Super quick and easy dinner that feels like it should constitute as healthy. I personally think this Italian Sausage Marinara is delicious, as in I crave it and not just find it edible, but I do have one kid who doesn’t like leafy greens.
Italian Sausage Marinara
Ingredients
- Italian Sausage 16-19oz
- 28 oz can of Crushed Tomatoes
- 1 cup sliced Collard Greens ish.
- 1 cup sliced Zucchini -ish… it really is an ish.
- 2 packs of microwavable Quinoa 8.5 oz
- Garlic Salt
- Crushed Red Pepper
- Parmesan Cheese if you wish to top it off.
Instructions
- Cook the sausage in a non-stick skillet over medium heat, turning (or mixing) ever so often for about 10-12 minutes.
- While the sausage is cooking, get a medium / 2 qt. saucepan on medium low heat. Dump the can of Crushed Tomatoes. Add some sliced Zucchini. And add some sliced collard greens.
- Usually it looks like you added too much collard greens and you need more tomatoes. I like to have extra crushed tomatoes just in case, but generally, give it about 5 to 10 minutes, and those greens will shrink to fit.
- Sprinkle garlic salt and red pepper (probably a teaspoon of garlic salt and a little less than a teaspoon of red pepper)
- Microwave the quinoa (or rice).
- When everything is ready, stack it up. Quinoa. Red Sauce. Meat. Parmesan.
Notes
Where did I get this Recipe for Italian Sausage Marinara?
I stole it from a frozen Healthy Choice Power Bowl meal when my Walmart stopped carrying it. I hate Frozen Dinners, but I liked having a frozen dinner make-it-yourself night. There’s maybe about 3 or 4 frozen dishes I am willing to eat, and one by one, my Walmart stopped carrying them. Then I just started craving this one that I finally had to google it to see what was in it and kind of make it up myself.
There’s is slightly different. Way different. I made it more like this at first, but now I just kind of throw whatever I have in there.
I have absolutely no idea what to call it, so Italian Sausage Marinara is the best I could muster though I thought about using the term Arrabbiata sauce, but I struggle to spell it that I can’t imagine a lot of people searching for that term.
Substitute Ingredients
I think the first time I made this, I sliced a red pepper, green pepper, and yellow pepper and used spinach and kale.
But one time, my store was out of fresh kale, so I substituted collard greens, and I prefer that because it was way more filling. Like that little change of greens doubled the portion when it comes to my stomach feeling full. It was such a game changer that these ingredients I list in this recipe now has leftovers with 4 people when my first batch was just not enough food, and my second I had to double up on everything.
Then for this version of the recipe, my friend’s mom had a bunch of zucchini from her garden she gave my friend who later showed up with 3 giant zucchinis to give me. I have learned that the easiest way to cook zucchini is to slice or dice it up and throw it in any red tomato sauce I’m making for any reason. Like lasagna. (I know, most women make zucchini bread, but she brought 2 loaves of that too).
Eggplant is another one I’ll frequently use in red tomato sauce to give it some meat (vegan meat so to speak even though this recipe already has actual meat, you know, Italian Sausage Marinara – I think I named this an oxymoron because marinara usually means meatless).
In lieu of quinoa, you could use rice or to make it keto-friendly, cauliflower rice.
You May Decide to Double the Recipe
Like I said earlier in the last section, when I first made this Italian Sausage Marinara, I used spinach and kale, and it was not enough food for 4 people without doubling the recipe. We do like healthy servings of food. My kids are usually expecting seconds.
But when I switched to collard greens, it was more than enough to fill us up. Something about those greens are very filling.
But that may not happen to you and yours the way it did mine, so if you want seconds, you might double up.
Step 1: The Meat
In a medium skillet, plop the Italian Sausage on medium heat. Cook for about 12 minutes turning the meat frequently. You might use a lid to help the meat cook more thoroughly. It’s sausage, so you don’t want this to be undercooked at all.
While that’s cooking, I start on the sauce, but when this finishes, I slice up any meat I need to.
I have learned the kids ask for less meat with the sausage patties. If I do links, it feels like I run out of meat because they want just the meat for seconds. In my house, that probably means the sausage links taste better, but sausage patties go further.
Step 2: The Sauce
In a medium 2 quart pot, dump the Crushed Tomatoes on medium low heat.
Add any veggies you got. I usually start with the non-greens because you can eyeball how much you’re adding. I add enough veggies (whether zucchini, eggplant, peppers) to where it almost could act as a meatballs in someone’s spaghetti running a little toward the side of having some extra sauce in between meat.
When slicing or dicing the meaty veggies, like zucchini, think about cutting it to a size that will cook it from crisp to tender in 12 minutes.
You can probably add seasoning right now too, while it’s still fairly easy to stir. So I do about a teaspoon of garlic salt and crushed red pepper. I kind of want this to be more bland than a spaghetti sauce.
Then I fill the pot up to the top with leafy greens. I don’t cut them like I’m making cole slaw. I usually just kind of fold it up like a joint, and slice it like a carrot or a cheese. With spinach, I don’t even slice those.
But because there’s all this fluffy airy space between the greens due to their fresh crispiness, they take up a bit of space in the pot. But once they cook in the sauce, they usually shrink to less than half the space they take up fresh. So I just fill the pot up with the greens. Stir to the best of my ability, and check on it in five minutes, stir again. Sometimes I add more at that point.
Now I personally like to keep an extra can of Crushed Tomatoes just in case I need it to adjust my error with the veggies, or to make extra something if the kids are still super hungry. Let’s say you cook everything, everything gets eaten, and a kid is still, “I’m still hungry!” and you know she isn’t going to sleep until her tummy feels full, so you can still make a quick thing in the same dirty pot. Like find some frozen cauliflower, some noodles, some rice, anything you can dump that extra can of Crushed tomatoes on.
Step 3: The Quinoa
I started off with a rice and quinoa mixture, and I think I end up leaning that way every time. But inevitably, I find myself grabbing the microwave version of some kind of healthy rice and/or quinoa option. Sometimes I grab the “Garlic” flavored one.
But I like it being microwavable because I already have 2 pots going at about 12 to 15 minutes each. If I were to make the longer version, I’d probably start with that 3rd pot and then get into the other two. But the microwave is just super easy. Just put both packs in the microwave for the time it tells you to and then let it sit there out of the way until you’re ready to serve.
Again you can use rice instead, or to make it low-carb and keto, which is actually easiest, cauliflower rice because that, you just microwave the bag.
Step 4: Put it all Together
When everything is ready. Stack it on a plate. The rice / quinoa first. Then it doesn’t matter but meat and sauce (or sauce and then meat). Top with some parmesan if you want.
If you love this Italian Sausage Marinara recipe, you might like other Quick and Easy Dinners.
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