Make-Fast Mondays: Skillet Sausage with Green Apples and Cabbage

What do I love about this meal? Lots of flavor, short shopping list and you only have to wash a couple dishes!

Skillet Sausage with Green Apples and Cabbage 
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small yellow onion, sliced
1 teaspoon fresh thyme (dried thyme will work, too)
12 ounces smoked turkey sausage, sliced
2 Granny Smith apples, cored and sliced
1 pound shredded green cabbage
¼ cup water
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Warm olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and thyme and sauté for 4-5 minutes, until onions start to soften. Add sausage and apples to pan and continue to cook for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add cabbage and water, cover and simmer until cabbage is tender, about 5 minutes. Remove skillet from heat, stir in the red wine vinegar, and enjoy.

The Great Green Smoothie Experiment

I’ve become quite the lean, mean, green smoothie-making machine. Smoothies are no stranger to our breakfast routine, but in the past they’ve been heavy on the fruit. Well, times are a-changing and we’re trying to work more vegetables into the mix. A few days I brought home a cornucopia of produce and started what we’ll call The Great Green Smoothie Experiment -- tossing a different mix of vegetables and fruit into the blender each morning aiming to create something that doesn’t taste like a sippable salad. We’re three weeks in and no epic fails yet!

A few notes about this ongoing quest for green-smoothie greatness:

1. Don’t overthink it or worry about exact measurements when adding your ingredients to the blender. 
2. A little prep work goes a long way. If you’re making smoothies every morning, spend a few minutes cleaning, peeling and chopping your ingredients in advance so all you need to do in the morning is throw some goodies in the blender. 
3. Water is your friend. No need for juice when you’re working with flavorful fresh fruits and vegetables! 
4. Each of the following recipes yields about 32 ounces (enough for two substantial smoothies). 
5. The ingredients for these smoothies vary but the directions remain the same: combine all ingredients in a blender, and blend until smooth. 

Green Smoothie No. 1 
1 ½ cups cold water
1 green apple, cored and sliced
1 cucumber, peeled
1 tablespoon peeled ginger
1 tablespoon flax seeds
2 handfuls green kale
2 handfuls spinach

Green Smoothie No. 2 
1 ½ cups cold water
1 navel orange, peeled
1 banana, peeled
1-2 tablespoons peeled ginger
1 cucumber, peeled
4 handfuls spinach
4 romaine leaves

Green Smoothie No. 3 
2 cups cold water
1 red apple, cored and sliced
1 Asian pear, cored and sliced
½ cucumber, peeled
1 carrot, peeled
4 handfuls spinach

Green Smoothie No. 4 
1 cup cold water
1 red apple, cored and sliced
1 tablespoon peeled ginger
Juice of 1 lemon
2 stalks celery
4 handfuls spinach
2 romaine leaves

Green Smoothie No. 5 
1 cup cold water
1 red apple, cored and sliced
1 stalk celery
1 banana, peeled
4 handfuls green kale
1 tablespoon flax seeds
Splash of lemon juice

What goes into your favorite green smoothie?

Feeding my cold with plenty of fluids

I’ve been under the weather for the past couple days. I try to consume as many fluids as possible in order to to stay hydrated, and I’ve got a few standard go-to comforts when I’ve come down with a cold -- brothy soups, Emergen-C and lots of hot tea (caffeine-free peppermint’s my favorite). Smoothies like this one are also pretty great, and I’m drinking this particular blend in hopes that it does keep the doctor away and that I’m back to good in no time.

An Apple a Day
1 Pink Lady apple, cored and sliced
1 cup frozen strawberries
1 cup coconut water

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth.

Salad fit for a picnic basket

This salad has got a lot going on -- it’s crunchy, chewy, sweet and tangy. It’s also got a great make-ahead quality to it (just keep the balsamic vinaigrette in a separate container), so it's perfectly portable for the next time you feel like dining al fresco.

Picnic Salad 
Shredded green leaf lettuce
½ cup cooked chicken breast, cubed
½ cup cooked Israeli couscous
½ cup diced apple
¼ cup raisins
¼ cup blanched, slivered almonds
Balsamic vinaigrette

Combine ingredients in a bowl, drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette, and enjoy.

Toasty sandwich is easy and cheesy

Between tackling a hefty grocery list and a do-or-die mission to find all the components for my Halloween costume (Cleopatra) I didn’t get home until after 8 Thursday night. Not wanting to spend much time in the kitchen, I opted for a tasty sandwich-and-soup combo.

Earlier that day Saveur Magazine posted a tempting Tweet about a grilled cheese sandwich featuring smoked gouda, bacon and apples (featured at the fun food blog, Gimme Some Oven).I’ve been wanting to make a Brie-L-T for a while, a BLT with some gooey brie to sweeten the deal, and I think my sandwich is a melding of these two ideas.

I threw two strips of turkey bacon — I prefer Butterball — into the frying pan, and I popped two slices of sourdough in the toaster. The crispy bacon went on the toasted slices, along with a few green apple slices and a healthy smear of brie. A few minutes of medium heat and the sandwich was ready to go.

The sandwich had a great diversity of flavors and texture, and tasted great when dipped in a bowl of Trader Joe’s Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Soup, which I like spiced up with a little bit of Cholula hot sauce.

Next time I make this sandwich, it’ll also get a little bit of whole-grain Dijon mustard, as the bread was a just a little dry (I’m not a fan of buttering bread when making grilled-cheese sandwiches).