Easy Sausage Pizza (Johnsonville Sausages)

For the month of March, the Allrecipe AllStars were making recipes with Johnsonville Sausages.  At the beginning of the month, Johnsonville sent us a beautiful set of Sur La Table Covered Casserole dishes along with coupons to try out their sausages.  I've had a rough month and while I started out with intentions of getting through the activities way before now, today I actually made my last recipe.  I decided that instead of posting all the recipes I made here that I would link you up to the recipes I did make on allrecipies.com and post my favorite one here on my blog.

We enjoyed all of the recipes I did make, however, this pizza, the last one I made, was my personal favorite.  It was easy, quick, and I loved the spicy sausage on the pizza.  I would make this again for certain!  I'm a big fan of pita bread pizzas so instead of the pizza crusts, I went ahead with the pita breads instead.  This time I used Tofyan pitas.  They are higher protein and a little thicker than your normal pita bread.

Here is the list of recipes I did make with the link to Allrecipes.com if your interested in trying them out also! I made two recipes with mild italian sausage and one with 3 cheese italian chicken sausage.

Johnsonville Three Cheese Chicken Sausage and Broccoli Rigatoni

Tre Formaggi Fritatta
this is one of the dishes I received for my activity this month!

Johnsonville One-Pan Italian

We were encouraged to make one of our favorite allrecipes.com beef recipes substituting Johnsonville Sausages.  Unfortunately, events in our life didn't allow me to do this.  However, our very favorite recipe on AR that is one I would probably attempt would be a chili recipe and I would probably go with the hot sausage.  Grumpy loves the dill pickle meatloaf from AR but I'm not so certain how sausage would work in that recipe because of the fat.  Maybe a mixture of the sausage with beef would be a better idea there.  In any case, I totally enjoyed trying the sausages and I have to say my favorite recipe was this pizza with the 3 cheese italian chicken italian sausage one coming in a very close second.  I will probably make that recipe again also!

I would like to take the time to thank Johnsonville for their generosity and delicious recipes they brought to our home this month.  I also want to thank Allrecipes for bringing such great brand partners to our tables!  I look forward to a long relationship with both!

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Easy Sausage Pita Piza

by March-31-2013

Ingredients

• 4 Tofuyan Pita Breads
• 1 cup pizza sauce
• 1 lb Johnsonville Hot Italian Sausage (ground)
• 2 cups Mozzarella cheese, shredded

Instructions

Pre-cook sausage if desired.  Drain and set aside until ready to top pizza.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Place pita breads on large cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Spread pizza sauce evenly over each pita bread.  Top with mozzarella cheese.  Top with sausage.  Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes or until cheese melts and begins to brown slightly.
Details
Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 15 mins Total time: 30 mins Yield: 4 Pita Pizzas

I am an Allrecipes Allstar Brand Ambassador (a voluntary position) and I’m not compensated for my work with Allrecipes.com. Products received from advertiser are only used for experienced-based reviews on The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch. The reviews, content and opinions expressed in this blog are purely the sole opinions of Grumpy's Honeybunch

Waffles with Cherry Berry Syrup

I know I've been MIA for quite some time.  After over 5 years of blogging though, a person can get burn out.  I have had so many different things going on with me that I have had no energy to think about food and recipe creating.  I am still 1 recipe away from fulfilling my AllStar duties for Allrecipes this month.  I have until tomorrow to finish up so I guess its a good thing I only have one more dish to make!

I haven't made a "breakfast" in a while.  Lately we've been living off of protien shakes, yogurt smoothies, mini bagels and hard boiled eggs in the morning.  Take your pick, its all been at the ready for us.  This morning however I was out of almond milk so there was no protien shake for Grumpy.  I had some almond/coconut milk mixture, but he wasn't up to a shake that had coconut milk.  He asked me how hard it was to make waffles and my response was "the hardest part is digging out the waffle maker".  Literally.  That can be a LOT of work!  ha ha.  So, this morning, I got a little exercise digging out the waffle maker and made us waffles.  I served them up with some mixed cherries and berries and pure maple syrup.

