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I’m going to blog more. Just you watch! I’m going to blog at least twice a week from now on. There’s just no reason not to!

Yeah, right.

I must have lost my mind when I said that! I absolutely did have the best intentions of blogging more.

But then…life happened.

It’s been a really crazy few months.

Christopher graduated and has started college. He is going to a fairly local community college and majoring in industrial instrumentation. The school is about 40 miles away, so he is living at home and driving every day,

Elizabeth has started her sophomore year in high school. She is doing well and is really trying to stay out of the girl drama that plagued her so relentlessly last year.

The dogs, Patriot and Brees, are still great. They dog around every day and make our lives better.

Michael and I are both working full time and trying to keep up with the kids. We have started to use the word “retirement” casually and there is actually light at the end of both of our tunnels.

I’ve gone from making three meals every single day to only making dinner. Elizabeth doesn’t eat breakfast or lunch (she’s doing intermittent fasting) and Christopher and Michael pretty much fend for themselves. I made this particular dish in the slow cooker a time or two and even in the Instant Pot once. Everybody loved it both ways.

But I recently started making it in a skillet and I actually prefer it that way. I am able to brown the sausages and reduce the liquid in the pan into a luscious glaze. It just makes the dish better. It is so well-loved in our house that I have it on a 2-week rotation!

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Veggies sauteing
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They do look pretty, don’t they? But this is really the only way they will all fit in the skillet!
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Me and my designer brand beef broth!

Skillet Sausage and Peppers

  • 2.5-3-oz. package of Italian sausage
  • 6-8 cups of onion and pepper seasoning blend
  • 32-oz. box of beef broth
  • drizzle of olive oil
  • salt & pepper

In a very large skillet, drizzle olive oil and lay in the sausages. Cook on high heat, turning after about 5 minutes and cooking for another 5 minutes until sausages are browned on both sides. Remove to a plate or sheet pan.

Add a little more olive oil and add all the vegetables. Add about a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of pepper. Saute’ for about 10 minutes – or until tender and translucent. Lay the sausages over the vegetables and pour in the beef broth.

Bring to a bubble, cover, and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer for 20-25 minutes. Uncover, increase heat to medium high and cook until broth has reduced and thicken into a glaze, stirring now and then. This could take anywhere from 5-15 minutes.

Serve over rice.

Well Duh #1: I found a big 45.6-ounce package of Italian sausages from Walmart.

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Well Duh #2: I didn’t feel like chopping or slicing, so I used 2 24-oz. bags of frozen onion and pepper blend – purchased for just such an evening when I knew I would be lazy.

Well Duh #3: I didn’t have the extra time to reduce the liquid this time, so I mixed up a slurry of 1/2 a cup of water and a bid teaspoon of cornstarch and poured it in to the bubbly liquid. It thickened the sauce in about 3.645 seconds.

Well Duh #4: I always slice each sausage before serving. I know that my tribe is perfectly capable of slicing their own sausages, but I’d rather do it myself so the plates look pretty. It’s my own fault. I usually end up slicing about 3 sausages per person.

Well Duh #5: I totally skipped the browning the sausages step this time. It still turned out delicious – just not as pretty.

Were you counting? Three. Three ingredients! This is a great, simple dish, but it’s also VERY cheap! My kind of meal!

This dish is universally liked among the Pates. Elizabeth walked to a friend’s house (actually friends’ because they are twins) and ended up eating there. When she got home and saw what we had had for dinner, she was very sad. I assured her that I had packaged a portion for her and it was waiting in the refrigerator so she could have it the next day. She was instantly happier.

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Elizabeth’s portion in its own little box

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The way everybody else’s looked
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