We're busy, like everybody else in the world. :) We are not going to sit down together to eat every weekend.
But I don't want to feed my family a lot of processed junk like fast food, lunchmeat, frozen dinners, canned soup etc. (At least not all the time!)
So, last night I roasted a 7-lb Perdue Oven Stuffer (79 cents a pound, and fresh!) and browned up a pound of fresh hot Italian sausage. (Lot of fat but no nitrites or preservatives as ham would have ...)
Diced some baby carrots and celery, put a bag of presoaked "15-bean" soupbeans on, and when they boiled, simmered for 40 minutes, tossing the carrots, celery, and sausage, diced, in for the last 20 minutes. I used a little salsa for the touch of tomato that this dish always seems to need, to me, and sprinkled in some of my own Cajun seasoning. (These bags of beans come with a packet of "ham flavoring" {shudder} or "Cajun seasoning," but they were out of the Cajun so I bought the ham and tossed the packet. If they had Cajun, I would have used maybe half the packet due to the spices in the hot Italian Sausage.) The sausage gives this soup a really nice collective consistency, and the sweetness of the carrots complement the heat well.
We had roasted chicken and rice and squash and green vegetables (frozen) for dinner, then I chopped and sliced the rest of the meat for sandwiches and chicken salad.
Now all weekend we can dip in to the soup and nuke it, or make sandwiches on good wheat bread witn the chicken. Cheap and healthy, pretty short prep time too.
What does everyone else keep around over the weekend for "grab it" food?
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