Tag Archives: Harvest Health

Yesterday I went to Meijer with $75 and the intention of buying as much food as possible to feed us all week (you know, in addition to the normal things that I needed to pick up; toiletries, condiments, booze…). This isn’t a lot of cash when you take into account the fact that I only buy nutritious food, mostly organic, or at least “all natural.”

When I want to make something healthy that also makes great leftovers, I like to make a big pot o’ food, like pot roast, chili, or stew. I didn’t have enough cash to buy a big chunk of beef from Harvest Health or Heffron Farms, and I have searched Meijer high and low, and have only found ONE organic meat item there. So, I wanted to figure out how to make something with with that one item; Coleman Organic sun-dried tomato & basil chicken sausage. Meijer’s meat selection might suck, but they sure do have an excellent assortment of Meijer Organics products for a fraction of the price of other organic options.

• Meijer Organics canned crushed tomatoes $1.65
• Meijer Organics whole wheat penne rigate $1.99
• Meijer Organics pasta sauce $2.35
• Baby-bella mushrooms $2.99
• 2 Packs organic sausage @ $5.49 each

I wanted to include zucchini and peppers, but Meijer did not have them organically grown.

When I got home I realized that the mushrooms were not organic, which bummed me out. It looked like all of their mushrooms were organic, so I grabbed the baby-bellas without thinking. Next time I will get the mini-bellas which are organic and the same price per oz.  I also realized that I was probably a little low on pasta, so I added about 6 additional ounces of shells that I had in my cupboard.

• Start the water boiling to cook the pasta, and put the pasta in the pot once it is boiling. You can easily prepare the rest of your items while making the pasta.
• Slice up and brown all of the sausage. You need to use a little olive oil since chicken sausage is not fatty like pork sausage.
• Once browned, add the can of organic crushed tomatoes and let simmer on low while preparing the rest of the items.
• Slice up the mushrooms and sauté on low with butter and a little salt and pepper. The sweetness of butter complements the velvety texture of sautéed portobello mushrooms.
• Once your pasta is cooked and drained, return it back to the large pasta pot.
• Mix in the sausage, tomato sauce, and mushrooms. I put the mushroom juice from the pan in as well. Pour the whole can of spaghetti sauce in and mix it all up.
• It should be warm enough to serve.
• Top with shredded cheese if you would like.

My husband and I both loved it. After one bite, he told me to remember to make this meal often. I can’t wait to try it again when I can add more veggies from the farmers market. This big pot o’ food would serve at least 8 people, and has all of the goodness of organic chicken and tomatoes. If you can’t eat it all, you can put some into freezer bags and store it the freezer for later. If you have kids, though, I bet you won’t have any trouble getting through a whole pot. It’s a great family meal that is cheap, healthy, and easy.