Creative Sausages

Our household loves sausages. The ones made with real, quality ingredients. With some small changes Tray Baked Sausages is one of our favourite dishes. 

Tray Baked Sausages a la Me!

Grab a baking dish. If you're wanting to impress anyone use a nice one coz I serve it in the same dish it's cooked in.

Collect together:

8 sausages
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 cup of chicken stock
1 can butter beans
2 punnets cherry or grape tomatoes
Rosemary
4 large potatoes

Then do this with them:

1. Cut up an onion, throw it in the baking dish.
2. Crush a few garlic cloves, toss them in with the onion. We all know garlic and onions is like peas and corn. The go together. Small tip from Jamie Oliver. Don't peel your garlic if you're going to use a garlic press. The peel will stay in the press!
3. Open a can of whatever beans you have in the pantry. Give them a rinse and throw them in to the mix. I like butter beans or 4 bean mix. But don't go past chickpeas, kidney beans or whatever is handy in the cupboard. If you don't have any in the pantry - rummage through the fridge or freezer and see what you can come up with to add in.
4. Add a cup of chicken stock.
5. Lay about 8 gorgeous, thick, delicious, gourmet sausages atop the mountain of natural flavour enhancers.
6. Sprinkle over some rosemary. I only have the dried variety and it works just fine.
7. This is my favourite part... Get two punnets (one seriously is NOT enough for the avid roast tomato lover) of ripe, sweet grape or cherry tomatoes and with gay abandon place them around the sausages. My love of roast tomatoes surpasses... almost... my love of 10yo red wine! Almost. ;)
8. Now for the potatoes. We like our potatoes crispy so I cook them separately with their skins on coz naked potatoes means extra work and the skins crisp up nicely and crunch in your mouth. Cut them up, throw them on an oven tray and spritz them with some oil. A sprinkle of salt if you like. And they're ready.

Place everything in a preheated oven at 200 deg C (have you noticed I cook almost everything at this temp??) and leave it to cook for an hour to develop into delicious, nutritious goodness. Serve at the table in the dish.

Total prep time about 5-10 mins. Now tell me that cooking nutritious, delicious meals from scratch is time consuming. I dare you. ;)

Remember the fussy eater? She loves sausages! Only not mixed with other stuff. So I keep a few sausages aside for her and put them on the tray beside the potatoes for the last 30 minutes of cooking time.

Minced Beef Bolognaise

This is a regular in our house. Everyone loves it because it tastes delicious, it is hearty and I serve it with scrumptious sides. I love it because the kids have no idea how many vegetables they are eating, it is quick and easy, you can toss in whatever is hanging around in the fridge after their friends have gone, everyone loves it and it's delicious!!

I have a fussy eater. She likes fairly bland food, doesn't like lots of texture and doesn't like to mix her foodstuffs. Unless it's to add sauce. She's just beginning to venture out of her food safety zone (at almost 8yo) and try new foods. She loves this dish!!!  What's more... I can freeze it in fussy 8yo meal sized portions so that when we want to enjoy a meal I know she'll loathe I can fish a ready made meal out of the freezer so she can also have a meal she enjoys.

Here's my recipe:

1kg Minced Beef*
3 rashers bacon
1 large brown onion, diced
2 cloves garlic chopped or minced (add more if you like garlic)
2 medium sized carrots, grated
2 medium sized zucchinis, grated
6-8 largeish mushrooms
(These are the basics... add whatever you have in the fridge or pantry. Try broccoli, capsicum, green beans, kidney beans.)
1 large can diced tomatoes (or 6-8 large ripe tomatoes)
1 large can Heinz Tomato Soup (This is my secret weapon!!! And it has to be Heinz... the other brands just don't have the right mix of herbs for my liking.)
A dash of worchestershire sauce (you can leave this out if you'd rather)
Basil
Parsley
Oregano
(Add spices to your own taste. Don't be heavy handed... herbs enhance, not take over, a dish.)
1 tsp salt
Ground pepper to taste

Brown the onion in some oil.
Add the garlic and cook for a few minutes.
Add the bacon and cook for a few minutes.
Add the mince and cook until browned.
Add the vegetables.
Add the soup.
Add the spices to taste.

Let this simmer for a couple of hours on the stove. It really does make the flavour mindblowing. If you need dinner to be ready like 5 minutes ago microwave the grated and chopped veges before adding them.

Serve with:
.... grated parmesan cheese
.... warm, crusty bread or rolls
.... rice
.... corn chips
.... pasta
.... make lasagne
.... place in a casserole dish, top with puff pastry, pop in the oven to make a pie
.... thicken and make sausage rolls
.... wrap in tortillas with tomato, avocado, lettuce and grated cheese

We are having this for dinner tonight!! :)


*I try not to buy the cheap supermarket mince because it has added water. Yes, water. In their pursuit of the sweet, almighty dollar some supermarkets (and butchers) have been known to add water to meats to boost the weight. So you end up paying about $8 a kg for mince that is sometimes half water. That's $8 a litre for water people!!! You know that liquid in the bottom of the pan when you brown the mince?? It's water. This also means that the minced beef doesn't cook or brown as it should because it's boiling in water and loses it's flavour.