Baked Sausage and Peppers

Cooking three meals a day is good for a growing family, but it can get time consuming. Meal planning is a great way to to manage time. I do it…kind of. I grocery shop with a purpose. I know what I want to make each week. Our meals aren’t prescheduled. Instead, I prep what I may need two days in advance. For example, I usually marinate meat for a day (The time needed to marinate varies). If it is frozen, I need time to defrost it. In this scenario, this meal is planned 3 days in advance. By doing this, I cut my prep time in half. I take similar steps with my baked sausage and peppers.

My Steak-UMMS review mentions how I chop vegetables in advance. If I plan to use them for several recipes, I cut and divide them in Ziploc refrigerator bags or Rubbermaid containers. In this case, I did not have enough chopped vegetables for dinner. So, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees and chopped more veggies.

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For my baked sausuge and peppers, I chop bellpeppers and onions into half inch chunks. They don’t have to be perfect. Altogether I used one medium onion, half a red bell pepper, half a green bell pepper and half an orange bell pepper. All the bell peppers were medium. By the way, I did not need three different colors. I like to add color vegetables.

Next, I put them in double handle non-stick skillet. My skillet is to large for my stove top. It can handle upto 500 degrees without melting the handles. I season the vegetables and put it in the preheated oven.

Since, I boiled the sausage ahead of time, I cut them horizontally into .25 inch coins. Then I cut the coins in half. When the vegetables sautéed, I remove them from the skillet and replace them with mild italian sausage.

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Since I boiled the sausage first, it is technically already cooked. I bake them in the oven to make sure they are fully cooked. Searing the sausage adds a crisp flavor as well. Some people sear without cutting it. Since I am cooking for children, it is easier for me to cut it first. Once the pieces are slightly crisped, I take the skillet out of the oven and put the vegetables back in the pan. Then, I stir it together.

At this point, I let it stand for a few minutes on the stove. Then, I put it over rice, stuffing, or mashed potatoes. If I made it a few hours before dinner, I transfer it to tubberware.

In-between sautéing vegetables and searing sausag, I was able to complete a 35 min workout on my stationary bike. I did this by adding a layer of water to the vegetables. By doing this, I made sure the vegetables didn’t dry out.

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Usually, I workout in the morning. Sometimes, you have to be flexible.