Sausage

This Cajun dish is so associated with good times that Hank Williams named a song after it. The original isn’t so good for you, though. I made a few changes to the classic to make it easier to prepare—and much healthier. White rice has been replaced with brown, and much less fat is used to cook the vegetables and meat. Feel free to improvise by adding chicken, fish, or vegetables.

Bucatini looks like fat spaghetti that’s hollow in the middle, like drinking straws made of pasta.

The meatball dumplings in the stoup taste okay without the 2 tablespoons of bread crumbs, but being a Sicilian girl, I simply cannot make a meatball with no bread crumbs. This is as close as I can force myself. It’s only 2 tablespoons. Negligible carbs, but all the difference mentally and the consistency is really better for it.

This jumble is a lot like jambalaya, so I call it a Jumble-laya. This is one of those flexible recipes. You can substitute turkey or tender cuts of pork and beef for the chicken. Go all seafood by bumping up the amount of shrimp and adding crabmeat at the end to just heat it through. Andouille sausage is a spicy, smoky sausage with a flavor that packs a punch. It is used in Cajun-style food and is a staple in gumbo and jambalaya. Is okra not your thing? Substitute frozen defrosted French-cut green beans.

Instead of two slices of bread and one patty, this lower-carb patty melt has two patties sandwiching cheese, peppers, and onions. Skip lunch. This one’s a gut-buster!

Confession: I have never been to Spain. This is actually my version of a fantabulous meal I enjoyed at a late-night hot spot in Vancouver, north of the border. It’s good because you get salty, sweet, and savory in each and every bite. Note to self: gotta go to Spain. I serve these with green beans.

When I made my annual Christmas Pasta for the holiday this year we discovered that both my mom and I had shopped for the ingredients, so we had lots of leftover hot and sweet sausage and ground beef in the fridge. The next day, this recipe was born.

I make this one when I watch GoodFellas. Shave the garlic nice and thin, like Paulie would, but don’t use a razor blade like he does in the movie. A sharp knife is fine.

This is my chicken and rice recipe number 14,654. But, this one is as colorful as it is flavorful!

This is a real-deal, square meal (that is, one you might find in a restaurant on a square in Barcelona!).

Here’s a killer dinner that even a charging Pamplona bull would brake for. Olé!