Chicken Sausage and Apples with Rice Pilaf

I am always looking for new ways to get my daughter to eat protein. She's not much of a meat lover, but not enough of a vegetable lover to be a vegetarian.  Both of my kids love apples and if my daughter is going to eat meat, chicken or turkey are her first choice, so when we discovered a brand of chicken sausage in our local market called Sweet Apple with pure Vermont maple syrup, I thought it was a good chance to introduce something new. Neither of my kids cares for breakfast sausage or Italian sausage, so... I was taking a risk.  Luckily, and to my relief, they both liked it. So did my husband and I.

Another thing I am always looking for are meals to make ahead of time and freeze/reheat. That lead to the recipe below. I wasn't sure how the apples would take with being cooked, frozen and reheated, but they were fine. Probably because they aren't cooked very much to begin with.

If you've read other posts on my blog, you know my family has trouble agreeing on vegetables, so dishes like this, you'll almost never see any green veggies in.  We heat up individual ones on the side because we all like something different. But of course, you can add what you like to it, or you can do like we do if you have fussy eaters too.


Chicken Sausage and Apples with Rice Pilaf

1 package Chicken Sausage with Apples (4 links/12 oz)
1 package rice pilaf mix
2 tsp maple syrup
2 tsp brown sugar
1/4 cup finely chopped/diced carrot
1/2 small apple, diced
2 - 3 tbsp. crushed walnuts
1 tsp butter (for rice mix)

1. Cook rice pilaf according to box directions, adding carrots
2. Slice sausages in half lengthwise and then into pieces, cook over medium heat in skillet
3. When sausages are almost cooked, add apples, walnuts, syrup and brown sugar to skillet, mix. 
4. Cook til sausages are done and apples are nicely glazed.
5. When rice is done, stir in sausage and apple mixture. Serve hot

If you plan to freeze, wait until the food is completely cool before you place in a freezer bag or container and put in freezer.  To serve after freezing: Thaw and reheat in oven at 375 degrees for 25 - 30 minutes, or reheat in a skillet on stovetop.

As with many of my recipes, this is an easy recipe to adapt to the tastes of your family. You could use long grain and wild rice or even quinoa or couscous if you prefer. You could add more apple, or a variety of apples. You could add pecans instead of walnuts. You could add broccoli, or green beans with almonds.  You could even add cheese to the top. There are lots of ways to make this your own.

Enjoy!

6 Easy Recipes for Packaged Pork Loin

You see them all the time in your supermarket sales flyers - packaged pork loin.

But what do you do with them? Do you roast them in the oven like a pork roast? Sure, you can put it in a 375 degree oven for about an hour. If you're lucky, you can even get ones that have already been marinated in garlic or teriyaki or some other flavor. If not, just add your own seasonings. You could even grill it.  If needs be, you can even cook it on your stove top, as long as you cook it to 160 degrees internal temperature.  A great convenience food and better than hitting the drive through!


But my favorite thing to do with them - the crock pot! Yup! That's right. The crock pot. Put those babies in a crock pot with just a few ingredients and you have a great meal. And the really great thing - if your local store has a great sale, buy a few of them and put the pork loins and the ingredients into a ziplock freezer bag and freeze them! Then when you want a fast and easy dinner, you just dump it all in the crock pot.

Here are 6 recipes that are super simple and delicious. I cook them all on high for 4 - 6 hours.

*See Notes at the end

1. Basic pork with gravy. Doesn't get any simpler than this. Just put the pork loin in the crock pot, pour in some pork gravy. 1 extra large jar or 2 regular jars.  When it's cooked it will be more like a thick broth than a gravy, but it will be tasty! And your pork will be flavorful and tender. Make life super simple - add a bag of frozen veggies and some canned potatoes and your whole meal will be ready for you.

2. Cran-Apple Pork. Awesome and the kids love it! Put in your pork. Add one 8 oz can of cranberry sauce and 1 cup of apple sauce. (I use the snack cups of apple sauce I always have for the kids and just dump 1 in there).  That's it. Yummy!  Depending on the likes or dislikes of your family, you can use the chunky kind of cranberry sauce and you can dice apples up in this as well.

3. Figgy Piggy. Now, I don't normally like figs. Don't even like Fig Newtons.  But this is good stuff.  Put the pork in the crock pot, add one large jar fig preserves about 14 oz (or 2 jars if you can only find small ones).  Add 1 tbsp. Dijon mustard.  If you have it, add 1/2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar. I don't always have the balsamic in the house and it's not a deal breaker. I like it better with it, but it's still good without it. I know it can be pricey, so don't go out and buy some just for this. If you don't have it, the preserves and mustard are good alone.

4. Garlic and Rosemary Pork. Super tasty! You put all the dry ingredients (listed below) into a bowl and mix them. Then you rub your pork loin with a little olive oil.  Rub the seasoning mix onto your pork and pop it into the crock pot!  Seasonings: 1 tsp kosher salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp onion powder, 3/4 tsp ground rosemary, 3/4 tsp ground thyme.  If your pork loin doesn't have much fat on it and it seems like it is a bit dry while it's cooking, you can add a splash of chicken or beef stock, but you really shouldn't need to.

5. Honey Mustard Pork Loin. Easy peasy! 1/2 cup honey and 1/2 cup Dijon mustard poured over the pork in your crock pot.  You want to add a little pizazz? Dice up 2 apples and add to it.

6. Maple and Brown Sugar Pork. Not for dieters! 1/4 cup plain old pancake syrup. 1/4 cup brown sugar (light or dark). 3 tsp ground mustard powder. 1 tbsp. balsamic or apple cider vinegar.  Mix all of these ingredients and place in crock pot. Put in the pork and turn the pork to coat. (if you want to use real maple syrup, only use 2 tbsp.)


*Notes - those recipes that have liquid/sauce, if you desire, you can remove the pork from the crockpot when cooked and cover with foil to keep warm. Transfer the liquid to a sauce pan on your stove top and use corn starch to thicken

Make your meal time even easier by adding vegetables along with the pork and other ingredients as long as you don't mind them having the same flavor as what the pork is cooked in.

You can make life even easier by buying crockpot liners to cook in and clean up will be a breeze!

And again, you can put all of these recipes into freezer bags and freeze them for when you need them.

Enjoy!