Turkey Or Beef Sausage Compromise

 For years, when making red sauce, we did so using Italian sausage as our meat.  We would brown it and then add it to the sauce mixture in the crock pot and let it cook for hours on end..... and it was DELICIOUS!

 These days we have compromised, since my husband has been able to lower his cholesterol so is still akin to eating sausage, but I have not.... so I don't need all that fat from the sausage in my meal.

 These days we no longer do meat directly in the sauce, but instead make meatballs separately... he gets sausage in his meatballs and mine are turkey.  I've never been a huge fan of meatballs, but this method works so that we can both enjoy the red sauce over our spaghetti, and each eat meatballs that suit our health needs.

 Spaghetti and meatballs top our wheat spaghetti, with a side of asparagus and one thin slice of bread.

Compromises don't always have to be a bad choice.

*if you want the recipe for the sauce, or for the meatballs, please let me know*

 

Our Summer Meals

 I thought I'd share some of our recent menu items from over the past two weeks.

I have backed WAY off of red meats, but my husband still prefers them.

Our homemade Italian red sauce has always been filled with sausage, but he is now doing things a bit differently in order to fill both of our needs when it comes to red sauce.

Instead of putting all of that sausage into the sauce, he makes a side of meatballs,

which he serves over his spaghetti,

 and then ladles on the red sauce,

while I have spaghetti and sauce with no meat... or I sometimes allow myself just one meatball.

This way we both have our meal just as we please.

 AND

we have always purchased our Italian bread from the Krogers grocery store bakery department, but this past week he bought Food Lions's bread and it's WAY WAY tastier,

so we plan to stick with their brand from now on.

 Last week I made a cauliflower and broccoli salad.

We enjoyed it, but the next time I will use less cauliflower and more broccoli.

I may also play around with the sauce in the mix since this tasted a wee bit to mayonnaise-ish for my liking.

 Recipes are meant to be played with.

This one was found on Facebook, and once I get it perfected I'll post my recipe there...

as well as here on Pepper Medley.

 As I said, I am eating less red meat, so there is a lot of tilapia fish as well as shrimp on my plate these days.

We skewered it last time and my husband made a rice pilaf on the side.

I've never been overly fond of rice pilaf, whether it be white rice or brown rice... 

it's just another recipe that needs to be played with I guess, until we both love it.

Do you have a favorite summer recipe for those hot days?

And of course, what would a great summer dessert be without a bit of ice cream and some wild, freshly picked raspberries on top?

These are just a few of the meals we have dug into lately as

temperatures have risen.

Not sure what's on the menu this week.