Oktoberfest in My Mouth - Sauerkraut and Turkey Kielbasa One Pot or Crock Pot Meal

My honey spent about 1 year in Germany performing in West Side Story.  He found that he liked the Chinese food while he was there.  Ha ha.   Basically, if he wanted a salad that wasn't pickled, he had to get it at a Chinese or Italian restaurant while he was in Germany.

He does enjoy some German food and this is one that he inspired me to make as he likes all of the ingredients and is such an encouragement to my "experiments" in the kitchen.

This recipe can be made in a stock pot and cooked slowly for a few hours or it can be prepared in your crock pot. I prefer to make this on the stove top so the potatoes don't get too mushy.  If you do decide on the crockpot, I'd cook it on low only and for about 6 hours.

I also prepared this with plain sauerkraut (no caraway seeds) and turkey smoked sausage or kielbasa (whichever one is on sale).   I experimented with sweet potatoes for me in an effort to keep this lower carb. They were surprisingly good in this recipe.  They took on the flavor of the broth and sauerkraut and honey, who hates sweet potatoes, took a bit and said they WERE good!

Of course, I do not know how to cook small, so my ingredients probably made 6 - 8 portions.  But I love leftovers.  Dinner is made for tomorrow and possibly Wednesday's lunch.

One Pot Sauerkraut & Kielbasa (low fat & low carb options)

Regular potatoes option

Ingredients
2 cans of plain sauerkraut
1 large sweet potato chunked
3 medium potatoes chunked
1 medium sweet onion sliced
2 packages turkey or plain kielbasa (smoked sausage) chunked
1 tbsp better than bullion (chicken)
1 mug of warm water to dissolve the bullion a bit.
1 bottle of beer
1 tbsp EVOO

Drizzle the EVOO into the stock pot and add the onion and kielbasa.  Cook on medium heat for a few minutes to soften the onion slightly brown the kielbasa.

Add the potatoes, sauerkraut, beer, and bullion.

Place a lid on your pot and cook on low for a few hours (until the potatoes are firm but cooked) or on medium low for about 30-45 minutes.

Serve and Enjoy!

Low carb option with sweet potatoes

Sausage Casserole Recipe

Sausage Casserole Recipe

This recipe is another one of my mother's staples from our childhood.  I am not sure if this was a southern living recipe or something handed down.  My grandmother did not make this though, that I am aware of.  I note that it could be a southern living recipe only because my mother was obsessed with southern living cookbooks.  Sadly, I had to give a ton of her cookbooks away, but as I inherited her obsession with cookbooks, I am not limited to just southern living.  Wait... where was I going with that?? (My sister read this and let me know that it may have been our "Aunt" Bev's recipe.  Aunt Bev was our mom's Bff since we were littles.)

Anyway, we had this like every week or every other week... a lot!  My guess is because it was fairly inexpensive, easy to make, and pretty darn good.  

My version is made half and half.  Half for honey with mashed potatoes and half for me made with fauxtatoes.  I also use turkey sausage instead of mild sausage to save on fat content and I do like the taste of turkey sausage.  

Sausage Casserole Recipe:

Ingredients:

Jenni-O mild turkey breakfast sausage (entire package) or mild sausage of choice

Potatoes (4 - 5 servings)

Raw cauliflower (almost 2 cups)

EVOO 1 tbsp 

Half and half (I use Horizon organic) 3 tbsp or so

Salt (I use pink Himalayan) a few shakes

Black Pepper a few shakes

Canned sauerkraut (1 can) or 1/2 Jar (not Bavarian style)

Grated Parmesan (a few shakes)

Okay.. we all know that I'm horrible at remembering to measure.  My goal this year is to get better at that for my 20 readers.  =)

Cut up your potatoes into small pieces.  Place in a medium size pan and cover with water.  Shake a bit of salt on the water and boil until soft for mashing.

While your potatoes are boiling, steam your cauliflower and brown your sausage.

When your potatoes are done, drain them and add 1 tbsp of butter, about 2 tbsps half and half and a few shakes of salt and pepper and start mashing.

Now mash your cauliflower with about 1 tbsp of butter and maybe 1 tbsp of half and half.  Also add a little salt and pepper to taste

When the sausage is finished, drain any water or fat.  I hardly ever have to drain turkey sausage.

Now you are ready to assemble...

In your larger casserole dish, add your cooked sausage.  If you have minced onions, go ahead and sprinkle those on top of the sausage.  I didn't have any so I sprinkled Parmesan cheese.  

Next, add your sauerkraut.  I did drain mine by pushing the fork against the sauerkraut and draining the in the sink.  I pulled the sauerkraut out with the fork and spread it all over the sausage.

next, I added the mashed potatoes to one half of the casserole and the mashed cauliflower to the other half of the casserole.  This made a normal carb and a low carb dinner.  =)

Mashed potatoes on left

mashed cauliflower on right

Sprinkle a little more parm on top and then  bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.  

Yummy out of the oven

Normal carb mashed potatoes serving

Low carb mashed cauliflower serving

Delish!

Enjoy!

Please let me know if you make any of these recipes and how you liked them.  I'd love to hear from you.