When making the waffles, Grumpy came out and was intently watching me put the batter in the maker.  After I closed the lid he walked away.  Of course, I can't let his watching me go unnoticed, so when he walked away, I asked "so, I must have done it right since you didn't have anything to say".  LOL Oh he cracked a grin and denied it up and down, but picky mr grump was watching me for that very reason and he can't fool me.  Besides, he denied it way too intently.  I also told him it was a good thing he didn't have anything to say about how I was cooking or he'd be cooking for himself.

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Classic Waffles

March-30-2013

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 large eggs
• 1-1/2 cups almond milk, warmed
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

In a large bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking powder and sugar; set aside. Preheat waffle iron to desired temperature.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. Stir in the milk, butter and vanilla. Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture; beat until blended.

Ladle the batter into a preheated waffle iron. Cook the waffles until golden and crisp.

While waffles are cooking, warm berries and maple syrup in microwave safe bowl for 40 seconds.  Serve over top of waffles.
Details
Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 15 mins Total time: 25 mins Yield: 6 large waffles

Spicy Baby Bok Choy and Tofu Stir-Fry

This month, for The Secret Recipe Club, I was snooping around on Ilona's Kitchen and came away with a whole lot of links taking me to yummy recipes that I want to try!  We seem to have a lot in common.  Wife, Daughter, Mother of two.  Not to mention our taste for spicy food.  She has a lot of Indian and Crockpot Recipes that I have bookmarked for future reference.  I have been on the search for crockpot recipes because I'm just too tired when I get home from work anymore.  I don't have the same things that she has going on in her life anymore(I'm probably old enough to be her mom).  I totally respect her as a housewife, mother, caretaker and she lives a busy life (and from her perspective most of it in her car!) My child rearing days are over now and its a full time job and old-er age making me tired at night.  I used to be ready to put my kids to bed at 8 pm over 20 years ago.  Now I look forward to putting myself to bed at that time!  lol

She also cooks from websites that I frequent often, one of them being Allrecipes.com.  As a matter of fact, that is where she found the recipe that was on her blog that I made for the Secret Recipe Club!  It also ended up fitting perfectly with the MyPlate segment that AR is sponsoring on their site.  However, instead of just being a side dish, I turned it into a main dish by adding tofu!  I used vegetable broth in place of the water in the recipe and cut the oil in half.  I also added about a teaspoon of cornstarch to the sauce before putting it in the pan and sauteed the garlic with the bok choy.  Oh, and I added a little red bell pepper for a little contrasting color.  My tofu, was pressed and dry fried to a crisp and added to the sauce then I tossed the bok choy with the sauced up tofu.  Was a pretty yummy lunch and even Grumpy ate some of the tofu.  :)

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Spicy Baby Bok Choy and Tofu Stir Fry

March-4-2013

Ingredients

• 1 lb extra firm tofu, pressed and cut into triangles
• cooking spray
• 1 lb baby bok choy, chopped and white part separated from leafy part
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/4 cup vegetable broth
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch

Instructions

In a large skillet sprayed with cooking spray, fry tofu triangles until crispy over medium high heat, turning pieces onto all sides to crisp up.  This might be a little time consuming, but very worth it!  Remove tofu from pan and set aside.
While tofu is dry frying, chop baby bok choy into bite sized pieces, separating the white bottoms from the green tops.  You will cook the white bottoms before cooking the leafy green.

Make sauce mixture by mixing vegetable broth, oyster sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, red pepper and cornstarch.  Set aside.

Place sesame oil in hot skillet along with garlic.  Sizzle about 30 seconds then place the white part of bok choy in pan with garlic.  Stir fry about 2 minutes.  Add the leafy part of bok choy to pan and stir fry another minute.  Transfer bok choy to a bowl and set aside.  Pout sauce mixture into hot skillet and bring to a simmer.  Simmer sauce until it begins to thicken.  Add crispy tofu to sauce in hot skillet and toss to coat.  Return bok choy mixture to skillet and toss with tofu and sauce.  Arrange stir-fried bok choy and tofu mixture on platter and squeeze juice of 1 lime over top of mixture before serving.
Details
Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 35 mins Yield: 4 servings