Aidell's Chicken & Apple Sausage and New Teriyaki Pineapple Meatballs

It all started one day very long ago when I was in middle school and we were shopping around Costco.  They had a big demo pavilion set up with multiple hot plates going.  The product was Aidell's sausages.  They had cut up so many slices of the sausages and had all the different flavors to try out.  One kid that stood next to me said that he had 17 pieces of it already.  I laugh now, thinking back on it because when I first popped the piece into my mouth, it was love at first taste.  We ended up buying the chicken & apple flavor to try out at home.  It had become our go-to sausage if we wanted to purchase some because it was pre-cooked and all you had to do was heat it in the pan.

I had a moment of the same "click" with my trip this past weekend.  I drove back to NJ for a weekend visit and of course, I had to drop by Costco to pick up some things.  We cruised around getting the items we were looking for and we took advantage of the "free lunch" (we went around 1:30pm) that Costco offers.  Of the items available (cheese, mozzarella sticks, pork loin..), we were surprised by the meatballs offered near the meats/packaged section, not the freezer aisle.

There were meatballs available so I had one.  It was flavorful and not dry at all!  It was a juicy chicken meatball and as I tasted it, my eyes lit up.  I checked out the sign and found out it was Aidell's Teriyaki Pineapple Meatball.  It was a brand I trusted and loved and I quickly grabbed a pack from the shelves to bring home with me.  It was Costco-sized at 46 oz (2.875 lbs) for $20 and split into two vacuum-sealed packages.  As with their other products, it is pre-cooked.

They recommend that you have it with rice or other plainer fare.  I had to make something quick for lunch today so I took some macaroni pasta I had leftover in the fridge, chopped up an onion and chopped up the meatballs to match the size.  I cooked the onions first (S&P), then add the meatballs, and added (accidentally add a little more than I intended) marinara sauce to it.  Added some basil and mixed it all up for a hearty pasta.  I thought the flavor might be weird because of the teriyaki from the meatballs, but it actually tasted perfectly good with the tomato sauce. :)

I was hungry and it was so delicious so I didn't get to take a picture of the pasta for you!  Sorry!

FRESH MEAT

Yum!  So, in my area, there's a place called The Meat House.  Typically, I get my meats from the grocery (Shoprite or the Chinese market), but I was craving some good quality bacon so off to The Meat House!

They have an assortment of fresh and marinated meats.  They mostly specialize in beef, but I am more of a pork and chicken person, so I ended up getting some beautiful slab bacon, two kinds of sausage, and some garlic pepper marinated chicken breast.

I tried out the chicken breast last night and oohhh, it was so tender and scrumptious!  I had cubed it up to have with white rice and then sliced small strips to have with pasta.

The two sausages were a cheese one and a spicy one.  I cooked them in the pan and then sliced them up to have with penne pasta.

The bacon was saved for slices at breakfast or little bits to add to pasta.  I also added some bacon bits to my fried rice and oh, it is so delicious!  Love bacon.

Elbows with Italian Sausage and Onions

I have recently adopted a puppy (lab mix!) so it has been ten times more difficult to cook anything extravagant when I cannot spend hours to prep and cook.  So, what are some of the easier things to make in short notice?  Pasta!

I love pasta in all sorts of shapes and sizes, but the classic elbow macaroni can do no wrong.  It's versatile, bite-size, and cooks quickly.

Elbows with Italian Sausage and Onions

Pasta Ingredients:
- box of elbow pasta (I used Barilla)
- Italian sausage
- 1 med/sm onion chopped

Sauce:
- tomato sauce (Ragu traditional)
- seasonings (basil, oregano, garlic powder)
- whole milk

For today's lunchbox, I had precooked the sausage over the weekend.

The way I cook my sausage is fairly simple.  I heat up the pan, put the sausages in whole, let it sizzle, add a splash of water and cover it to simmer on a medium heat.  Once the water is dried and the sausage is brown, I take it out and put it into a container.  Even if the inside is not fully cooked, when I take it out and cut it up to cook, it finishes up nicely.  Total cooking time can vary, usually it takes me about 20 minutes.

First, heat up your water and boil the pasta.  I let this go on the side while I prep my ingredients.  Your total cooking time if pasta and ingredients are cooked simultaneously should take around 15-20 minutes.

I sliced up the sausage and chopped my onions.  I heated up the pan with vegetable oil and fried the onions.  After they were cooked through and browning, I added in the sausage.  Stir and cook it for a few minutes.  Once the flavors are wafting to your nose, add in your desired amount of tomato sauce.  For my sauce today, I mixed in about 1/4 cup of whole milk to make a lighter sauce.  Add in your seasonings to taste and then let it simmer.

Before or close to this point, your pasta should be fully cooked.  Drain it and then you can add it straight to the pan and mix it with the sauce.

Then, put into a bowl to serve.  Enjoy!