Creamy Sausage 'n Pasta

Finished dish - yum!

Seriously, last night was one of the best meals I've made in a long time.  Ryan and Aiden both loved it (seconds and the mmm, mmm, mmm's indicated that) and the leftovers this afternoon were great too!  2 people asked me if we went out for dinner last night - now that's a compliment!

To anyone that is WLS - this did give me a little pouch pain at the end of dinner last night.  A few things might have done that as I was feeling off all day yesterday - but I wanted to put that out there.  Today when I had it for lunch, I had no problem at all - so it might have just been a combination of things last night.  Anyway, edit or make changes as necessary (for example - the whipping cream might be too much, you might want to use whole wheat pasta (I've found that it makes me sick) or maybe you use turkey sausage instead of pork).  Another little tip, Zantac 150 in the sugar free version works wonders for any pouch pain I've ever had.  It treats it so much quicker than anything else I've used - and you can't beat the sugar free!

Ingredients:
1 lb. of ground Italian sausage (we got the kind that comes in the log looking thing) :)
1/2 t red pepper flakes
1 T of extra virgin olive oil
1 T of splenda brown sugar (not pictured)
1 t of prepared minced garlic (found in the produce section)
1/2 cup chopped onion (I buy mine pre-chopped in the produce section)
15 oz. can diced Italian style tomatoes
8 oz can, tomato sauce
4 oz can of black olives (you can omit this if you'd like, my crew doesn't really like them so I just did a handful for me)
1 cup of whipping cream
pinch of salt (not pictured)
1.5 T dried parsley leaves (not pictured)
12oz box of bow tie pasta
Grated Parmesan cheese

Browning the sausage, onion, garlic and brown sugar in 1 Tablespoon of oil.

Directions:
Boil water to cook the pasta - cook according to package directions.  Once that is going - start the other pot/skillet: Brown sausage, pepper flakes, oil, garlic and splenda brown sugar in oil.  Cook until onion is tender and sausage is browned.  Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, olives, cream, salt and parsley.  Simmer until mixture thickens slightly.  Drain pasta.  Toss cooked bow tie pasta with tomato/sausage mixture.  Serve with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. 

The tomato and sausage mixture simmering/thickening

If you've ever had a vodka sauce - this tasted very similar to that!  Can't tell you enough how much the boys loved it.  A picture for proof below of Aiden on his third of 4th helping :)

Blurry, but cute - right? ;)