Grillin' Goodness

Another busy week over and yet another ahead of us. I can't believe I've posted on here in almost a week. I'm sorry that happened.

Last week I had two conference calls for my budding (let's hope) new business and plenty of work for my full-time job as well. Plus Friday night, I was camping with friends before a race on Saturday morning.

Last week we had several rice dishes... and knowing me, I wouldn't surprised if we also have several this week! I love rice.

Last week's meals included Taco Rice (basically the same as Mexi-Rice + some already browned taco meat), a rice & lentil pilaf with smoked sausage and today we had one of my favorite pasta salads - Grilled Sausage Pasta Salad. This is a dish that I found in a magazine while waiting to get into the optometrist. I didn't have any paper to write down the recipe, I think it's rude to tear something out of a magazine that isn't mine, so I ended up taking a photo of the dressing part of the recipe and just tried to memorize the rest of it. It turned out great so I plan to make it several times.

Grilled Sausage Pasta Salad

1 lb (16 oz) Gluten-free pasta
1 pkg of sweet apple chicken sausages (I used al Fresco)
1 medium zucchini, cut in half length-wise
1/2 sweet onion, cut into two large wedges
1 red bell pepper

Dressing:

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tbsp agave nectar
1 tbsp mustard of your choice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt

Fill a large pot with water and bring to boil on the stove. Warm up your grill at the same time. While waiting for the water to boil, mix all the dressing ingredients together in a small bowl or jar. Cover the mixture and refrigerate.

Add pasta to water when it comes to a rolling boil. Cook pasta according to package.

While the pasta cooks, spray each of the vegetables with cooking spray and place on grill over medium heat. Also put sausages on the grill. Turn sausages and pepper as needed to cook each side evenly. When the sausages and veggies are slightly blackened all around, remove from grill and allow to cool.

Rinse al dente pasta with cool water and place in a large bowl. Once the sausages and veggies are cool enough to slice - dice the onions, slice the sausages and zucchini. Remove the seeds from the red pepper and dice it as well. Add everything to the large bowl. Toss with the dressing prepared earlier.

Serves 4 as a main dish or about 6 as a side dish.