Sausage with Cajun Alfredo

I feel like a genius after having made this dinner. This only came about because I thought I had everything I needed for dinner…until time to make dinner and it turns out I had about half. Half one one recipe and half of another.

My first reaction was panic. I’m not usually the “wing it” cook. But, I knew the two recipes well enough that I thought I could mix it. Of course, when Hubs asked what was for dinner I answered with a “we’ll see!” Turns out, it was a blessing for our tummies!

So I combined my Sausage Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce (cajun style) with my Cheesy Garlic Chicken Alfredo.

You’ll need:

For the Alfredo:
2 cups milk
4 ounces cream cheese (1/2 a block)
2 Tbs flour
½ tsp salt
3 Tbs butter
1 cup grated Mozzarella cheese ( or Cheddar!)

For the Sausage pasta:
8+ ounces penne pasta (or whatever you prefer, I used small shells)
12 oz smoked sausage or Chicken!
14-oz can petite diced tomatoes with onion, drained well
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1-2 Tablespoons cajun seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste

What to do:

First, I started my pasta cooking and then made the Alfredo just as I do for the regular recipe:

Use a mixer or blender to mix together the milk, flour, salt, and cream cheese until it is smooth. I also added butter to this mix and heated it until it thickens then added the shredded cheese and let it sit.

Then, while those two were going, I sliced up my sausage and sautéed it and then added my tomatoes and onion, garlic and cajun spices, and a little S&P. Mix well

Finally, once my Alfredo was ready I slowly stirred it into my pan of sausage. making sure to coat everything and mix in the cajun spice. Then I added the pasta and mixed again.

This was one of the best outcomes of not having what you need!! This mix may be one of my favorites!

Cheesy Garlic Chicken Alfredo

Cheesy Garlic Chicken Alfredo! After one bite the hubby said, “Oh, wow”. Yes, it’s that good. The pin from Eazy Peazy Mealz was for SHRIMP Alfredo. I decided to make this after I shopped, so chicken it was. But this would be oh so good with shrimp!!

The original post also says this is a 30 minute meal. It took me a little longer than that. I think after some practice and with shrimp (shorter cooking time) it will be closer to the 30 min mark. But ABSOLUTELY try this!!

You’ll need:

2 cups milk
4 ounces cream cheese (1/2 a block)
2 Tbs flour
½ tsp salt
3 Tbs butter
3 Tbs minced garlic (I used just shy of a Tbs of garlic powder)
1 cup grated Mozzarella cheese
⅓ cup parmesan cheese (optional)
Pepper to taste
1 lb peeled and deveined shrimp or chicken, cut into small pieces or strips (as I did)

Pasta of choice (I used thin spaghetti)

What to do:

Use a mixer or blender to mix together the milk, flour, salt, and cream cheese until it is smooth. Then set it aside.

Next, you’ll melt your butter and garlic in a sauce pan then add your shrimp or chicken to cook. Once it’s cooked, set it aside, removing it from the pan and leave the remaining butter and garlic . Cook up your pasta per the box directions.

Next add the milk mixture to the pan you just used to cook the shrimp or chicken. Stir until it comes to a simmer and then continue to stir until it thickens.

Remove it from the heat and add the mozzarella and parmesan cheeses. Cover and let it sit for about 5 minutes.

Yum! Steamy!

Add your shrimp or chicken and let it stand for about another 5 minutes.

My Alfredo was quite thick and super cheesy at this point so I put it back over a medium-ish heat and stirred in a little milk at a time until it thinned out. I served it over thin spaghetti, my hubby’s favorite, and seasoned with a little pepper.

This was so good. Like, you’d order in a restaurant good. Best off all, my lunch leftovers were great!

Update!

So we decided to switch it up a bit and cook our chicken on the grill. I love that chargrilled taste! I did what I would usually do for this, but I cut the butter and garlic in half, since I wasn’t cooking any meat in it then added the milk mix.

When the Alfredo was ready I cut up the chicken and added it along with some steamed broccoli. It was SO GOOD!!!

My husband turned up the heat a bit by adding crushed red pepper!

Finally, you will feel like this too…our Little passed out after enjoying her pasta! This is a family favorite!

Sweet Hawaiian Crockpot Chicken

This lovely pin was sent to me by my sister-in -law (thank you!). I’m always taking suggestions of things to try and this was a good start. I loved that it fit my easy and fast criteria, but I think it was maybe a little too easy as the directions on the pin seemed to be lacking a bit. You’ll find my suggestions at the end.

What you need:

2lb. Chicken tenderloin chunks (I used about 1.5lbs)

1 cup pineapple juice

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup soy sauce

Flour (I ended up adding about 2 tablespoons to thicken the sauce at the end)

Of course, your Crockpot

The directions on the pin said to take the chicken chunks, pineapple juice, brown sugar, and soy sauce and put in a crockpot. The usual cook times apply 3-4 on high, 6-8 on low.

I followed this completely. I added my liquids then whisked in my brown sugar, finally stirring in my chicken.

But about an hour before dinner I checked on it and while the chicken was cooked, it looked nothing like the picture, and the sauce was really runny. I had to at least thicken the sauce so here is where the flour came in. A little at a time I sifted it in then let it sit until we were ready.

The result was really good. Hubby had seconds. I could eat just the sauce on rice all day! But here are my thoughts. I think for the chicken to look like it does in the picture, it should be fried a bit first. Maybe even battered and fried.

I was thinking next time I might dip the chicken in that wonderful broth, then flour, and fry it before putting it in the crockpot. Also the addition of broccoli would be nice. You could just throw in frozen broccoli and let it cook.

Serve it up over rice and an easy dinner is yours!

Zucchini fritters!

Corn. Green beans. Broccoli. Potatoes. I feel like we do the same veggie sides all the time. Mostly because those are the few we like and are easy.

But I recently saw this pin from Just a Taste for 5 ingredient zucchini fritters. I’ve recently developed a liking for zucchini, although I’m the only one in the family to do so.

After a small eye roll from the hubby I started grating my zucchini while he cooked us up some steaks. Click here for the instructions by Just a Taste, keep reading for mine.

What you’ll need:
4 cups shredded zucchini
2/3 cup all purpose flour
2 large eggs slightly beaten
1/3 cup scallions
Vegetable oil
Sour cream (optional)

Grate your zucchini, and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Lightly salt it and add it to a bowl. Just a Taste suggests putting it in a colander and letting it sit for 10 minutes also.

Then add your flour, eggs, scallions, salt and pepper. Mix. Mix. Mix.

Line a plate with paper towels to set your fritters on. Coat the bottom of a pan with oil and heat over a medium-high heat.
When hot, scoop your zucchini mixture(about 3 tablespoons each) into the hot oil. Cook for about 3 minutes each side or until golden brown.

Place on the plate and sprinkle with salt. Continue the steps until you’ve used all the mix.

To be honest, I forgot to buy scallions so they aren’t added to mine. Let me say, I think these would have been excellent with them. While my eye rolling husband loved them anyway, I thought they needed a bit more (thus the scallions). Maybe a spicy aioli? But not bad for a first attempt. This may not be in full rotation yet, but it’s definitely something I’m going to work on.

Give it a try and let me know what you think. How would you change it?

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I came. I saw. I tried it!

Tag Archives: flour

Sausage with Cajun Alfredo

You’ll need:

What to do:

Cheesy Garlic Chicken Alfredo

You’ll need:

What to do:

Update!

Sweet Hawaiian Crockpot Chicken

Zucchini fritters!