Alas, She Cooked!
I have to admit that in the last month I have not felt inspired to cook . Hubby was in San Diego for 10 days and that did nothing for my need to feed. I ate more whole wheat wraps that 10 days than you can shake a stick at. I have gained some weight and need to get back on track. Fresh produce will be plentiful and my local Farmer's Market will be up and running full steam pretty soon. So I have no excuse about not eating better. My 30th class reunion is coming up in June and I need to get into some smaller sized jeans so there is no better inspiration that I can think of to start cooking again.

I have been subscribing to a magazine called Cuisine at home for a few years now. I have no idea how I found it or if someone gave me a gift subscription. There are a few things that I like about this magazine. One, it has some really good home kitchen tips. They are realistic and done by folks like all of us bloggers; in their kitchens. They have realistic down home recipes that aren't too fancy and don't usually use some wacked ingredient that you have to go out and buy for $10.99 and use 1/4 of a teaspoon never to be used again. I stock my pantry with simple items because basically, when I am at home I am a simple eater.

I was cleaning off a chest that we have located by the front door the other day and realized that I hadn't read my April edition of Cuisine at home. I thumbed through it and something really caught my eye. It was a recipe using some odd ingredients that I would never thrown together to make a dish. So since we were going grocery shopping the next day, I carried the magazine with me and made sure I got all the ingredients to make this dish. The name is pretty self explainatory; Beans, greens& sausage.

This recipe is about as easy as any one I have ever made. It requires two skillets but that's about it. Here is the recipe and below the picture of the finished dish. I usually like the show the whole cooking process but this really didn't have a "cooking process" to speak of. After you read this you will understand.

Beans, Greens & Sausage
Serving size? None was really given and that is the one thing I dont' like about their recipes.

2 lbs link Italian sausage
1 TBS olive oil
2 cup seedless grapes (you can use either the green or the red)
1/4 cup water
2 TBS olive oil
1 cup onions, sliced
1 TBS garlic, minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 bunch of mustard greens, stemmed and chopped (8-10 cups before stemming)
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (15 oz cans)
salt and pepper to taste
Balsamic vinegar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400
Pierce sausage with a fork in several places. Heat 1 TBS olive oil over medium-high in an ovenproof saute pan; add sausage and brown on each side for 3 minutes.
Add grapes and water, transfer pan to the oven and roast until sausage is cooked throughout, about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare beans and greens. Saute onions in 2 TBS olive oil in another saute pan over medium-high heat until soft, about 3 minutes. Stir in garlic and pepper flakes; saute 30 seconds. Add greens, tossing until wilted. Stir in broth and beans, reduce heat and simmer 3 minutes; season with salt. Slice sausage into 3 inch pieces, then serve with grapes, beans and greens, drizzled with vinegar.

What I changed:
I don't like mustard greens so I bought the largest bag of baby spinach that I could find and used that in place of the greens. Hubby was sent to buy the Italian sausage and he bought the Johnsonville Sweet Italian. If you are trying to keep it more healthy, you can use the turkey sausage instead but you will need to follow the directions about putting the water in the skillet when you put the skillet into the oven. Since most turkey sausage is precooked it might not take as long as the recipe suggests; that's up to you. Since I used the Italian sausage it made a lot of grease and I think the purpose of putting that 1/4 cup of water in the skillet is too keep it from sticking. I did what the recipe said but thought it was too watery in the end. So next time I would omit the water if I was going to use the Johnsonville sausage. I used the red grapes. I did drizzle some Balsamic vinegar over the plate and it added a sweetness I wasn't sure about. Hubby said he thought it was fine but I tried a second helping (smaller of course) without the vinegar and could have eaten it either way. I asked hubby if he would eat it again and he said yes. So it got a good review and I would tweak it a bit. I think next time I will buy the spicy sausage. I am not a spicy food nut but this needed a little more punch. All in all, I kind of liked it. I halved the recipe and it was enough for two small helping for me, one large for hubby with a second one to follow and a very small helping for his lunch today. Mainly what was left were a few beans, one sausage and some spinch with a smattering of grapes. Not alot but it will keep money is hubby's pocket today.