I find myself wanting to explore making food that we’d normally buy at the grocery – sauces, breads, chips, sausages. And since I definitely need to sharpen my knives before I go slicing into beets and yuca for healthier chips, sausage seemed a likely candidate for an easy weeknight meal. I mean, who doesn’t want breakfast for dinner?

I really need to think things through better.

I tried using the meat grinder attachment for my standing mixer, but didn’t know that, aside from the swirly bit inside and the disc with large holes for the front, I also needed to use a metal piece that would actually cut up the ingredients. Oops.

Moving on to the food processor (which might actually be older than me!), I tossed all the sausage ingredients in, pulsed it a few times, and ended up with a reasonable approximation of a sausage mixture. Forming it into patties and then cooking it up in some medium-high grapeseed oil, I ended up with flavorful sausage, a pan full of tasty oil for cooking my egg and wilting my pea sprouts, and a seriously yummy dinner. (We’ll talk about my cornbread fail tomorrow.)

Next time, I’ll assemble the meat grinder correctly and see if I can’t make some proper sausages with casings and all!

Using two apples, a package of boneless skinless chicken thighs, a shallot, a small sprig of rosemary, and some sage from the garden, the sausage itself was even more delicious than the store-bought stuff – and with completely whole ingredients, no added sugar, and no preservatives…and way fewer calories (I clocked just 200 calories for three patties).

I have enough sausage mixture leftover after making five patties that I can probably make two more meals and have enough left to make cornbread sausage stuffing this weekend. And for just $20, this is a super healthy and frugal way to eat for the next four days.