Alright, I caved in. I haven’t been feeling well and I decided it was high time I medicated myself with some comfort food. If I had it my way I would have gone all out with shrimp scampi served over linguini or a baked macaroni and cheese with bacon and mushrooms… however, paychecks have been few and far between for the past few weeks, so I had to make my comfort food the same way I make all my food: improvise. I started, as always, by poking around my kitchen. In the fridge I came across the half-empty jar of marinara sauce I had used earlier in the week to make the post I Can’t Believe It’s Not Meat Sauce. Since I rarely have any occasion to use jarred marinara sauce, I decided that I should find a way to get rid of it. I also found half a red onion. As I moved to the cabinets I found an item I had completely forgotten about: whole wheat egg noodles left over from god knows when. Looks like my comfort food was going to be pasta and tomato sauce. But, I was not about to settle for jarred marinara sauce and noodles… no, this caused for something more substantial…. sausage…. yes! I immediately went to the grocery store and picked up a package of sweet italian sausage, a can of diced tomatoes, 2 fresh tomatoes, and a package of fresh basil. All of it cost less than $10. I returned home and assembled my dinner. I used the ingredients I bought combined with items I always have in my kitchen: fresh garlic, tomato paste, capers, italian seasoning, and a few others. I can’t remember the last time I had Italian sausage in tomato sauce. It was so fantastic, particularly when topped with the grated Romano cheese I found in my fridge. Exactly what I wanted. Take THAT over the counter medication!
Soon I will get some paying work in and I’ll share a Payday Recipe – something indulgent that you don’t have to spend your entire paycheck on. I’ll show you where your money is best spent and how to make it sparkle. Until then, more frugal creativity will be coming your way. Later today my company arrives -we’ll see what culinary mischief I get into with them over the next two days.
Impromptu Sausage and Tomatoes (Recipe PDF)
What sorts of culinary mischief are you getting into these days? 🙂
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[…] eggs and I have breakfast for three (or as many as five). I also had some sausage leftover from my Impromptu Comfort Food recipe I posted a few days ago, so I just fried those up in a skillet and added some maple syrup in […]