Orzo with Chicken Sausage, Grape Tomatoes & Mushrooms

My blog posts have been few and far between lately. I've been back to working part time, as well as pretty busy lately. Somehow, I'm just not cooking quite as frequently and as for baking, not at all. I didn't even do anything for last Sunday's football game. The Patriots were playing the New York Jets again. When they last met up in Week 2, I made knishes. My intention were to make apple muffins (which is the offical state muffin, in case you're interested, and I thought a fun choice since NYC is the "Big Apple.")

But Sunday, came and went, I didn't get to making my muffins. I'll be honest, there was a lot of napping done by me on Sunday- thanks to my wonderful husband who understood how tired I was and hung with the little guy all day. Since it was the second time we played the Jets, I decided it wasn't a big deal. (Luckily, Beckett didn't know of my plans- he's pretty crazy for muffins.)

I might not have gotten around to baking apple muffins on Sunday, but I did make a tasty dinner for the three of us. It was one of those dinners where I looked in the fridge, saw a handful of ingredients and went with it. It was really good- and possibly even better for lunch the next day- but not exactly perfect. But with a little tweaking, it could be. The sauce was a little thin, but this could easily be remedied by using less broth, or as I did, thickening it up with cornstarch at the end, or even both. The other thing that would perhaps make this even better, would be switching the cheese. All I had to top it with was shredded parmesan, but I think feta would be awesome. Not that the parmesan didn't go, I just think feta would've been better. Regardless, it was a flavorful, quick and easy dinner, that we all enjoyed.

1/2 cup uncooked ozro pasta

1 tbsp olive oil, divided

3 links chicken sausage, sliced (I used spinach & asagio cheese)

1 sweet onion, chopped

1 sweet bell pepper, chopped (I used yellow)

2 cup sliced mushrooms

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup grape tomatoes (you could definitely use more)

1/2 cup of chicken broth (Suggest reducing, or use cornstarch at end to thicken.)

1/2 tbsp dried basil

sea salt and fresh ground pepper

cornstarch, if desired (I used about 1 tsp)

desired cheese for topping (parmesan, feta, goat cheese, etc.)

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Cook pasta according to box directions. Drain and set aside.

Heat 1/2 tbsp of oil in a large skillet over medium. Cook sliced sausages for 5 min, stirring frequently for even browning. Remove from pan.

Add remaining oil to pan. Once, heated, add onion and pepper, and cook for 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and garlic, and cook for another 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, broth and seasonings. Bring to a boil, return sausage to skillet, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

If using cornstarch, mix about 1 tsp with about a 1/4 cup of broth from skillet. Return to pan and bring to a boil. Allow to thicken, a few minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in pasta, and top with cheese to serve.