orzo w/ sausage, peppers & tomatoes #gourmetcreations #cbias

So I've been doing this monthly meal plan thing for almost a week now and I love it! It has helped my sanity since I already know what we're having for dinner and I have all the ingredients in the house. Last night I made orzo with sausage, peppers and tomatoes.
I didn't use just any ol' sausage though, I used new Hillshire Farm Gourmet Creations Sausage. Can you say "yum"?

I found 4 different flavors at Walmart but went with the Sweet Italian style since I have to have sweet sausage and John is Italian so "that's all we can have in the house" haha. I've made a Google+ story to document my shopping experience so check it out! :)
Other options were Beef & Bacon, Beef & Jalapeno, and Chicken Apple.

Each flavor option is made with premium meats and no artificial flavors, no artifical colors or by-products. I hardely ever buy sausage because I never know what meat is actually in it. I was glad to purchase this sausage because the first ingredient was pork.

Slice (or chunk like I do) red peppers and soften in olive oil for a few minutes then set aside on a pate. In a medium saucepan, bring the chicken stock, water, and salt to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes is pretty perfect.

While the pasta is cooking: In a large skillet (I used the same one I cooked the peppers in), heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the Gourmet Creations Sausage and saute until cooked through, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the peppers, tomatoes (drained), and red pepper flakes, if using, and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes.

Drain the pasta, reserving about 1/2 cup of the liquid, and transfer to a large serving bowl. Add the sausage mixture, 1 tablespoon of the parsley, and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Toss well to combine all ingredients, adding reserved liquid, if needed, to loosen the pasta. Sprinkle with the remaining parsley. Serve.

INGREDIENTS
2 red bell peppers

1 pound orzo pasta

3 cups chicken stock

3 cups water
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil

1 package (4 links) Hillshire Farm Gourmet Creations Sausage

1 clove garlic, minced

1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional

2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias #CBias. All opinions about the yummy sausage I tried are my own!

nutella cupcakes with nutella cream cheese frosting

So if you've tried Nutella how can you not like it. It's the perfect blend of chocolate andhazelnut flavor. Perfect on toast in the morning but what else can you do with it? So so much actually and I've made some cupcakes and frosting to prove it!

Nutella Cupcakes
10 tbsp butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated (regular white) sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour. sifted
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp veggie oil
Nutella. 12 teaspoons. (1 teaspoon for each cupcakes)

First cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy I like to do this for about 5 minutes on high setting. Add in eggs one at a time, until they are all fully combined into butter and sugar mixture. Add oil and vanilla then combine. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder until no flour remains visible.

Preheat oven to 325F. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners. Who does this step first now a days? It takes my over about 2.5 seconds to get hot so I never preheat the oven before I make anything or else the whole house gets too hot.

So anyway, using an ice cream scoop , fill each muffin liner with batter. They should be about 3/4 full.. Top each cake with 1 huge tsp of Nutella. To make it pretty use a toothpick and swirl the Nutella around. Tip: don't over swirl and also make sure you have some of the white batter showing on the top so it doesn't look like a regular chocolate cupcake. You want the marble effect.

 

Bake for 20 minutes and then cool completely on a wire rack.

Top with Nutella cream cheese frosting (recipe below) or white cream cheese frosting and sprinkles!

P.S. I'm not a food photographer so you have to deal with my half ass picture taking. K? thanks! :)

This should yield 12 cupcakes. Key word is should. I was only able to make 11 so I guess I was a little generious on the scoops.

Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 8 oz cream cheese at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup Nutella

Combine cream cheese and butter until smooth. Sift the powdered sugar into the butter mixture and slowly combine. Add the Nutella and mix until completely incorporated.

For plain cream cheese frosting:

Remove the Nutella.
8 oz of cream cheese
1 Tbls butter
1/4 cup of butter (instead of 2 Tbls).
1/2 C. powdered sugar (instead of 1/4).

Combine using same process as above.

*I don't remember where the recipe came from so credit goes to whoever deserves it*