Sausage and Greens Strata

Yet another recipe from Rachael Ray’s magazine this month was this sausage and green strata. Well actually it was sausage and spinach, but I just used my spring mix lettuce since I needed to use it up. This dish was awesome. No it did not take 30min, but the efforts were worth it. I am still working on leftovers! I pretty much followed everything to the letter except for the type of greens. I probably had a bit more sausage on hand, a little less fontina (that stuff is $$!), and didn’t use as much bread. Still it is cheesy goodness and it actually works well as leftovers too. Originally listed as a dinner, this is good any time of day and perfect for a crowd.

Cheesy Orzo with Roasted Broccoli

I tend to go on vegetable cravings, and inevitably it always leads me back to broccoli. There is something about them that I really enjoy. I know many people are not exactly huge fans of Rachael Ray, but seriously some of her recipes out of her magazines are great. Take this one out her weekly meal planner . I love pearl couscous, but sadly I did not have any in the house. So I used whole wheat orzo pasta instead. Rather than using chicken stock, I ended up using the starchy past water instead. 2 cups seemed like a bit much actually. Perhaps the results would’ve been different had I used the pearl couscous and chicken stock. I liked the balance of the sweet corn that added pops of flavor as I was eating. Being a bit too poor to invest in gouda, I just shredded up a huge chunk of swiss cheese instead. It was some cheesy goodness in every bite. I excluded the bacon (not having any on hand) but I’m sure it could only enhance and flavor the dish more. I DID saute using pork fat though.. I thought it would be a pretty good substitution even without the crunch of the bacon.

But I have to say the best part was probably the broccoli. Roasting it in the oven gave it the perfect crunch that I was wanting. Adding to the butter/garlic, I put in a healthy dose of cayenne pepper for some kick. It wasn’t a huge heat factor, just added some spice. So when you put the rest of the butter into the pasta~ now that dish also had some kick and added flavor. I had several bowls of this stuff it was so good.

While it did take longer than it said it would, and I burned myself on hot water(!!) the quick cooking lent well to my busy schedule that day.

I have to say though I was a bit disappointed with this for leftovers. It definitely was not as good as when I made it the first day. Sorry I didn’t get a good photo of the dish. This photo was from the recipe page on RRMag’s website. Perhaps next time I will try to use the couscous and see if the results are better. Perhaps next time I’ll just cook a double batch of broccoli to satisfy my next craving. 🙂