Pesto Pasta w/Chicken Sausage for #WeekdaySupper

I’m so happy to be participating in #WeekdaySupper again!! I love checking out all of the dishes each week because they have such awesome idea’s for those busy week nights, for me those nights are Tuesdays and Thursdays, that’s when I have very minimum time to prepare a meal for my family so I usually turn to a CrockPot Dish or something quick and easy, the WeekdaySupper team helps me out at least once a month on a new creative quick and healthy dish for my family! Go check out the new layout over at Family Foodie, it’s pretty neat folks!

I whipped this one up one night this past summer. It’s so easy and I tried to make it healthy by adding tons of veggies, using chicken sausage and whole grain pasta! For the pesto sauce I used a batch I had previously made and froze earlier this summer. I buy a seasoning packet, make it, divide it into two batches, one for that night and I freeze the other, it was super easy to take it out of the freezer that morning and just go! I cup up my veggies, boiled the pasta, and put it aside while my kiddo’s napped. When dinner time came around I needed 20 minutes to throw it together in a saute pan and wala, dinner was ready!

Ingredients:

1 package of precooked Italian Chicken Sausage
4 oz of dried whole grain pasta
1 Cup of frozen Edammene Beans, thawed
1 Cup of frozen peas, thawed
1 Cup of frozen string beans, thawed
1 small onion, diced
1/2 Cup of pesto sauce (store bought or homemade)
Parmesan Cheese
2 garlic cloves, minced
Salt & Pepper
Olive oil

Instructions:

Prepare pasta according to directions.

Meanwhile in a large saute pan drip oil and add onions and garlic, stirring to coat in the oil on medium-high heat. Add the thawed veggies and chicken sausage and stir a few times. Season with salt and pepper to your liking and let cook for 5 min. Turn and mix everything and cook for another 5-8 minutes. (If you like you’d rather your veggies soft pop a cover on for the last few minutes, if you’d rather a little crisp skip this part).

Turn the stove down to low, add cooked pasta, pesto, a little Parmesan cheese and stir, letting the flavors coat the pasta. Let sit for a few minutes and serve warm with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.