An Easy Summer Recipe Meal Sausage Bowtie Pasta Stir Fry

This is one of our family's  favorite quick meals. Keep the basic ingredients on hand so you can whip it up for lunch, a light dinner or even company (it's pretty enough).  I had to ride with my younger son while he drove to his youth group the other night and asked my older son to start dinner.    By the time I arrived back home, my husband was already here and everyone was hungry for dinner.   I thought my son was going to make rice but since he had prepared bowtie pasta, I made this meal instead.  It was very easy to go with Plan B and get a meal on the table quickly.  :)

Prepare one box of bow-tie pasta (or any other shape that you prefer).  I like the way the bowtie pasta looks on your plate.  Drain.  

Put the drained  pasta in a large bowl and generously sprinkle grated parmesan cheese on top, fresh or canned.  Use a VERY large bowl to allow for mixing everything together well.

Cut up pre-cooked sausage (I use Hillshire Farms or whatever brand is on sale), usually turkey sausage but beef or pork  is fine, too.  Also cut up whatever fresh veggies you have on hand.  I used a yellow pepper, mushrooms, broccoli and onion.  It was the day before grocery shopping so I had just a bit of each.   A good way to clean out the refrigerator.  :)

Put all this in a large skillet with olive oil (I added coconut oil, too, since it was high heat cooking) and stir-fry about 8-10 minutes.   We like the veggies a bit crunchy and they stay more colorful the less you cook them.

Add half of the mixture to the pasta and sprinkle with more cheese.  Stir well.  Repeat with the other half of the meat/veggie mixture.  Sprinkle more cheese on top.

Add some fruit (I added sliced red apples--remember my "red lipstick" rule)  and/or a salad, and voila!  A tasty, colorful meal in about 20 minutes.

VARIATION:  Substitute mozzarella cheese for parmesan cheese and use multi-colored pasta.  Mmm!!!