I don't think I like dill weed, though. Without that, it was great. :)

(Less pictures because... well, taking pictures of corn while it's boiling is kinda boring. Sorry.)


Tomorrow, I hope to have a post on the AMAZING bread I made today. ('Hope' for two reasons: one, I may forget to post. Two, it's not out of the oven yet, so we'll see.) :)

As always, let me know if you try anything!