Sometimes, dinner is just a matter of putting things together. Tonight I had a package of beef sausage, already cooked. I had leftover baked potatoes from the other night. I had a jar of applesauce. And I had broccoli. The broccoli is about the only thing I would consider “cooked” (even if I just steamed it) yet this was a great dinner.
I chopped up the leftover baked potatoes, which I cooked ahead of time with this end in mind, and started them sauteing in a mix of butter and olive oil. If you want more flavor, use some leftover bacon fat instead. (I know it’s horribly bad for you, but I always have a can filled with bacon grease in the fridge. Just a smidgmen lends a healthy amount of flavor to nearly any recipe, from cornbread to greens to fried potatoes.)
I sliced up the sausage and heated it up in a frying pan.
The broccoli I put in a covered microwavable dish and added a bit of water. When we were within 5 minutes of eating, I started it cooking.
Sausage, fried potatoes, broccoli, and applesauce. Pretty good for a thrown together dinner. And if you kept a pound of sausage in the freezer, you could surely throw together dinner quicker and cheaper than take out!
Yes, we eat so often like that. And it’s easier than cooking from scratch. The key to cooking is really the segue from one to the next, utilising what’s left from before.