Sausage & Peppers: 3 different ways

So this is a great, easy and simply delicious dish that you can serve three different ways.
Tradtionally, I would make this as a heavy appetizer and serve it over french bread.
However today, we had it for dinner. I ate it low carb version and family ate it over pasta.

Sausage and Peppers
I started with 2 packages of the HEB housemade mild italian sausage (that was 6 links).
I cut each link into 4 small pieces so that it will cook quickly and so i can see that the sausage cooks all the way through.

I brown my sausage first in a little olive oil, on medium heat.
I cover the pot, stir occasionally and moving the sausage around so that it cooks through.



While my sausage cooks, i get my veggies ready to go. Your veggies is what is going to make your super yummy sauce.
I use 1 big sweet onions, 3 different colors of bellpepers and i like to use a few banana peppers (they are the long green peppers) and 4 large tomatoes.

Once my sausage is fully cooked, I add all my chopped veggies to the pot.
I squeeze the juice of one lemon, pour twice around the pot with basalmic vinegar and season with salt, lemon pepper, garlic powder, red pepper and fresh basil.
Stir well and cover, letting the vegetables cook down into a sauce.
Warning- it will smell amazing and your husband will constantly ask you is it ready yet?haha!

Once it has cooked down, you are done.
Now, my mom has always served this over toasted french bread as an appetizer and honestly its probably the best like this.
You slice up some french bread, butter it and toast it in the oven, then pour the sausage and peppers over it. YUM!!!

Tonight, we ate it as our main course so i served it this way:

Low carb version for me:

I sliced up big slices of eggplant, rubbed with olive oil and roasted in oven at 375 until it was golden brown and then served the sausage and peppers over it.
DELISH! almost didnt miss the french bread.....almost ;)

My husband and kids, ate it over egg noodles as a sausage and pepper pasta.

Fast, easy, super yummy and three ways to enjoy it!

Lima Bean Stew

This was one of my favorite dishes growing up and now one of my daughters favorites!

You can use beef or veal, tonight I used veal.

I started by browning a little over 2lbs of veal in a little olive oil. 

 

Seasoned the meat with salt, garlic powder, red pepper.

Cover and let it brown.

While it's cooking, I chopped my vegetables

Use the trinity.

Chopped onion, celery and bellpepper 

(I was out of celery and just used a little extra bellpepper)

 

Once my meat was browned I added my vegetables

You don't have to, but I also added two large tomatoes because I had a lot of homegrown tomatoes that need to be used!

 

 

Then I covered and let my vegetables cook until they were softened.

Stir occasionally and pressing tomatoes, so they turn into a sauce. 

Once your vegetables have cooked down, I add my Lima beans.

You can use fresh Lima beans, frozen or dried. If dried remember you need to soak them over night.

I had fresh frozen Lima beans.

 

I also added a bunch of chopped fresh basil. 

Seasoned with salt, garlic, red pepper and oregano.

I then added one can of crushed tomatoes. 

 

If you like things extra spicy, you could add a can of rotel at this point.

 

Then cover and just let it cook down for a good 1 1/2 hrs.

Serve over rice, mashed potatoes or eat it by itself!

The meat will be so tender it falls apart!

Yummy comfort meal!

 

Honey Garlic Chicken & Broccoli Stir Fry

Ok, honestly, I was not planning to blog this recipe and didn't really take any pics. I was tired, had a headache and didnt really feel like cooking. I had planned to cook a chicken stir fry tonight but not exactly sure what. So I made this up as I went tonight, but then it turned out pretty good and the reason I am blogging it is because it got my kids to eat broccoli. It is the one vegetable they don't love, but tonight they gobbled it up, so I thought I would share!
It is also super simple and fast.

I started with 4 chicken breasts I thinly sliced and put in a sauté pan with a big spoon of ghee, juice of half a lemon, seasoned with salt, garlic powder, lemon pepper and red pepper. Added two times around the pan with some bragg's amino acids. Covered the pan and let the chicken cook.
 
I chopped up 1/2 an onion, 4 cloves of garlic and 1 head of broccoli.

 
Once the chicken was fully cooked, I added all the veggies.
I then added, a squeeze once around of honey and 2 times around with coconut aminos.
Stirred it up really well, covered and just let the veggies cook.

Served this over some leftover rice I had in the fridge.
You could also do over cauli rice if you like.
 

