Sausage and Pepper Pasta

I haven't posted anything on here for a long time, not because I didn't want to, but purely because I haven't cooked in, oh, nine months-ish.  I made dinner tonight with a bunch of things I needed to use up and decided to post it as a quick and simple meal idea if you want to spice up the old go-to pasta dish.  I'm leaving the amount open-ended depending on how many you're cooking for.

Sausage and Pepper Pasta

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

sweet peppers, thinly sliced

fully cooked sausage*, chopped into 1/2 inch slices

sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

your favorite jar of pasta sauce

linguine noodles

fresh basil, chopped

Directions:

Cook linguine according to package directions.  Set aside.  

Heat olive oil on medium-high heat.  Saute onion and peppers until tender.  Add sausage and sun-dried tomatoes, saute until heated through.  Dump in pasta sauce and stir until hot.  Add linguine noodles and toss until everything's combined.  Sprinkle fresh basil over the top and serve.

*Use any sausage that you like: Italian sausage, chicken, pork, or turkey sausage, sausage with cheese in it, sausage with herbs in it... you get the idea.  I used chicken sausage with cheese, red peppers, and garlic! If sausage is uncooked, slice thin and saute in a separate pan with a little olive oil until cooked through, then add to the pasta.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Jello Dessert with Pretzel Crust

I have a great friend who is an awesome cook and loves to share her food with others.  She has randomly brought me dinner, or dessert, a number of times, and I have never been disappointed.  She brought me this yummy concoction last fall, and I finally made it a few weeks ago for Easter.  It is sweet and salty and oh so delicious!

Strawberry Cream Cheese Jello Dessert
from: allrecipes.com

2 c. crushed pretzels
3/4 c. melted butter
3 Tbsp. white sugar
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1 c. white sugar
1 (8 oz.) container whipped topping
2 (3 oz.) packages strawberry jello
2 c. boiling water
2 (10 oz.) packages frozen strawberries (I used fresh strawberries and cut them up the night before and put them in the freezer so that they would be frozen, to help set my jello)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  In a medium bowl, stir together the crushed pretzels, butter and 3 tablespoons of white sugar.  Press the mixture into the bottom of a 9X13 baking dish.  Bake 8-10 minutes, or until it is set.  Then set it aside to cool completely.  In a large mixing bowl, mix together the cream cheese and 1 cup of sugar.  Fold in the whipped topping.  Spread that mixture onto the cooled crust.  Make sure that you spread it all the way to the edge of the pan (and up against the edge) so that your jello (next step) doesn't leak through to your crust.  In another bowl, dissolve your jello in the boiling water.  Stir in the frozen strawberries and allow it to begin to set (the original recipe says to wait until it is the consistency of egg whites before you pour it on).  Pour it over the cream cheese layer and spread it evenly.  Put it in your fridge until the jello has set completely.  Then serve and enjoy!