What's for Supper?

Recently, I have had to come up with meals on the fly, mainly because unexpectedly we end up with one or two extra mouths to feed at the last minute. I make out my menu and grocery shop for two weeks at a time, so I am often not prepared. Such an occasion happened the other evening. We had two of our three daughters over and what I had defrosted, a half pound of ground pork sausage was not going to magically turn into a pound. So as has been the norm around here, especially with the recipes I have been posting here, I had to search the fridge and cabinet to see what I have and create something from what was on hand.  Lucky me, I came up with what was a delicious combo of ingredients and what later I called "Stuffed Pepper Pasta" .  Below is the results. 

Half pound of ground pork sausage ... a
fav to have on hand for everything from adding to
eggs to adding to my spaghetti sauce. I keep a few
of these half pound packs in my freezer. 

This and tomato paste is always in
my cabinet to add to a dish here and there. 

I had an onion so I sliced and diced it to add to the mix.

Some red pepper flakes, two cloves of garlic.....

 mini bells.... sweeter than the larger ones. 

Our new fav pasta...two whole servings of vegies
per serving... keeping it healthy! 

Our youngest is a cheese specialist at a local market,
we were lucky enough she had brought this with her!
Any melty cheese would do. 

What to do with it all???

Put water in pot with salt to boil for pasta....

Meanwhile.....

In a hot pan with a bit of olive oil, crumble and brown  the sausage

on medium heat

Once sausage is  browned, add in a diced onion... the amount depends on taste,

I used half . Stir in with sausage, and cook till translucent. 

Add in garlic and keep stirring...

Add in sliced and diced bell peppers.. 

I would say one large or a few of the small,

again to taste. 

Add in red pepper flakes, Mrs. Dash, salt and pepper to taste

continue to stir till everything is well blended, then turn to a 

very low heat to keep warm... and to cook peppers.... stir as needed to keep from sticking. 

OR turn off heat and put a lid on it to stay warm if you like your 

peppers  crunchy. 

When water comes to boil,  add pasta and cook until firm but not chewy...

 you may like soft pasta not al dente , and that is ok too... just cook longer

or according to directions on box/bag. Once cooked, drain pasta.

Once pasta is drained, add meat and vegie mix to the pasta and stir well to mix. 

So colorful!!! "fresh looking" as our daughter put it. 

The final results.....

Add in a piece of bakery fresh bread, all warm from the oven,
perhaps a small side salad and WALA it is dinner.

*The meal served 4 adults and 

I had leftovers for lunch! 

Give it a whirl and then tell me what you think!