Italian Sausage & Roasted Potatoes Recipe!

So, I've had this smoked sausage in my freezer for awhile.  My sister-in-law was watching our house (and mutts!) while we were away, and she left it at our house and told us to keep it. I saw a great recipe in the October issue of Food Network Magazine for Kielbasa with Mashed Potatoes, and I've been wanting to make it.  When I saw that both sausage AND potatoes were on sale this week, I thought: This is my chance!

This week I found a 10 lb bag of Russet Potatoes at Aldi for...$2.89 (They have 5 lb bags also, which I purchased, for $2.99...I believe they are slightly more expensive because they are classified as "baking potatoes")! If you're not an Aldi shopper, Giant Eagle also has them on sale: Two 5-lb bags of either red or restaurant size potatoes for $7.00!  They also have Hillshire Farm Rope Polska Kielbasa or Smoked Sausage on special at 2 for $6.00, and Kuhn's Market has Kuhn's Italian Sausage on sale for $2.99/lb! 

You can find the recipe for Kielbasa and Mashed Potatoes here.  I did something slightly different and I left out the broccoli, because I didn't have any! Here's how I did it:

 

Let me level with you.  I totally cheated.  I went with roasted potatoes instead of mashed because I had a bag of them in the freezer.  But, in my defense, I at least have made both mashed and roasted potatoes from scratch at some point in my life! It's up to you, if you want to follow the recipe, go for it! If you'd rather make roasted potatoes, I always cut them into wedges, put some olive oil and Italian seasoning on them, and cook them for what seems like forever (they take awhile, so leave yourself enough time before dinner). BUT before you do anything else, SPRAY THE  PAN WITH COOKING SPRAY! I forget to do this more than I should.  With brownies, potatoes, anything....I have had to scrape things off of foil, and I'm just trying to save you the pain.  Spray the pan.

 

 

Next, I spread the potatoes out in a single layer, then put them in the oven at 400 degrees Farenheit.

 

 

Then I started on the smoked sausage.  Cut the sausage into four equal pieces. (I also halved the four pieces)

 

 

After that, the recipe calls for a 1/2 tablespoon of butter, melted in the pan. Word to the wise, don't use a cast iron skillet.  I used mine, and I'm really hoping I can somehow get it clean without soap.  After the butter is melted, put the pieces of sausage in the skillet.

 

 

Flip them a few times...

 

 

Until perfectly browned.  Mmmmm.  This whole process takes about 10 minutes, not long at all.

 

 

The finished product!  And it was quite good, if I do say so myself. 

 

I found this recipe really easy to do, especially because with the roasted potatoes (even if you cheat like me), you can start the potatoes much earlier than the sausage and only have to start the sausage a few minutes before dinner is served.  It all depends on your preference.  If you have more time, mashed potatoes would be fine! 

 

Hope you enjoy!

 

P.S. While you're shopping at Kuhn's, pick up some Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix which 2/$1.00 (8.5 oz boxes), and some Hormel Chili (15 oz cans) at 2/$3 (with beans) or 2/$4 (without beans). We'll be using that in an upcoming recipe! ;)