Who's this Chick with the Sausage?

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Who's this Chick with the Sausage?

About three months ago on a drive to NY from NC to see family, my husband brought up a topic that I
never thought would cross his mind. Ya see, about 4 years ago (see a flashback within a flashback), I
approached my husband about eating healthier, adding more vegetables to our diet, even incorporating,
"Meatless Mondays" into the mix. And my adorable husband, stopped me dead in my tracks. Sure he
would try it, but he wouldn't like it, and he certainly would need maybe some meat during the meal to
satisfy his protein craving.

I did my best to incorporate less meat and more vegetables (on this one night a week), never truly
grasping that you can get protein from other food sources.

Now flash forward to October 2019 and this man, this human being that I've made part of the team that
is us, well, he had seen Game Changers. You know what I'm talking about. The Netflix documentary
that shows how plant protein is awesome, and meat is bad, because science.

We're driving in the car, hurtling towards NY at 70 miles an hour and I'm ready to rip him apart. I
brought this up YEARS ago. Well, maybe not in a slick documentary style discussion a la Netflix, but
I've definitely talked to him about moving into a healthier way of living, incorporating more plants into
our diet. I start yelling (luckily the girls were watching a movie in the back). I'm mad. Big mad.

I do the meal planning, prepping, shopping, and cooking, and now, NOW you're telling me you want to
completely eliminate my carefully crafted arsenal of family favorites and weeknight go-to's?!?! (And if
you don't believe me about my meal prepping and planning, check out one of my very first posts here.)

He sat their sheepishly for a good 25 minutes while I ripped into him about this and he apologized
profusely for not listening to me sooner. He definitely told me I was "right" more than once. He shared
he was even scared to bring this up to me because he knew I was right and that I had been looking out
for us and our health for a long time.

While appeased by his admission I started asking some very pointed questions:

• Do you want to go vegan?
• Do you want to start right away?
• Are you going to help plan, prep, shop, and cook?

His answers included, probably not, after we get back from NY, and yes.

We agreed to plant based protein dinners 3-4 nights a week, fish at least 2 nights, chicken the other 1 to
2 (with exceptions for the occasional pork or beef).

I share this all with a modicum of apprehension because people will likely have comments about this
and to you I say, "I'm doing what I'm doing for my team. I know how we roll, I know how we operate.
I know where to give and I know where to take. If you don't like it, move along."

So, once we returned from NY, we did a little pinteresting planning and kicked it off.  I will say we are
not perfect. But we did stick to 3 nights a week, plant based, 2 fish, 1-2 chicken, and 1 other as needed.
It was going well, until (please insert scary piano music here dum dum duuuuuuuummmmm), my
husband discovered, his soy allergy.

That, is a real thing. Not too make this short dive in any longer but he's allergic, it limits our plant based
proteins (at least for him) and I want breakfast sausage.

I know super weird pivot.

I like breakfast. It's my favorite meal of the day, and breakfast for dinner is the best treat. Now I'm also
a big egg eater. I like eggs. Probably not going to give them up, don't @ me.  My favorite breakfast is a
couple of eggs, some sauteed spinach, hash browns, and a couple of sausage links. Give me a juice and
some coffee and I'm good to go, but now with this shift in our focus to plant based, I've been giving up
breakfast sausage.

And I miss it. I miss it so much. The flavor and texture is the perfect blend with creamy eggs, tangy
spinach (just add a dash of lemon juice while sauteing), and crispy hash brown. The perfect bite.

I share this all with you so you can hear my thought process but also understand how I make changes to
my diet, and you can too!

I learned this with my wedding...yet another weird pivot, but seriously life is full of interesting
connections and if you can see them and the patterns, it will help you out immensely. Trust me. I'm on
the internet.

So, during my wedding, the advice I was given and what I will always give any bride who asks (only if
you ask), is come up with your 1-3 must haves and make those your big spend items. My husband and I
cared about our photos (we wanted to "own" them), food/drink (my love language is cooking and serving
food), and music (we wanted everyone to have a good time).

If you are going to use this advice and extrapolate it out to your diet, you need to discover your 1-3 must
haves and make those your focus. I'm a taste and texture, but not necessarily together. I LOVE eggs
Benedict. The creamy hollandaise, the poachy, eggy, runny yolk, and the salty ham. I realized I didn't need
the English muffin (it didn't do it for me), but I needed the runny yolk, and the I needed the lemony tang
from the hollandaise. Even the salty ham wasn't necessary, just the salt. So in order to make this quick and
easy and get a hit of something I love. I'll over easy a couple of eggs with plenty of salt and pepper and
put it on a bed of sauteed spinach with a hit of lemon juice. It gives me all I need.

I discovered I loved the flavor of everything bagels (and yes I love the texture) but it's the flavor I crave.
So I made a spice mix and sprinkle it on salads. Same great flavor, none of the calories from the bagel.

Again just some small tweaks to make it healthier with compromising the thing I needed. This is how the
chick pea sausage was born. I needed the flavor and a little of the texture, and so I came up with this
recipe.

Yes, it is still a work in progress and the reason I'm sharing my not quite perfected version of it is
because some things are SUPER personal to flavor. Breakfast sausage being one of them. I've had it all
over the eastern seaboard and unless you get a name brand, none of it tastes the same. We happen to
enjoy the Food Lion brand of breakfast sausage links and that's what I'm trying to emulate. Please feel
free to make tweaks of this recipe with your own additions, or even use the base (chick peas and pinto
beans) and flavor with your seasoning recipe. Good luck!

Chick Pea Breakfast Sausage

1 15 oz can chick peas/garbanzo beans (drained and rinsed)

1/2 c panko bread crumbs, plain

1/4 c pinto beans (drained and rinsed)

1 tbs maple syrup

1 tbs brown sugar

2 tsp dried sage

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp thyme

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp paprika

1. Put the pinto beans in food processor and pulse until mostly creamy (see picture).

2. Add all the other ingredients but the maple syrup, and pulse to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl 2 or 3 times. You want it to be coarse and crumbly and kind of hold together when you pinch it. Taste for flavor and adjust as necessary. Do not over process as the mix will become too smooth and the texture will be off.

3. Add the maple syrup and process just to combine. This mixture should hold together really well. Make balls the size of golf balls and flatten (I used a cookie scoop to make them uniform).

4. Pan fry in oil of your choice until golden brown and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

I hope you like this recipe...and this walk into the brain and thought process. It's how I figure out what to do next and how to breakdown recipes that I want to test and try.

See you next week!

Dani