Mini Meal Plans use the leftover main ingredient from one night's dinner to make an entirely different dinner one other night that week. The Mini Meal Plan provides you the tools to formulate a personalized meal plan that works for you and your family. You get not one, but two delicious dinners from the effort of one night's cooking. Visit the more than 40 other great Mini Meal Plan recipes at Mini Meal Plan: Cook Once.... Eat Twice.
Italian Sausage and Peppers is a great meal to serve a crowd at your next family get-together. Sausages maintain their tenderness during this long-cooking process which means you can put them in the oven well before your company arrives, freeing you up to take care of other details. We all know time is valuable when guests are on the way, the house is in disarray, and you haven't yet found time to shower. So, enjoy this easy to make, sure to please Sausage and Pepper Bake Mini Meal Plan - and enjoy a low-effort lasagna with the leftover sausage on another night of the week.
This recipe can also easily be doubled or tripled to accommodate any size crowd.
Meal 1: Sausage and Peppers
Ingredients:
Serves 4 with leftovers for Meal 2
- 4 lbs. Italian sausage
- 2 green bell peppers
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 onion
- 2 tablespoons garlic
- 2 tablespoons Italian Seasoning
- 2 cups cooked rice
Cut sausages crosswise in approximately 3 inch sections. In large baking dish or foil pan, lay cut sausages and sprinkle with olive oil, garlic and Italian seasoning, stirring to coat. Put in 325 degree F preheated oven and cook for 3 ½ hours, stirring occasionally to turn sausages. Cut onion and pepper into strips. During last 40 minutes of baking, add onion and peppers and stir to blend in with seasonings and oil. Serve with rice.
Meal 2: Sausage Lasagna
It's hard to find people who don't like to eat lasagna. And the leftovers from this crowd-pleaser freeze well for lunches or future dinners.
Ingredients:
- Leftover sausage
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes
- 1 can mushrooms
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon basil
- ½ teaspoon oregano
- 2 cans tomato paste (6 ounces each)
- 10 ounces lasagna noodles (10 to 12 noodles)
- 3 cups ricotta cheese
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 16 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded or thinly sliced
In pan on stove, combine tomatoes, basil, oregano, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and tomato paste. Simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling salted water according to package directions. In a bowl, combine ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, parsley, eggs, salt, and pepper.
Spread 1/3 tomato sauce mixture in lasagna pan. Top with one layer of noodles, one half ricotta cheese mixture, one half can of mushrooms, one half sausage and peppers and one third each tomato sauce and Mozzarella. Repeat and top with remaining noodles, tomato sauce and Mozzarella.
Bake at 350 degrees F for fifty minutes. Cover with foil for first 40 minutes, removing at the end. Remove from oven and let stand at least 10 minutes prior to serving. Serve with additional tomato sauce if desired.
Kelly Donlea - Kelly Donlea Where the right and left brain meet. Writing about food is my chance to bring my passion to my profession. My goal is ...
