Recipe: Smoked Sausage Penne Pasta

This post has been compensation by Hillshire Brands via Mom It Forward. However, all opinions are mine.

Emma is crazy excited for Halloween. She is going to be Alice in Wonderland and she keeps peeking at her costume every day. It makes me giggle how she keeps holding it up to herself and seeing how she looks. Do you remember doing that as a kid? I do. Since I'm not supermom, she has a store bought costume but it's all good. This is the first time in awhile that she is getting to dress up for Halloween and her excitement makes me smile. She's earned it.

I found an awesome recipe using smoked sausage that was an absolutely winner! I purchased Hillshire Farm Beef Smoked Sausage from Safeway (dude, there's a sweet ecoupon available at Safeway. Just go here and find the valuable coupons for Hillshire products in J4U.) and made this amazing one pot Smoked Sausage Penne Pasta adapted via America's Test Kitchen The Best Simple Recipes cookbook which I found out about thanks to Kevin & Amanda's blog.

Mmmmm. You can practically smell the smokiness through the screen, right? I was sneaking bites of the cooked sausage before I added the remaining ingredients.

Just imagine the smoked beefy flavors, the spiciness from Ro*Tel, the creaminess of the monterey jack cheese.... can you?

Oh yeah.

It's purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrfect.

Protein? Check.
Veggies? Check.
Dairy? Check.
Grains? Check.

You know when it's REALLY good when your child eats three bowls of it. I won't lie- I ate two big bowls. It was THAT good.

This is one we make at least once a month and we don't get tired of it.

Easy and done in under 30 minutes.

You can't beat that for such a simple meal that is really a palate pleaser!

Smoked Sausage Penne Pasta
Printable here.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
12 ounces of smoked sausage, sliced into thin medallions.
1.5 cups diced onion (I just chopped up a large white onion)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups chicken broth

1 cup of water
1 can Ro*Tel (tomatoes and green chiles. I used mild)
3/4 cup heavy cream
16 oz penne pasta
salt and pepper to taste.
1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese.

10 oz bag of baby spinach.
1 bunch of thinly sliced green onions (It is like 1/3-1/2 cup).

Directions:

1. Add olive oil over medium high heat until hot.

2. Add sausage and onions and cook until lightly browned

3. Add garlic and cook 30 seconds.

4. Add broth, tomatoes, cream, pasta, salt and pepper. Stir all the ingredients together.

5. Bring to a boil, cover skillet, and reduce heat to medium-low.

6. Simmer until pasta is tender (it took 15 minutes for the penne pasta.)

7. Stir in baby spinach and half the cheese and put the lid back on until the spinach is wilted and the cheese is melted.

8. Sprinkle green onions on top.

Enjoy!

Be sure to check out these recipes from other bloggers using Hillshire Brands products. Watch out... you will be drooling!