Apple, Sausage and Walnut Pasta

My youngest son has had a major developmental spurt. It happened to coincide with a massive growth spurt so he has been more than a little frustrated in the last week. What has surprised me so much are the differences between my oldest and youngest son. My oldest was 18 months before he even tried to walk, he didn't start really talking until he was almost 4 and he has yet to lose any of his baby teeth (he's almost 7). As much as I try not to compare my two kids the differences between the two are noticeable. My youngest has a very large vocabulary. He is already writing words and can built things with Lego's almost as well as his older brother. I know a lot of it has to do with my oldest teaching my youngest how to do everything. Birth order definitely has an effect on how my two kids do and approach things. Since my youngest has been eating so much I have been making foods that I know he will love. This week I tried a new recipe for Apple, Sausage and Walnut Pasta from the January 2013 issue of Family Circle magazine.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. I takes 25 minutes of total time, 10 minutes of which is active and makes 6 serving. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. Since I eat gluten free I did make a few modifications. First I used gluten free penne. I bought chopped walnuts since they were on sale and cheaper than whole so I skipped the chopping step. My walnuts also toasted quicker, they only took approximately 3 minutes total. Since my local grocery store hasn't been great with having a large selection of meat, I used pre-cooked chicken sausage and diced it instead of chicken sausage in casings. I also added a whole package of sausage, 12 ounces instead of the 3 used in the recipe. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I was happy that this recipe worked well when converted to being gluten free. The substitution of pre-cooked chicken sausage was great and was popular with my two boys. The prep and cook time is very short, which is nice for a weekday meal. I didn't notice the apple much, so if you are a fan of apples I would suggest increasing the amount used.

For the recipe go to Apple, Sausage and Walnut Pasta. (registration required)