Sorry I haven’t had a lot of recipes to share recently.  I have been really trying to use what we have in the pantry, freezer and in the refrigerator, so that means mostly meals that are staples or just pretty simple.  Things have been going rotten a lot less often!

This generally means that I have to make up a menu list ahead of time, and I seem to be mostly following it.  I order my groceries off my menu list and that also saves money.  This way I’m not buying random veggies I won’t use, which just get thrown away.

This recipe is from a few months ago, and I didn’t get a picture.  I was hoping to make it again, but I haven’t quite gotten to it.  I figured I would just post it now, since I have nothing else to share!

We have lots and lots of hot italian turkey sausage in our freezer, which the kids don’t really like.  Too spicy, of course.  You can make this with regular or sweet sausage and it would work very well, too.

Our brother-in-law works for The Turkey Store, so we can get pretty good deals on turkey.  Brian’s sister also has a friend that harvests wild rice, so I always get a bag of it around Christmas time.  A very nice treat!

All in all this was a pretty cheap meal to make!

1 package hot italian turkey sausage
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 onion or 1-2 good sized shallots, minced
3-4 carrots, peeled and diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 TBSP olive oil (I used truffle oil)
1 cup dried shitake mushrooms, cut into bite size pieces
1 cup prepared wild rice*
4 cups chicken broth
2 TBSP dried Bouquet Garni herbs (basically a mixture of Rosemary, Thyme, and a few others…use whatever herbs you like)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2/3 cup cream

Remove sausage from casings and fry up in large saucepan.  When almost done, add in the garlic and onion.  Cook for another 5 minutes and remove from pan.  Add in the carrots and celery and oil.  Cook for about 8 minutes on medium heat, stirring often.  Add the sausage mixture back in, the chicken broth, mushrooms, the wild rice and the seasonings.  Allow the mixture to simmer together for about 15 minutes, then add in the cream.  Warm everything back up and serve with some warm toasty dinner rolls from the oven.

The kids ate mac & cheese (from the blue box!), since I knew it would be too spicy for them.  The leftovers I just froze up in containers for lunches to bring to work.

* Wild rice can take a bit of time to cook, so I just make it ahead of time in the crockpot.  I freeze them in one cup portions, so they are ready to grab for a pilaf or soup.  Super easy!