awesome turkey breakfast sausage plus Wed and Thur menus

I’ve never made homemade sausage before, but I was browsing Nourishing Traditions, one of my favorite cookbooks, and the recipe seemed easy enough.

Here’s my version that I made below which I adapted to serve the needs of my son with multiple allergies. Another son called the sausage, “awesome.”

one pound ground turkey
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp sage
2 tsp sea salt
1 T ground flax seed
2 T oats

Mix all ingredients very well. Chill. Form in to patties and cook.

I cooked about half of it for breakfast and then saved the other half to use in stuffing for the cornish game hens we had for lunch. Super duper delicious.

Wednesday meals

Breakfast
eggs (our family used 12 today)
english muffins
milk

Lunch
homemade chicken soup with carrots and peas
spelt bread
oyster crackers and rice cakes for J

Dinner
Todd took the leftover shepherd’s pie
the rest of us had leftover buffet

snacks
oatmeal cookies
bars for Jackson
apples

Thursday meals

breakfast
breakfast turkey sausage
eggs and english muffins
milk

lunch
“personal chickens”
sausage made with turkey sausage oats and rice cakes
salad with carrots

dinner
cheese roll-ups
soup for J
Todd took leftover potatoes and chicken to work

snacks
oatmeal cookies
apples
raisins

Do you want to do the $100 grocery challenge with me?  Read more about it.

moist and light banana muffins free of many allergens

If you have to bake for someone with several different food allergies, it’s tough to create a muffin that isn’t too heavy or that doesn’t crumble all to pieces. This recipe has NO wheat, eggs, dairy, soy, corn, vanilla or cinnamon. It turned out pretty well and my little allergy boy probably would’ve eaten them all in one sitting had I not hidden them away. He loved them.

1 cup oats (I used quick)
1 cup rice flour (I already have mine mixed with some tapioca flour)
1 cup oat flour
1/3 cup ground flax seed
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup rice milk
1/2 cup canola oil
2 mashed bananas
2 t xanthum gum
1 tsp baking soda
couple dashes of nutmeg
couple dashes of salt

I mixed this in my stand mixer. It made 11 regular sized muffins plus about a dozen mini muffins. This was a thick batter which worked pretty well. The amount of liquid may need to be altered depending on different brands of flour or humidity levels.

Bake at 350 about 15-20 minutes until done.

fabulous sausage stuffing

This is a recipe stuffing your turkey and baking the rest in a pan. Combining the two together after cooking creates a fabulous multi-texture stuffing with the crunchy stuff from the pan and the mushy stuff baked inside the bird. I’ve made this for 15 years and everyone loves it. This recipe is for under 6 people, so for more than that, double or triple the recipe. (but I don’t usually use more than the 1 stick of butter)

• 1 pound ground sausage (I usually buy the sage flavored in the tube)
• 1 med-large onion, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped (I use the hearts with the leafy tops included)
• 1 stick butter
• I use fresh sage from our herb garden—lots of it! Alternately, you can use 2 tablespoons poultry seasoning, sage or savory, so if you don’t have fresh, choose one of these or use a combo. The stuffing is better, I think with fresh leaves torn up.
• A little bit of pepper.
• 8 cups of day old soft bread cubes or 1 bag of dried bread cubes. Try fabulous homemade bread to make your bread cubes for stuffing
• ½ cup chicken broth or water
• more liquid for your pan stuffing

Brown the sausage. Sauté the onion and celery together in the butter until tender. In large bowl, combine bread cubes and spices and mix well. I usually do this with my hands because a spoon just doesn’t mix it very well. Then add ½ cup chicken broth or water. Stuff the turkey just before baking, and don’t mix the stuffing until ready to stuff. You can have the dry all ready and the wet all ready, but don’t combine them until the very end.

After stuffing the turkey, add more liquid to your remaining mixture to wet the bread, but don’t saturate it. The amount of liquid added will vary depending on what kind of bread or bread cubes you are using. (the drier your cubes, the more liquid you’ll need) If your stuffing is too dry, then it will be really dry and crunchy and not turn out very good. You can always check on it while baking to see if you need to add more liquid to it. Bake covered for about an hour (give or take) at whatever temp the oven happens to be at for your other things. Stuffing isn’t an exact science. There are lots of variables. When your bird is all done, remove the stuffing and add it to your stuffing in the pan. You can squirt a little bit of the turkey juices for added flavor and moisture. Yummy. Enjoy.

plain homemade yogurt

4 cups milk or half and half. You can add a little heavy whipping cream for richer yogurt
1/2 cup dry milk powder
2 Tablespoons plain yogurt with active cultures. (I prefer Brown Cow brand yogurt when I don’t have any homemade to use.
1 tsp vanilla (optional)

