Turkey Sausage and Broccoli with Quinoa Pasta

When I first heard about quinoa, I thought that it must be difficult to make. I've heard great things about it, like it contains essential amino acids, high in iron, gluten-free. So I was at a normal supermarket yesterday, and had decided to make my favorite pasta. When I was looking at the noodles, lo and behold, they had quinoa. The brand I used was "Ancient Quinoa Harvest", and the ingredients consist of organic corn flour, organic quinoa flour, dried organic spinach, dried organic beet and/or organic red bell pepper. The best part? Though slightly more than regular pasta, it was $2.50 for an 8oz. box. Uh... yeah. That's a keeper for me. This is a no nonsense, straight forward, healthy, and really tasty dish. It's definitely going to be a staple of mine. If it's not for you, then stick with pasta. It's still going to be tasty.

Ingredients:
1 8oz box quinoa-corn blend "Garden Pagodas" pasta (or replace with regular pasta such as fusilli)
1.25lbs sweet Italian-style turkey sausage, casings removed
2 stalks organic broccoli, cut into little pieces and stalks discarded
3 teaspoons dried and crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese
2 large cloves garlic, diced
1 Tablespoon olive oil


Bring a little more than 4 quarts of water to a boil. Add broccoli, and let it boil for 3 minutes. Remove broccoli and put it in a large bowl of ice water, save the water in the pot. Bring it to a boil for the pasta and follow directions on the box.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once heated, add turkey sausage. Crush the sausage with a spoon until it is broken up and no longer red. About 12 minutes. Add garlic and red pepper flakes and stir. Drain broccoli, add to skillet and stir. Add pasta, stir and coat with juices. Stir in parmesan and serve immediately.

Okay, I also want to add how much I spent at Associated Supermarket in Fort Greene, Brooklyn
1 box 8oz quinoa-corn blend noodles - $2.50
1.25lbs sweet italian sausage - $4.50
2 stalks of broccoli - $2.99
Fresh parmasan -$2.99
Red pepper flakes - I bought this a couple of years ago
Garlic - I had from other dishes
Olive Oil - I had in my pantry
Total: $12.98 to make about 4 servings. Maybe a little more than 4. Yup. That works for me.

Tonight's perfect for summer dinner

Last nigth I made pasta shells with no cook tomatoe sauce ;)
I'm a sucker for easy recipes... especially ones that require little cooking for the summer and this one is perfect.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups of cherry tomatoes - the more colorful the prettier dish but not neccessary

• 1 red pepper

• diced onion ( recipe didn't call for it but i didn't have a pepper so i used this for the crunchiness and it was good.)
• 1 minced garlic clove
  
• basil leaves
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 3/4lb of pasta shells
• ricotta cheese for serving
  
• coarse salt and pepper

Cook the pasta shells in salted boiling water.
In the mean time cut the tomatoes in half. Add them to a large bowl with diced red pepper, garlic, onion, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Drain pasta shells when cooked and add to tomatoes with basil.

serve with a dollup of ricotta cheese and garnish as you like ( I added shredded Parmesan).
DONE. AND SOOOO SOOO GOOD!