Got Sausage?

Happy Monday, everyone! Although, there is usually nothing happy about a Monday, it is a pretty happy one for me. One of my best friend's had her baby today! I can't wait to meet him.

This past weekend we headed to Greenville to watch some Pirate Football. Too bad the Pirates were unaware that there was a football game, because they suuuucked. It was freezing cold but it was a pretty fun time.

I actually made it out running both days this weekend and I can already feel my runs improve. On Saturday, I walked a lot, but made it about a third of a mile further than last week. On Sunday, I only allowed myself to walk for 30 second increments and made myself run for at least 60 second increments. Most of the time I did 120-180 second runs, but having those 60 second spurts helped keep me from walking too much. I just have to keep at it and not let myself fall back into not exercising. 

Also on Sunday, Mike and I decided to finish painting our foyer and downstairs bathroom. We painted them both green but varying shades. I think once I have some frames, towels and rugs up, I will love it. Until then, it is a little bright...

But it looks really great with our new foyer color, which I love.

Since we were working so hard on that all day, I wanted to make an easy dinner. We ended up bringing home an enormous amount of sausage from the tailgate and I figured I could come up with something to make.  I was thinking about making spaghetti and just adding in some sausage, but then I talked to my sister who suggested a baked spaghetti. That sounded perfect.  Except I didn't have the ingredients.

Looks so yummy, huh?

We are going to call this recipe... "Clean-out-the-fridge Baked Spaghetti-ish Pasta." We had 3 different types of sausage; a jalapeno chicken sausage, a sweet Italian sausage and a hot Italian sausage. I also did not have 1 full container of pasta. I had a little bit of whole wheat spaghetti and a little bit of vegetable rotini, so I just threw it all together. It was actually one the most delicious spaghetti recipes I have ever made. It probably wasn't the healthiest meal, but I put it into a nutrition calculator and really, it was only 440 calories per serving. The fat and sodium content were a little high. But, everything in moderation, right? Plus, I hate (more than anything) wasting food. So this solved that problem.

It was pretty easy to make too. Basically, I cut the sausage and sauteed them in some olive oil.

Boiled my noodles and placed them in the bottom of a baking dish.

Added some regular pasta sauce to my sausage as well as a tomato that was starting to wrinkle in the fridge. I also added about a 1/3 cup of cream cheese that I needed to get rid of.

I poured the sausage/sauce mixture over the pasta, added some sliced monterey jack cheese and mozzerella chesse to the top (probably only a cup total), baked on 350 F until the cheese was melty, maybe 20 minutes?  And, voila! A meal is born. A meal that satisfied the cold weather, my anti-waste attitude, and the hubster. Winning!

Bonus: There are a ton of leftovers, so lunch is already done for the week! So, if you find yourself with way too much sausage on your hands (that'swhatshesaid), you have a great recipe to use!

Mike and I are going to attempt (again) to meal plan this week. Hopefully it works out! I am so tired of grocery shopping with no purpose.

Have a great day, everyone!