Leftovers and Old Favorites

Short post about yesterday:

Breakfast: Atkins Daybreak Bar
Lunch: Leftover Sesame Chicken
Snack: Chipotle Olives and Pecans
Dinner: Turkey Sausage and Peppers

Turkey Sausage and Peppers
1 Red Bell Pepper chopped in big chunks
1 Green Bell Pepper chopped in big chunks
1 Can Roasted Garlic and Onion Chopped Tomatoes (Red Gold)
1 lb. Hot Turkey Italian Sausage (Jenny O) (which was not spicy at all.
1 Tbls. Penzey's Tuscan Sunset seasoning

Cook Turkey Sausage in 400 oven for about 20 minutes. Slice. Combine with all other ingredients in large pan and cook over medium heat until heated through (about 10 minutes).

Foodbuzz Sunday - Italian Sausage and Tomatoes

Sunday is the one day a week that I usually have any time to try out real recipes. Every other night I feel like I'm just throwing something together. So I'm trying to make a new Foodbuzz recipe every Sunday. This Sunday I made Roasted Tomatoes and Italian Sausage from The Duo Dishes. If you have a suggestion for my next Foodbuzz Sunday recipe, let me know!!




Let me start by saying that it would help if I would read the recipe closely before getting started. I'm going to give you their recipe and then tell you how a changed it up a little.



Roasted Tomatoes and Italian Sausage
3 cups cherry and grape tomatoes, mixed
1/2 lb. Italian sausage, sliced
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 - 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
6 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/2 cup basil, roughly chopped
1/4 cup parsley
Salt, to taste



1. Toss tomatoes with 2 tablespoons olive oil and 5 whole garlic cloves. Roast at 400 degrees for approx. 25 minutes or until tomatoes darken and begin to burst. Remove from oven.

2. Mince last clove of garlic and cook with remaining olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add sausage as garlic sizzles and cook until done.

3. Add cooked tomatoes and balsamic vinegar to sausage and stir to combine. Remove from heat.

4. Top with basil and parsley.

Well, I wasn't going to serve this over pasta (more than enough carbs in the tomatoes and balsamic vinegar already), so I upped the sausage to one pound. Plus, I wasn't paying attention and instead of buying Italian sausage links, I bought bulk Italian sausage. And I bought turkey sausage - so that's all a big change from their original recipe.


Then, I also cut all of the tomatoes in half before roasting them. I probably also used 4 cups or more of tomatoes to compensate for more sausage.


In the end, even if was a little different than the original recipe, it was really tasty. While cooking and smelling the tomatoes and balsamic vinegar, I was worried the dish would be too sweet, but it wasn't. The balsamic vinegar added a nice richness to the dish. This was so simple to make!!


So a decent amount of carbs came from the tomatoes and balsamic vinegar. I learned that different balsamic have different amount of carbs. Mine, that I thought was pretty good and aged 8-12 years, had one gram of carb per tablespoon. One that I had the other day had 4 grams of carbs. It was very thick. So all I can say is read the label. ---But like I've mentioned, my diet right now is all about no bread, flour, sugar, potatoes and pasta. I'm not freaking out about the carbs from tomatoes.

Also today:
Breakfast: Scrambled egg with cheddar cheese , two slices bacon
Snack: Almonds

More Canned Tomatoes

My life is about simple dinners. Now, simple low-carb dinners. Everyday on Foodbuzz I read a ton of fabulous recipes, but I don't happen to have lamb or truffles or pancetta around my house. Now don't get me wrong every special occassion deserves a special recipe. But Thursday 'round my house is just another night. Tonight we have a friend coming over who is doing weight watchers, so I needed to make something low-fat and low-carb. And easy.



So I had two cans of diced tomatoes. The DelMonte brand is made with high fructose corn syrup. Completely unnecessary. I am only using them because I already bought them, but I will not buy this brand again. The Jewel (our store) brand is made with sugar - again, not sure if it is necessary, but real sugar is better than the HFCS. But both defeat my low-carb intentions. Can't wait until summer again when I can grow my own. Maybe I'll learn how to can.

Turkey Sausage, Tomato and Peppers

2 lbs. Lean Smoked Turkey Sausage - sliced
2 medium green peppers - sliced in chunks
2 cans diced tomatoes (mine had garlic and onions, too)
2 T Penzey's Greek Seasoning





In large pan, heat turkey sausage (it is already cooked) until browned on edges. Add green peppers and tomatoes. Serves at least 4 with leftovers.





Other food today:
Breakfast: Turkey
Lunch: Morocan salad from Cosi
Snacks: 2% cheese, olives, almonds