Sausage and Spinach

Let me tell you about Sausage, and not the spicy kind. First off, I want you to know that Safeway didn't pay me anything or give me anything to talk about their products, I just went out on a limb and truly enjoyed what I ate, I think you will too!

In a moment of desperation, after a ridiculously long day filled with work, homework, and errands, Dan and I began to feel the hunger pangs that come with low blood sugar. We had bought some interesting-sounding Chicken Sausages with Spinach and Feta, a new generic brand from Safeway called "Open Nature". Now, we are definitely not sausage people. We really only eat Hot Dogs and the occasional Bratwurst during summertime barbeques. But, the sausages looked pretty good and sounded pretty good... and it helped that they were something new that was on sale and would be a quick and healthy meal, easy to throw together.

First things first, I blanched some Spinach. (Because I have made a video tutorial and an upcoming post about this process, I'll let you Google that one in the meanwhile.) After getting the excess water out of the Spinach, I let it rest on some folded up paper towels while I went to work on the rest of the meal.

Next up, a good mise en place. If you didn't notice, I chop onions and put them in a baggie for use throughout the week; it makes cooking and prep-time a lot quicker and less tearful, and there is no difference between freshly chopped and chopped, as long as you use those onions within a week, and keep them in a very cold fridge. Also pictured: olive oil, the sausages, brown rice (in the cooker) and garlic. Not pictured: the Spinach.

Like I have probably mentioned so many times now, this meal is super quick and easy to throw together, and extremely healthy. For the cooking part of things, you are going to start by heating up a little bit of oil on medium (to medium-high, depending on how fickle your stove is) in your favorite, largest saucepan. If you only have a small saucepan, it is no big deal, but you may want to use less sausages or simply split everything in half and make two smaller batches. Once the oil gets somewhat hot (and is starting to get a slight ripple to the surface, along with your being able to smell its sweetness), you are going to put a big handful of the chopped onions in the pan and let them soften. We are onion people, so we love onions. However, if you hate onions, you do not need to add them. As the onions cook, you will have a few minutes to slice up the sausages. Thickness and thinness do not matter, just be aware that thinner slices will definitely cook more quickly.

Once the onions are starting to soften and become slightly translucent, you will add the sausage. When I made this meal, I added the garlic before the sausage and it gradually browned somewhere between the delicious stage and the burnt stage. It wasn't really either of the two, but I now know (and can tell you) to wait a bit before adding the garlic. Now give everything a good stir, getting the onion-infused oil all over the sausages while waiting for them to brown.

When your first couple of slices begin to turn golden-brown on one side, then it will be time to add the garlic. Again, this is something completely up to you. We also happen to love garlic, so I added about a tablespoon and stirred everything around in the pain again. After the garlic, a little salt and pepper can go in, just to add a little seasoning and heighten some flavors.

At this point, you can mostly leave the pan alone, coming back every few minutes to check it and move everything around, making sure all the sausage gets browned evenly. I took this time to put away the garlic and place the dirty knives and cutting board in the sink, clearing space on the counter for assembling our dinner.

After about ten minutes, when most of the sausage is browned, it is time for the Spinach. Because it was cooked previously, it only needs to be warmed through before being served. Using your hands, separate little chunks of leaves from the wrung out ball of Spinach, dropping them in the saucepan. This is yet another thing that will not need measuring, as it goes purely by personal preference. Say you hated Spinach and preferred Green Beans. This would be the time to drop some frozen green beans into the pan and  give it a little extra time to warm back up. Just be sure that after all the vegetables are added to the pain, it gets another stir to evenly distribute all of these delicious ingredients.

You will be able to get your preferred beverage together, as well as plate up the rice with a tiny bit of olive oil and about twice as much balsamic vinegar.

At this point, you should stay pretty close to your sausage and vegetable mixture, as it should be just about done browning (and thus, done cooking). Once it has been cooked to your satisfaction, and the vegetables are heated through, you will simply spoon the mixture over the rice.

With about one cup of Spinach, blanched, one package of sausages, and two cups of rice, the two of us were able to have four meals on the satisfyingly small side of things.

This is one of those meals that can be used simply as a guideline for this sort of thing; you can change up the vegetables, or the meat. You could even change up the starch and have something adventurous and new. You could use a spicy sausage if you wanted to kick it up a notch, or try using some beautiful Swiss Chard, which is in season right now, in place of Spinach.

You simply must try this recipe sometime this week... your heart and your belly will be thanking you.