Grilled sausages and asparagus

Simplest possible meal that involves any cooking at all. And so tasty.
Heat grill. Wash asparagus. Drizzle some olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Open package of chicken-apple sausage or whatever kind you like. Grill. The asparagus takes less time than the meat.

Done. Great way to initiate the grill for spring!

Inside-out stuffed mushrooms (working title)

The recipe:

• 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (you can also use thigh fillets, but you'll need about two per serving)
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1/2 sweet pepper, chopped (or a couple of the "baby" sweet peppers)
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1/2 pound Italian sausage, mild or hot, your choice. If you can only buy it in casings, squeeze it out. Fun in a gross way.
• about 5 cremini mushrooms, sometimes called baby bellas

Brown the sausage. Chop the veggies. Take the sausage out of the skillet and sweat the veggies, adding salt, pepper, and any other seasonings you want. You may need to add some olive oil if the sausage didn't give off much grease, just enough to coat the pan before you put the veggies in. Sweat them until they are soft -- they'll give off a lot of liquid, which you can get rid of or save to use for basting stuff with.

While the stuffing ingredients cool enough to handle, pound out the fillets and salt and pepper them.

Heat the oven to 350. Oil a jelly roll pan or Pyrex baking dish.
Put about a tablespoon of the sausage and a tablespoon of the veggies on each fillet and roll it up, setting the "seam" side down on the pan.


Bake for about 20 minutes. Let rest a few minutes before slicing.


The back story:
Stuffed mushrooms are delicious, and fun to make for parties and such. But why not enjoy those flavors for an entree? So here it is.

A tip:
Double the recipe for the "stuffing" part to have leftover sausage and veggies to use for tacos, snacks, pasta sauce or to freeze for next time.

Another tip: These are great to take for lunch -- 2 minutes in the microwave.