Sausage Egg Roll in a Bowl

Image from Buns In My Oven

I am trying yet again to lose those unwanted pounds that crept on over the holiday season. In winter I am just not as active and there are countless get togethers in the fall - Halloween, Holiday parties, the feast on Christmas Day and smorgasbord of delectables always available at New Year's Eve celebrations. It was time to move the scale number down a bit.

Diets really do not work in the long run, so I try to make small changes, less bread and cheese in particular. No eating after 8 p.m. is another. If I need a snack, I eat my Hummus with raw veggies stead of crackers or tortilla chips. I try to move more each day.

And I downloaded the app I used before into my new phone - LoseIt!  You decide a goal weight and how fast you want to get there. It sets a daily caloric limit (too low, but for a reason). Then you enter the food you eat. It scans barcodes to help make it easy and I input recipes or food combos I eat more often into the memory. You can access the app online to make adding specific foods easier.

The reason the daily caloric allowance is low is that calories are added to this amount every time your input any daily exercise. What you do can be a simple as walking, dancing, calisthenics or even house cleaning. Just input what you did and the total minutes you did it for. Voila - you instantly know how much more you get to eat that day as it ups the calorie count immediately.  I love how it brings home how many calories the food you eat actually has (Chia seeds was a total shocker) and how much more you can eat if you're active. It's an eye opener.

There are so many amazing recipes that get shared on Facebook.  I keep trying to keep track of them but they get buried on my newsfeed. Last night I was determined and dug around until I unearthed one that had caught my eye - Sausage Egg Roll In A Bowl  from a blog site called Buns In My Oven. You can click the link to go to view the original recipe and watch the video.

I had several heavier meals over the last couple of nights, so this lighter carbless meal was the perfect choice and well worth the time it took me to re-find it.  Here are my comments -

               1. Fabulous flavour. Both my husband and I loved it. I'll definitely make it again.
                   And yes, it needs the full 4 cloves of garlic and tablespoon of ginger root!
               2. The recipe says serves 4. Not really. Not as a one bowl meal - especially for
                    bigger eaters. I had to add 1 cup of rice to my husband's and he still ate 2 pieces
                    of toast with it to fill up.
               3. As I wasn't dividing 4 ways, 1 pound of sausage was too much. I changed it
                   to 340 grams (1/4 pound per person, the same serving size of meat.) I kept all
                   other amounts the same.  If you  are going to serve 4 you definitely need  the
                   full pound of sausage.
               4. I used turkey sausage to bring the calories and fat down a little.

Note - I now have a new version with a bit healthier ingredients, made from scratch, but more labor intensive, called Turkey Egg Roll in a Bowl With Spicy Mayo. Check it out!

This recipe was very quick to make, especially since I used bagged coleslaw mix, and full of flavour. I definitely encourage you to give it a try. I did have a few leftovers as only 2 of us dined last night and can't wait to finish it off at lunch today.

= = = =

Sausage Egg Roll In a Bowl 

Ingredients - 

340 G                    Turkey breakfast sausage (or your preference), casings removed
4 cloves                 Garlic, minced
1 T                         Fresh Ginger Root, Minced or grated
1 bag                     Coleslaw mix (454 G - about 6 cups)
1 T                         Soy Sauce (I used low sodium)
1/4 C                     Green Onions, sliced or chopped
1 T                        Sesame Oil

Directions - 

Using a large, nonstick skillet, saute the sausage breaking it into small pieces as it cooks.  Remove from heat and wipe the excess fat from the pan with a paper towel, leaving a little to saute the rest of the ingredients in. (Note original recipe says to leave all fat in the pan as carbless meals need to be higher fat. I preferred to take most out and it still had a great flavour.)

Add the garlic and ginger root and saute for a few minutes. Add the cabbage and continue cooking stirring frequently until it has softened, adding soy sauce for the last couple minutes of cooking.

Remove from heat. Sprinkle on green onions and sesame oil and toss until fully combined. Separate into large individual bowls and serve.

Note - For me this was 3 servings max. My guys eat bigger portions, so this recipe would have served 2 with 1 cup rice added to each.  For my size serving, the recipe would serve 3 with no rice added. If you use the full pound of sausage that helps serve more, but I still think you'd need to up the cabbage to 8 cups (and perhaps the other ingredients) if you are feeding 4. Just my personal opinion. It all depends on who you are feeding.