Scald the milk on low heat. Cool the milk to about 100 degrees. Add the yogurt, milk powder and vanilla and mix well. Pour into glass jars. Place in crockpot set on low with several inches of warm water in the bottom. (no lid required for the crockpot although the experts would disagree with me. I turn it off once in awhile if I think it’s getting too hot.) Setting the yogurt will take a minimum of 3 hours to 12 or more hours. The longer you leave it in, the thicker and more tangy or sour the yogurt will become. This yogurt is wonderful with fresh fruit and yummy crunchy granola full of clusters. If I were eating it plain, I would want to add a little honey to make it sweeter. To read about the benefits of eating yogurt, yogurt making techniques and troubleshooting tips, go to this great article by Mother Earth News.

yummy crunchy granola full of clusters

I’ve been on a quest to make granola with clusters. It seems every time I made granola, all the oats would be separated. It tasted good, but it just didn’t have all the yummy, big clusters that I found in the bulk bins at my health food store. So I’ve been experimenting and altering recipes for about six months and I have finally come up with a recipe that I like with my yogurt and fruit. It seems the key to getting clusters is adding flour, having a wet granola before baking, and not stirring as often which can break up the clusters.

1/2 cup sunflower oil
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup dry milk powder
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup coconut flakes
1 cup whole wheat flour
8 cups oats

Mix all the ingredients. This will be a wet granola. Bake at 200 degrees for a minimum of 2 hours. Just stir a little about every half hour and watch it towards the end so you can take it out of the oven when the granola has browned and is nice and crunchy. Optional: add dried fruit, nuts and seeds after baking is done. Store in an airtight container. Serve with fruit and yogurt or just eat it plain.

super moist and delicious banana cake

1 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened/slightly melted
2 eggs separated
3 very ripe, soft and mushy bananas
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup sour milk (you can make it sour by adding a few drops of white vinegar or lemon juice)

Directions: combine the first list of dry ingredients and set aside. Separate the eggs. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form (as if you were making meringue) and set aside. In a large bowl, dissolve the baking soda into the milk. Then add the egg yolks and the remaining wet ingredients and mix well. Then combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Last, fold the beaten egg whites into the cake mixture. Spread into the cake pan of your choice. These make great little muffins. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes for a 9 x 13 cake. Less time for smaller cakes or muffins. These taste great plain,but you can also sprinkle with powdered sugar or it’s especially tasty with cream cheese frosting.

Thanks to my sister-in-law, Amy for this yummy recipe.

Alex’s favorite Sunday dinner: pot roast

This is a simple-to-make recipe that my family always likes. The company we have likes it too!

Shoulder roast or chuck roast (use one of these cuts for a roast that is guaranteed to always be moist)
Catalina dressing
onion
potatoes
carrots
bay leaf
Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper

Brown the onions and roast on both sides in Catalina dressing or olive oil. Place in baking dish. Arrange cut up potatoes and carrots around the meat. Pierce roast in several places and pour on Worcestershire sauce and squirt on some more Catalina dressing. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add bayleaf. Pour about 1/2 cup of water into pan. Cover tightly with foil. Bake at 300 for four hours.

I make this Saturday night and put it in the fridge overnight. I put it in the oven before leaving for church on Sunday. Four hours later, it’s ready to eat when we get home (if I remember to turn the oven on.) If making ahead the night before, wait until morning to do the potatoes or they will turn brown.

This can also be made in the crockpot on low. Not recommended on high with the shorter cook time.

The pot roast is even better with fabulous homemade bread.

the best tasting spaghetti sauce

I just discovered a product that makes my spaghetti and pizza sauces better than ever. Sun-dried tomato pesto by Classico.

Here’s my sauce recipe for spaghetti or lasagne.

1 pound ground sausage
1 pound ground chuck or beef
1 medium size sweet onion, chopped
several garlic cloves, crushed
Three 15 ounce cans tomato sauce
6 oz can of tomato paste
10 oz jar of sun-dried tomato pesto by Classico
salt and pepper to taste
rosemary, thyme, basil to taste
brown sugar to taste

Brown the sausage and beef together. When it’s almost done, add onion and cook until meats are brown and onion is soft. Remove the grease and add the crushed garlic and cook for about a minute. Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste and pesto and stir until well blended. Sprinkle spices and sugar. Let simmer for at least an hour, stirring every once in awhile. Let the steam escape so the sauce will reduce.

recipe for the best tasting pizza sauce

Combine
15 oz can of tomato sauce
3 tablespoons of Classico pesto sauce