!#7# Make an Easy, Tasty Italian Dinner For All Sausage Lovers!

!±8± Make an Easy, Tasty Italian Dinner For All Sausage Lovers!

These are the ingredients you will need. Two pounds of Italian Sausage, 2 onions, 4 Bell peppers, water, salt and pepper and a couple of bay leaves.

This delicious dish was passed down to my family from an old Italian friend years ago. I'm not Italian and never ate much Italian food growing up, but when my mom made this dish for our family, I just loved it. If you like sausage, once you taste this Sausage and Peppers recipe you're going to want to prepare it for your family and friends often. When I take this dish to a Pot Luck supper, I always get rave reviews! If you work all day, you can prepare the sausage, peppers and onions the night before and put everything in the slow cooker in the morning. When you get home, your house is going to smell wonderful, and your supper will be just about ready!

The menu for this dinner is very simple; Sausage and Peppers, Italian Green Beans with Mushrooms and a loaf of crusty white bread. You'll be amazed at how satisfying, filling and tasty this meal is. The peppers and green beans are loaded with vitamin C and antioxidants, the garlic is proving to help promote good health, including helping to prevent cancer by stimulating the immune system, and of course the sausage is just plain delicious!

When you do your grocery shopping, you'll need to pick up a few things for this meal. In the meat section, look for Italian hot sausage. The sausage must be the Italian variety, and not any other type. If you're not sure if you'll like hot sausage, you can use the sweet or mild Italian sausage. Sometimes I use one pound of the hot, and one pound of the sweet. Pick out the type of sausage according to your family's tastes. The original recipe calls for all hot sausage. You'll need two pounds total.

Next, go to the produce department. Pick out four or five nice large bell peppers. My mom used the green ones, but you can also substitute the red or orange peppers, or even mix them up for more color. A green bell pepper is simply an unripened red, yellow or orange one. These ripe peppers contain much more nutrients and vitamins than their unripened green counterparts. Now pick out two large yellow onions, 2 ½-3 pounds of fresh green beans, one pint of fresh button mushrooms and a bulb of garlic. Lastly, find a nice loaf of crust bread in the bakery. If you don't have butter and onion powder at home, pick these items up now.

When you get home, put your groceries in the fridge until you're ready to prepare the meal. The green beans, peppers, mushrooms and onions can be prepped ahead of time if you wish. Simply wash and trim the green beans on each end, and core, seed and slice all of the peppers into strips. Rinse the mushrooms lightly with cool water to rinse off any dirt and pat dry with paper toweling. Slice the onions into rounds. Store the veggies separate and covered in the refrigerator.

When you are ready to cook your Italian feast, you'll need to slice the sausages into about 1-1/4 inch long pieces. Put them all in a large skillet with no water or oil added and fry them long and slow. Keep turning the sausages as they're cooking. This will take about an hour. While the sausages are sauteing, cook the green beans. You can boil, steam or microwave them. Add a bit of butter, salt and water to the microwave-proof dish if you microwave them. Make sure the beans are crisp-tender, (about 8-10 minutes after boiling them). Microwave ovens and steamers will vary so check every couple of minutes or so.

Next, separate 3 cloves of garlic from the bulb, and skin and mince them. In a large non-stick skillet, saute the garlic and mushrooms with about 1 ½ tablespoons of butter until tender. Drain the beans if you boiled them and add to the skillet. Next add salt and pepper and onion powder to taste, (about ½ teaspoon of each spice is a good starting point). Heat the bean dish through, and cover and keep warm on low heat while you finish the sausage and peppers.

When your sausages are nicely browned and cooked, drain the skillet of its excess fat and add the sliced peppers and onions. Add to this about one-half to three-quarters of a cup of water, and salt and pepper to taste. Fry on low for about ½ hour (or until peppers are crisp-tender). You can cover the pan with the cover askew if you would like to keep the splattering down.

Lastly, add the finishing touches to your fabulous Italian Sausage and Peppers feast. Set the table and pour your favorite beverages. Using a bread knife, slice the loaf into even slices. Take the butter out of the fridge to soften. Ladle the sausage and peppers and the green beans and mushrooms onto each plate. Then sit down, relax, eat, and enjoy the compliments!