Sometimes you just have to call it a “Whatever We Have Wednesday” and make dinner from the odds and ends in your fridge. Follow along with me as I improvise a cheesy Cajun-inspired one-pot pasta!
You will need (approximately)
2 C of short pasta
1-2 bell peppers, sliced
12 oz of smoked sausage or kielbasa
1.5 C shredded cheese of choice
14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
8 oz of sliced mushrooms
4 oz of cream cheese
minced garlic
2 C chicken stock
Cajun seasoning to taste
Slice and sauté the sausage and set aside. Cook mushrooms, bell peppers, and onions, when softened add garlic and cook until fragrant. Add meat back in along with chicken broth, tomatoes, and pasta. boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 12 minutes, stirring occasionally. When the pasta is cooked, stir in cream cheese and top with grated cheese.
29 Comments
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If find if I’ve made a dish too saucy / wet, then, when I go to have the dish cook out, I just won’t put the lid on and that’ll help reduce the sauce by evaporating out the water. Tada !! — now it’s reduced & thicker sauce that’s extra flavorful!!
A little bit of tomato paste can also melt into a wetter sauce — just make sure to make a little space in the pan where the tomato sauce iniriallly sits so it can be cooked through and then blend into the rest of the sauce to help make a deeper flavor and slightly thicker sauce.
And of course, a traditional roux or a cornflour slurry can easily thicken a too thin sauce!
Girl, that looks so freaking good. 😍
Looks good
Mmmmm…. gonna try this next week.
I bake like I do my laundry.I throw everything together and I hope for the best
Just in time for my fridge clean out this week. TY.
I keep a bag of diced onions and a bag of chopped peppers in my freezer . They stay fresh forever and they're ready to go when i need them
Looks great! I prefer saucy pasta. Not enough sauce makes for a dry dish. Thanks! ❤
Looks yummy ❤
A couple of weeks agooo???
You're hired 😅
That's realistic cooking, to me at least. Using up all the odds and ends and chucking them in one pot.
I just made jambalaya tonight because I found a pack of andouille that had been in the fridge for a few weeks. Turned out amazing! This looks so so good. ❤
What made it Cajun?
Awful lot of cheese .
This turned out to be such a great dish using up leftovers! Thank you for the idea!
Yum,that looks scrumptious! Diffently will have to give this 1 a try. 😋😋😋
Making this Saturday night!
You gotta love leftovers for work, always taste better the day after.
Thank you for sharing, love and total respect to you, from the UK 🇬🇧
I have done the thing where I didn’t have enough pasta before and I just cooked some more separately in a pot of salty water and added it after the fact, and it really wasn’t that much of a difference.
If you ever have it on stock, switch the pasta to the Hot Cheetos mac and cheese with the cajun stuff (anything except the orange box) and OMG, it's amazing!
I just have to say your videos brighten my day. ❤
This is a great inspiration for a tasty "use it up" meal. I love going to the fridge and making something out of odds and ends! Sometimes, watching a video like yours motivates me to do more. Tfs🙏💖
Well balanced, nutritious and tasty
Growing up whenever we mixed random stuff we had on hand into pasta, we called it "stuff in a pot." If it was rice "rice surprise #(insert random number here)" We would often request these for dinner!
I love making ‘use what you have’ meals.
Looking yummy
Is Cajun seasoning really popular in the USA?
Finish dinner looks fabulous. Please make some chicken rice soup.