For those of you new to my blog, you should know that I've got a serious lazy streak when it comes to cooking, so anything that is fast, easy, and quick will get my attention immediately.
Even though, I got the laziness streak going, I cook more at home because my desire to eat healthier and save money outweighs my laziness to pay extra to eat out all the time. So, I gotta work with my inner nature of cooking laziness. Fortunately to my excitement, modern day grocery shopping has many conveniences like pre-cut, pre-packaged, and pre-cooked foods in order to make cooking easier and faster.
I'm no food purist, but I am conscious of the kinds of pre-made stuff I do buy and read the labels. I lean toward the organic and all-natural. In today's recipe, and as part of "I tried something new," I used items I got at Trader Joe's. I've never tried their bagged green beans or sweet chicken sausage before. If you don't have a TJ's, you can easily replace the items with ones from your local grocery stores.
Ingredients (serves 2-3):
- One bag Trader Joe's Ready-to-use French green beans
- 1-2 Trader Joe's Sweet Chicken Sausage depending on how meaty you want the dish to be. (some flavors are regional so check your store. These sausages are also the fresh ground kind & not pre-cooked. You want the fresh ground so the meat can crumble.)
- 1/4 sliced onion
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- pinch of salt
Let's get cooking:
- Some like green beans crunchy, and some like green beans on the softer side. The Trader Joe's green beans are fresh so they are crunchy out of the bag. If you want a more softer green bean, I suggest you microwave the green beans for about a minute to help soften them up, or steam them in a pot for about 1-2 minutes for those who try to avoid the microwave.
- In a wok or big frying pan, heat the olive oil on medium, then saute the onion until they start to look soft.
- Take the skin off the sausage, and crumble the meat onto the pan. Cook the sausage until it looks just about done.
- Toss in the green beans and mix everything together. You may or may not want to add some salt to your dish. The sausage will have some salty taste on its own. I added a pinch of garlic salt just to add a little bit of punch.
- Lower the heat, cover the pan and let the beans and sausage cook for about 1-2 minutes. Continue to mix around. When the beans are the consistency you like, you're done!
I like this recipe because it combines a veggie with a protein. To make the dish vegetarian/vegan, you can you tofu or a meat alternative like Gimme Lean ground sausage made with soy protein.
