Chicken Sausage Pasta with Spinach and Tomatoes

I have been loving the hot italian chicken sausage from Whole Foods lately and they were all sale this week so I picked up a few of them. I decided to put a spin on my usual chicken sausage with broccoli rabe and pasta. I removed the casing from the sausage like I have in the past and cooked it in a pan with a little chicken stock and garlic. Once the sausage started to cook I crumbled it up, while that was cooking I boiled a pot of pasta for my whole wheat pasta shells and chopped up two vine ripe tomatoes. I added the tomatoes, cooked pasta and a little water from the pasta to the sausage mixture and let cook a few minutes. Right before I was able to take it off the stove I added a few cups of spinach and let it wilt in. This was a quick and easy dinner that was delicious!

 

Enjoying dinner with my bride mug from my wonderful niece

Question: What is your favorite recipe to make with chicken sausage?

Flying By

This week is flying by it is already WIAW. Having Mondays off really makes the week bearable I wish we could have every Monday off.

Last night I made my all time favorite pasta dish of hot chicken sausage, broccoli rabe and orecchiette.
First I remove the casing from the sausage and put it in a pan with garlic. I cooked the sausage thoroughly and break it up as it cooks so it turns into crumbles.

I added some of the broccoli rabe leaves in with the sausage

While the sausage is cooking I cook the pasta and broccoli rabe. Once the pasta and broccoli were done I drained them and added them to the cooked sausage. I then added about 3/4 cup of chicken stock and some hot pepper flakes and let that simmer about five minutes.

 

Lastly, put into a bowl and devour!

This was a perfect meal to eat last night especially when I had to get up at 4:45 this morning to meet my BOMF team and run 5 miles!

Question: What is your favorite pasta recipe?

Dinner Disaster

Yesterday was a long day and I am so happy that it's finally Friday, even though I have a jam packed weekend ahead of me. For lunch yesterday I had by leftover broccoli rabe and sausage. Joe and I decided the other night that this is one of our favorite top five meals. I love it and the best part is its super easy to make.

After work I headed back to the gym for my bosu and bells class with Keri. I had such a great workout and felt strong throughout the whole class, I love when that happens. We did a mix of cardio and strength training using the bosu for cardio and a circuit style for the strength training. 

Bosu



Some of the strength circuit

After class I headed home to have dinner with Joe which was supposed to be a turkey meatloaf which I had bought a few weeks ago at Whole Foods and froze.  Well apparently I should not have frozen it since it had veggies and what smelled like cheese in it. I took it out of the oven and the look alone made me decide we would not be eating this for dinner. I looked around the kitchen to see if I could throw something else together when Joe decided we would just go order takeout at a local place which has healthy options. This was fine be me since I was exhausted from class and didn't feel like cooking. For dinner I had a 1/4 breast of white meat chicken (which I dipped in Boar's Head Honey Mustard) with a side of green beans, it was delicious! I learned my lesson though not to freeze something that has been premade like the turkey meatloaf.

Question: Have you had ever experienced a dinner disaster?

Yoga Success

So I have been sticking with my goal to attend at least one yoga class a week. Last night I attended another vinyasa yoga class and I am actually starting to enjoy it. My body feels so stretched and relaxed  after class is over. Even after May is over I am going to continue my goal of attending at least one class a week and maybe even two if I can fit it into my schedule.
 


After yoga class I went home and made my broccoli rabe and sausage as I had mentioned I would in my WIAW post (which for some reason has now disappeared) from my blog.  Then it was time to cuddle on the couch for a little with Joe since I feel like I haven't seen him all week.

This morning I got to sleep in a little since I wasn't meeting for my duet session until 6:15 this morning.  This session was a kettlebell workout where we completed a full round (which consists of swings, figure eights, high pulls and cleans and presses), worked on shoulder stabilization and did a ladder (which was a round of swings followed by cleans and presses then just presses on each side and finished with a round of swings). During the ladder round we did a decreasing ladder which went from 8 to 6 to 4 of each exercise on each side.

Here is an example of a swing

Question: What is your favorite yoga class to take?



Pasta Tuesday

I get to sleep in a little on Tuesday  since I don't have my kettlebell class until 5:50. I love kettlebells mostly because I think it is a bang for your buck luck kind of workout. You not only get a great strength training workout but you also get tour heart rate up.

Breakfast was a banana almond smoothie which was delicious and just what I wanted. This mornings snack was my usual Greek yogurt, apples and cinnamon but today I remembered to take a picture.

For lunch I made a sandwich out of leftovers from last nights chicken with mixed greens on top and I paired it with an asian pear.

After work I headed to the gym even though I was exhausted and wanted to blow off this workout. I met with my trainer for a 30 minute strength training session. My trainer Keri is awesome and always pushes me to my limits. She helped me loose 20lbs and get into the best shape of my life!

Dinner was sausage and broccolini with whole wheat pasta. This was super easy to make. I chopped the ends off the broccolini and boiled it for a few minutes. I then cooked the whole wheat medium shells all while cooking the italian chicken sausage (casing removed) and garlic in a pan (no oil used). I kept breaking up the sausage into crumbles as it cooked. Once fully cooked I added the broccolini and cooked pasta and mixed together. I then added some red pepper flakes, parmesan cheese and chicken stock (just enough to wet the pasta but not make it soupy.

It was the first time I made this and Joe and I decided it is a keeper!

Finished product!

Question: Have you ever tried kettlebells, if so what were your thoughts?