Creamy Sausage Spinach Macaroni Recipe

This recipe is from my postpartum doula toolkit, supports milk supply for the breastfeeding mom, and it one that the entire family can enjoy.

What you'll need:

elbow macaroni
sausage (I used turkey breakfast sausages)
cream cheese
spinach
salt and pepper

While your pasta is cooking away, sautee your breakfast sausage in a large skillet. When your sausage is just about cooked through, remove it from the pan and slice into bite sized pieces.

Toss the sausage back into the skillet, adding in the spinach (just tear it up with your hands) and season with salt and pepper. Turn the heat to low, and allow the spinach to wilt.

Once everything is cooked, put your pasta, sausage and spinach into a large mixing bowl. Add cubed cream cheese (as much or as little as you would like) and stir everything together until coated with the cream cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

This makes an easy meal that you can whip up in advance, and put in storage containers for the freezer while you are pregnant to prepare for those first few weeks with baby.

Tip: swap out the turkey sausage for mild Italian, cheddar, onion etc. This will keep the dish naturally flavored and different, so you are less likely to get bored of the same ol' pasta dish.

You can also switch up your greens! Consider bok coy, kale or swiss chard instead of spinach!

Easy Freezer Breakfast Burritos #breakfast #freezermeals

To ensure that everyone in the family has an easy and nutritious breakfast {...snack or lunch} I wanted to whip up a large batch of...something. What, I had no idea and then @MommyConnectLDN suggested breakfast burritos.

These aren't something that we would normally eat...like ever, but they were worth a shot and I am so glad that I made them!

1 dozen eggs
1 pack of bacon
chopped onion
2 tbsp cream cheese
shredded cheese
2 packs of small whole wheat tortillas (so 20 shells in all)

I started off by cooking my bacon, then chopping it up and setting it aside. While it was cooking, I chopped up some onion and set it aside, then grated my cheese.

Next, I scrambled my dozen eggs, seasoned with salt and pepper, in two batches. When the second batch was done, I transferred them to a bowl and folded in the cream cheese until it was melted.

Now comes assembly. I laid everything out on our kitchen island, and cut pieces of wax paper to wrap the finished burritos in (abut 5-10 sheets at a time to make sure I didn't end up with more papers than I needed)

Layer cheese, eggs, onion and bacon, then wrap. Once you have your burritos wrapped, wrap them tightly in the wax paper sheet.

Some of mine are slim, some of them are overfilled. I made 17 in all, and thy fit nicely into two large ziploc bags for the freezer.

To serve, defrost in advance (they will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days) and reheat in the microwave for approximately 30seconds.

Enjoy!

Easy Teriyaki Meatballs #recipe #dinner #freezermeals

Over the weekend, it was all about Operation: Stock the Freezer in my kitchen. I whipped up...

Asian Chicken with Onions for the crockpot
Honey Garlic Chicken with Peppers for the crockpot
Ravioli Lasagna
Ravioli side dish
Honey Garlic Meatballs
Italian Meatballs with Mini Potatoes
Butter Biscuits
Chocolate Chip Biscuits {that are so tasty I likely will have to make another batch before baby gets here!}

I also made these...Easy Teriyaki Meatballs. The smell while they were in the oven was amazing, and I'm really excited to serve them over some steamed rice, with a side of veggies, once the baby get here!

Preheat your oven to 400F

Mix together...

1lb extra lean ground beef (or chicken or turkey, whatever you prefer!)
2 tsp garlic powder
dash of black pepper
3 turns of the salt mill
1/4 cup instant oatmeal
4-5 tbsp Epicure Teriyaki dry rub

Roll into palm sized meatballs. With my hands, this recipe made 8 meatballs.

Bake for 20-25 mins until cooked through.

Serve over rice, with a side of steamed or stir fried veggies.

Don't have a teriyaki dry rub on hand? Add in equal parts of garlic powder, soy sauce, chive or green onion, sesame seeds, onion powder and red pepper flakes.