30 Minute One Pot Cajun Pasta Budget Dinner

This recipe is a true 30 minute meal, like I’m talking from the moment you walk into the kitchen until you are serving plates 30 minutes! It’s also a true one pot meal, where everything cooks in one pot, however if you are making it exactly like me you’ll also need to use a chopping board and a knife. If you want to avoid using those then swap the fresh onions and peppers for frozen and use a different protein such as canned chicken or beans.

A common problem I see with one pot budget dinners are they either don’t really require one pot, they take longer than advertised or they aren’t actually budget friendly. So today let’s make an actual one pot meal that is delicious (I have 6 kids and feed 4-6 adults and this one never fails me!)

To be in and out of the kitchen as quickly as possible pretend you’re on an episode of chopped! As soon as you enter the kitchen the timer has started, rush to gather those ingredients. Preheat the pan while you’re chopping the sausage and veggies to save time. This is your families dinner and they’re not really going to care about uniform slices 😎. Even though it’s not fun now if you go ahead and wash the chopping board, knife and give the counters a quick wipe it’ll save you time later. Future you is already saying thank you.

Never for get that Jesus loves y’all and I love y’all too!

One Pot Cajun Pasta

Difficulty: Easy

Servings

8

servings

Prep time

5

minutes

Cooking time

25

minutes

Total time

30

minutes

Ingredients

• 14oz smoked sausage

• 1 Onion

• 1 Bell pepper

• 16 oz Pasta

• 4 cups broth

• 1 cup milk

• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Directions

• preheat pan while you chop smoked sausage, onion, and bell pepper
• add a little oil to pan and saute smoked sausage and vegetables
• once they’re nicely browned add seasoning and let cook a couple minutes longer
• add broth, milk, and pasta then bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and cover stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes or until the pasta has absorbed most of the liquid.
• turn the heat off and let the pasta rest with the lid on for 5 minutes then add the parmesan cheese and let rest an additional 5 minutes. Enjoy!

Notes

• You may swap the vegetables for any that you have on hand or prefer.
• I have made this recipe with coconut milk I reduced the amount of broth by about 3/4 cup and added the full can
• if you add the cheese prior to the resting period it will indeed get stringy.