Salsa

While we were in Louisiana, my in uncle gave us a bunch of homegrown tomoates...

So what else are we gonna do other than make some salsa. I love having homemade salsa in the fridge!

 

In a blender:

4 big tomatoes

2 jalapeño peppers

2 bellpeppers

1 bunch of cilantro

1/2 bunch of parsley

1/2 red onion

4 garlic

Juice of a lemon

Red wine vinegar

Salt and pepper

Blend it up

 

Refrigerate and eat it on everything!

Chimichurri steak

After indulging all weekend at a family wedding in Louisiana, felt the need to whip up some detoxing salsas to help flush our bodies!

Chimichurri is a great detoxer because it's full of cilantro and parsley, both great green detoxers. 

With that in mind, I decided to make one of my favorite dishes lately.

Chimichurri steak.

For the chimichurri sauce-

I put the following in a blender

1 bunch of cilantro 

1 bunch of Italian parsley

1/2 red onion

4 garlic 

Juice of one lemon

Salt

Pepper

Olive oil

Red wine vinegar

 

Blend it up

Taste and adjust seasonings if need be

Refrigerate 

Use it on everything... I'm gonna try and eat as much of it this week as I can. 

I'll too it on my steak tonight, then you can use it over eggs in the am, salad dressing or just dip with fresh veggies...

For my steak, I used a flank steak

 

Marinated it  

Worsteshire, pick a pepper, salt, garlic powder, lemon pepper and red pepper.

Let it marinate in the fridge until I was ready to grill.

Let it get the chill out for about 30 mins prior to grilling.

Grill

 

Then for this dish, I like to slice it, top with sliced avocado, grilled green onions (I grilled with my steak) and then top it with my chimichurri sauce!

 

 Yummmmoooo!!!

With this, I made some pinto beans and rice for my girls and corn on the cob!

For me, I like it just like this! So good!!

Oven baked BBQ chicken

My husband mans the grill in our house and have to say does a great job at it too! But during the week, he doesn't get home early enough to help out for dinner so I have learned some ways around that! So tonight I made oven baked BBQ chicken.

I had 4 skin on bone in split chicken breasts. They are quite large, so I used a really sharp knife and cut them in half. Put them on a foil lined cookie sheet. 

First seasoned with salt, garlic powder, red pepper and paprika.

Then poured some BBQ sauce (use your family's favorite store bought, I used sweet baby rays) and then rubbed all the sauce and seasonings into the chicken.

Looked like this-

 

Baked on 350 for two hours. Occasionally, checked on it and basted it with the sauce (didn't make extra sauce to baste, just used sauce that was on the pan) 

For the last 15 mins, I uncovered it, to crisp up the top.

 

I served this some baked potatoes, sautéed Brussel sprouts, cornbread and salad!

Lebanese White Fish

Yum yum yum!!!

If you aren't a big fish fan, but know you should eat it for the health benefits...here's your dish! The sauce is so good, it masks any fishiness!

And the sauce is made of vegetables making this a very healthy supper!

Start by making the sauce

In a skillet, I melted a heaping spoonful of ghee, then added sliced 2 bellpeppers, onion and 4 tomatoes. Season with salt, lemon pepper, garlic powder, red pepper, and sweet basil. 

Squeeze juice of 1 lemon and go around the pot twice with basalmic vinegar. Stir everything really well and cover and cook on medium. 

Occasionally stir and as the tomatoes cook down, press them with the back of your spoon smushing them.

Vegetables will create a sauce but your onions and peppers will still be in tact, soft but in tact.

Add chopped fresh Italian parsley. 

 

At this point your sauce is ready.

Prepare your fish by simply rinsing and placing in a baking dish.

 

I am using two snapper filets that I had the butcher debone and deskin.

You can use any white flaky fish. I started making this dish in college a lot (Kristan, look familiar?) and used tilapia. Now, I know how disgusting that fish is and no longer buy it or any farm raised seafood for that matter...because we you know better you do better! 

So just any wild caught white, flaky fish will do!

Then you pour your sauce right on top. 

 

I skip this part, but at this point I would quickly roast some pine nuts and sprinkle on top! Gives a nice crunch! Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 30 mins or until fish is done.

Serve over Syrian rice.

Or if you are low carb like me, you will enjoy it just as much without the rice!