Turkey Sausage and Gnocchi Soup

Ooooh my goodness I made this forever ago and started the post about three weeks ago and completely failed to post it. Lately life seems to be keeping me hopping!!!

The weather is finally starting to cool down here in Houston and this has quickly become one of my favorite soups!! A dear friend of my introduced me to the original Cooking Light recipe but I obviously changed it up because goodness knows how much I love salt. This is also originally served with grated Parmesan cheese which I had available for the hubs but I thought it was delicious without it!

This was an easy after work dinner to make and I had plenty of leftovers to get me through the week which is always a good thing! You could easily cut this in half and mess with the amounts o


Turkey Sausage and Gnocchi Soup
by Cooking Light
Printable Version

Ingredients

• 1 pkg of turkey sausage, about 6 links
• 12 cups of beef broth (I like broth!)
• 1 16oz package fresh gnocchi 
• 2 14.5 can of diced tomatoes
• 4 sprigs of thyme
• fresh grated Parmesan cheese 
• salt and pepper

Preparation

• 1. Remove the sausage from the casings and cook in a large pot over medium-high heat. Stirring the sausage constantly to crumble it for about 5 minutes. Cook until browned

2. Add the beef broth, tomatoes, gnocchi and thyme. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes to blend the flavor. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

3. Remove the sprig of thyme and ladle into bowls. Sprinkle with Parmesan if desired!!

Turkey Tacos!

I clearly went on a turkey kick the other weekend... The turkey sausage sauce was on Friday night and we had turkey tacos on Sunday! I consider myself to be very lucky to have friends that were willing to participate in both turkey events :)


I was inspired to attempt the turkey tacos after a friend of mine made some for the hubs and me. I was delighted when I realized I couldn't tell it was turkey!


I searched and searched for a recipe and found one that looked about like what I wanted and I also changed it up to add some things I thought would make it more delicious!


I served 5 with this recipe with no leftovers. For appetizers chips and salsa is perfect and I served it with a salad.


Turkey Tacos
Food Network
Printable Version


Ingredients: 

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped (1 cup)
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 jalapeno pepper, stemmed, seeded and minced (you can adjust this to your taste)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 14.5 oz chopped canned tomatoes
• 1 pkg ground turkey
• 1 can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (I used 5 pepper out of it)
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
• 12 (5-inch) corn tortillas, preferably white, or prepared taco shells

Toppings:

2 avocados - sliced

your favorite salsa

pepper jack cheese for the guests who can have dairy!

Directions:

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat with oil and add the onions, garlic and jalapenos. Cook until the onions become translucent, around 8 minutes. Then increase the heat to medium high and add the ground turkey, breaking it up with a wooden spoon to allow it to crumble.

2. Once the turkey has cooked through and has crumbled add the can of tomatoes and 5 chopped chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. I also added a splash of white wine to blend the flavors. Allow the liquid to boil and bring to a simmer until it thickens but is not dry.

3. Finally, stir in the cilantro and prepare the corn tortillas by baking them at 350 for about 5 minutes. When they start to feel al little stiff you will know they are ready. Take them out and immediately bend them like prepared taco shells before they cool!

4. Top them as you please and enjoy!

Or if you're a very hungry man...

ME

Tomato, Basil and Sausage with Penne Pasta

I served this for a dinner party and it was a complete success!! You could do this with any kind of sausage you like but I chose to use turkey sausage for this time around. It is an easy sauce that made my entire house smell deelish!


The recipe on here is based on a Cooking Light recipe I found. I changed it a little bit to make it a little more saucy. One of my favorite things to do is find sauces in the jar and doctor them up a bit! I cooked for six people and everything was gone!


To go with this pasta and sauce I served a salad with mixed greens, bell pepper, sunburst tomatoes, green onion and croutons with balsamic vinaigrette. I also served it with warm italian bread with margarine and garlic salt!


Tomato, Basil and Sausage with Penne Pasta
From Cooking Light
Printable Version

• Ingredients:
• 1 box uncooked penne
• 1 pkg sweet Italian turkey sausage (about 6 large links)
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 medium vertically sliced onion
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 2 cups tomatoes, chopped
• 1 14.5 oz can of tomatoes
• 1 cup of your favorite jarred tomato sauce ( I used Newman's Own Tomato Basil )
• salt
• black pepper
• 3/4 cup torn fresh basil leaves
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to directions.


2. Remove sausage from casings. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and add sausage to it. Cook for about 4 minutes stirring to crumble the sausage. Then add onion, can of tomatoes, and garlic for about 4 minutes.










3. Add 1 cup of your favorite jarred tomato sauce, fresh tomatoes and red pepper. Stir it all together and let it simmer over medium heat for about 30 minutes. If you want.. a splash of wine or beer will help to blend the flavors. If it reduces by too much add about a quarter cup of pasta water!
















4. Season with salt and pepper, remove from heat, stir in fresh basil and serve over pasta!




Enjoy!!




I forgot to take a picture of the fixed plates so I took a picture of the aftermath! I do believe this is success  :)