One Pot Chicken Apple Sausage Pasta

One pot pasta dishes have been a recent favorite around here. I don't have as much time to cook with a toddler getting into everything and an infant who likes to be held a lot during dinner time. This particular dinner doesn't have much prep time, cooked in less than a half hour and was enjoyed by the entire family (including the toddler and my parents.) There wasn't any left over but if there was I'm sure it would have been just as good the next day for lunch. Enjoy! 

ONE PAN CHICKEN APPLE SAUSAGE PASTA

Adapted from Inspired by Charm 

Ingredients: 

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 package chicken apple sausage, sliced (about 1lb)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 apple, chopped

2 cups chicken broth

1 (14.5 oz) can of diced tomatoes 

1/2 cup heavy cream

10 ounces penne pasta 

1 cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

sliced green onions for garnish 

salt and pepper to taste

Directions: 

1. In a large skilled cook the sausage on medium high heat, until brown. 
2. Add in garlic and apples, cook for another minute.  
3. Once apples and garlic are cooked, add in chicken broth, tomatoes, cream, pasta, salt and pepper. Stir and bring to a boil. Once it's at a boil, reduce heat to medium low. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes or until pasta is cooked. 
4. Once pasta is cooked, add the cheese. Stir to combine. 
5. Once cheese is melted remove from heat and add the green onions. 

Toffee and Pumpkin Spice Chip Cookies

The week before baby #2 was born, I spent most of my time during the day in the kitchen. It was the first week of fall and I wanted to make everything and anything pumpkin. I scoured Pinterest for hours and made a master list of everything I wanted to bake over the next few months. I also started experimenting with some new recipes using some of the new pumpkin ingredients I've found at the store. One of the new ingredients I've added this year is the Toll House pumpkin spice morsels, which I found at Target. For this recipe, I wanted pumpkin flavor without using canned pumpkin. I love canned pumpkin but using it in cookies tends to make them soft. I decided to pair the new pumpkin morsels (chips) with toffee bits after seeing a I love toffee and pumpkin together, but I didn't want to make a traditional pumpkin cookie because they can be too soft sometimes. These are soft on the inside with a perfect crunch on the outside. They have the perfect amount of pumpkin and spice.  Enjoy this tasty fall treat!

Ingredients

1 cup butter softened

1 ½ cup brown sugar

1 egg

2 ¼ cup flour 

2 teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon salt 

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon 

1 1/2 cups of toffee bits (found in baking section)
1 1/2 cups pumpkin spice baking chips 

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375. 
2. Mix together butter and sugar, beat until creamy. Add egg and continue to mix. 
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon. 
4. Slowly add flour mixture to butter mixture. Continue to mix until well blended. 
5. Stir in toffee bits and pumpkin spice chips.

6. Drop dough by tablespoons onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake about 9-11 minutes, until edges are set. I used a medium sized cookie scoop, which made just over 3 dozen cookies. 
7. Let cookies cool for 1 minute on baking sheets before removing to a cooling rack.