When I made my Shrimp Scampi a couple weeks ago I knew I’d be craving jambalaya come Mardi Gras, and while I was too busy the week of Fat Tuesday to make one of my signature dishes, I was happy to have the shrimp stock I made conveniently frozen and ready to add to this dish. I didn’t want to use my beautiful jumbo shrimp in this dish, but the flavor of the shrimp was still intense!!

Whenever Woodmans has a sale on Daisy Brand Chicken Sausage I always stock up to freeze it, especially when it’s the Andouille Smoked Sauage. Perfectly spiced with the lightness of chicken sausage — seriously, does it get any better?

Here’s how tonight’s Jambalaya came together so you can try it for yourself. Want a shortcut version? Try my Fat Cat Tuesday Jambalaya from the archives!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups seafood stock, chicken broth or water
• 1 Knorr Chipotle Bouillon Cube (a bit of powdered chipotle or chili powder works too); leave out if you don’t want your jambalaya spicy)
• Juice from 1 can of tomatoes
• 1 cup brown rice

Start the broth, juice and bouillon on a back burner. When boiling, add the rice and reduce heat to simmer. Cover and let this go while you get the rest going. Pay attention to when you started this!

• 2 Links Andouille Chicken Sausage, diced (a regular smoked sausage works too)
• 1 chicken breast, diced
• 1/2 medium onion or one small onion, chopped
• 1 red or green pepper, diced
• 2 cloves fresh garlic, minced (or 1 tbsp jarred garlic)
• 1/2 cup Trader Joe’s Roasted Corn
• 1 can tomatoes (add the juice to the rice)
• Penzey’s Cajun Seasoning (generously, to taste)
• Dash of Penzey’s Gumbo Filé.

Add the onion and garlic to a deep sauté pan (I love my Pampered Chef Flat-bottomed Wok for this) with a little bit of olive oil and sauté until the onions start to sweat. Toss in the chicken breast and sausage and a few shakes of Cajun Seasoning and cook until the chicken is white on the outside.

Add the tomatoes and some more seasoning and toss until everything is coated. Add the rice and the cooking liquid and toss to combine. Reduce heat to low and cover, checking to stir and taste every 10 minutes. Add more cajun seasoning to taste, a little each time.

You’ll want the rice to go about a total of 45 minutes, so continue cooking until your rice has hit 45 minutes.  When it’s nearly done, add the roasted corn.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 Smoked Sausage, sliced
• 2 Sweet Potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1/2 Poblano Pepper, cut in strips
• 1 tbsp Brown Sugar

Sauté the sweet potatoes in a splash of vegetable oil until they start to become soft and add the smoked sausage and peppers. When the water has mostly evaporated, add the brown sugar and toss until coated.

Seriously, that’s it. It’s super easy and the combination is complex and delicious!

Seriously. Chicken Helper. I know. Doesn’t it look awesome? Yeah, it was.

I make a mean jambalaya from scratch. But Tuesday night isn’t the night to make things from scratch, especially on Fat Cat Tuesday.

Tonight we added a new member to our family, our newly adopted fat cat Pippen, so naturally we needed some cajun goodness to celebrate! And Chicken Helper (Hamburger Helper’s little sister) is a great way to start. But, of course, I can never just let it go like that.

What did I add to give this a more authentic N’Awlins flavor?

• 1 lb Chicken (per the recipe)
• 1 Turkey Smoked Sausage
• 1/2 lb shrimp
• Penzey’s Hot Chili Seasoning
• Dash of Penzey’s Gumbo Filé Seasoning
• 1/2 cup spaghetti sauce (for some proper tomato fllavor; usually I add a can of diced tomatoes)
• 1/2 diced white onion
• 1 diced red bell pepper
• 1 diced poblano pepper

Add the shrimp at the very, very end to avoid overcooking it. Authentic flavor with a really quick prep. Not as good as my Jambalaya from scratch, but definitely a close second in a pinch!

It’s a hardboiled egg.
Wrapped in breakfast sausage.
Coated with breadcrumbs.
And panfried.

Oh yeah.

Ever since the first time my husband and I tried Scotch Eggs at a restaurant across the street from the GenCon Gaming Convention in Indianapolis, he’s been wanting me to make them.

So here’s how you make these little bundles of cholesterol. You know you want to know.

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 Hard-boiled eggs, peeled
• 1 tube breakfast sausage, thawed but cold
• 1 egg, beaten, for dredging
• Breadcrumbs, in a shallow bowl for coating
• Hot oil

Take your peeled egg and a handful of sausage. Wrap the sausage around the egg until it’s coated. Eliminate all holes. Dredge your sausage-coated egg in the egg wash, then roll through the breadcrumbs. Fry in 1″ of hot oil until the sausage is cooked; this doesn’t take as long in the hot oil as you might think. Using tongs, remove the eggs from oil and place on a hefty layer of paper towels for draining.

Seriously, they’re as delicious as they are horrific. We figure once a year is about enough to eat these beauties, but boy are they fun!

Seriously, can this get any cuter? The nearby Italian grocery always has the best frozen pasta, but I nearly fell over when I saw these adorable red and white heart-shaped cheese ravioli.

After a long day working overtime, I got home at 8:30 with no desire to cook. So I reached for some staples I always try to have on-hand for days like this:

• Pasta, frozen, refrigerated or dry
• Pre-cooked Italian sausage, frozen
• Jarred spaghetti sauce
• A Bag of frozen, chopped spinach (I use about a cup of this)

I thawed and sliced the sausage, added half an onion and some garlic, two diced yellow tomatoes simply because it was time for them to go, and some herbs. I sauté this for as long as I can until the pasta is done. In twenty minutes I have a delicious meal that’s good enough to keep us from going out for fast food.

QUICK TIP: Keep some pre-cooked chicken breasts and Italian sausage in FoodSaver bags in the freezer for days when you don’t have much time, or evenings when you’re tempted to go out for something just to avoid cooking. I cook mine ahead of time, let them cool, then vacuum seal them. For my family of 3 adults I usually keep the sausages in packages of 3 and the chicken breasts in packages of 2 halves (or one whole), because I’m usually just putting these in sauces.