Sausage and peppers, what could be better?

I'll get to the sausage and peppers in a minute, in my round-about way, of course. So last night, my husband and I took a short bicycle ride to the park near us to see what's moving in for the weekend - this weekend is a biggie in our little village. Steam Show!! Hundreds of antique tractors and steam engines running all kinds of old and new farm equipment. A huge parade on Friday night that lasts a good hour and a half or so, fair food (yep), sights and sounds galore. Our grandsons, ages 2 1/2 and 1 1/2 are really going to make it wonderful for us this year - those boys LOVE tractors. And trucks. I'm sure I'll hear "Nana, yook at dat tractor" at least 5,000 times, and that's ok. And are they going to be in seventh heaven this weekend. So since there will be fair food, and since I'm trying really hard to NOT cheat on my Clean Eating Challenge lifestyle change, I had to find a way to crush my craving for sausage and peppers. I gotta say - it's one of my all-time favorites. I found clean chicken sausage in different flavors at one of our local Amish-style markets and bought a package of the apple-chardonnay flavored links and let me tell ya, I hit it out of the park. My husband and I devoured this dish! Simple, tons of veggies, clean buns from that whole-paycheck market (they were worth the splurge), a bit of clean Parmesan cheese grated on top, and supper was delicious! Here's a recipe that'll take you to the fair, the Steam show, a parade, or wherever you want to be this summer! Sausage and Peppers, Clean Eating Style: Serves 4 1 package clean chicken sausage - 5 links (no preservatives, no sugar added, no chemicals or added minerals - read label!) 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil 1 tsp butter 1 medium red onion, sliced or diced - however you want 1 green bell pepper, sliced or diced 2 Roma tomatoes, diced 2 tsp tomato paste (I never buy cans anymore - only tubes - they're clean and contain only tomatoes and you only use what you need) 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar dash each dried oregano, dried basil and dried rosemary salt and pepper to taste 1 Ezekiel bun per person, toasted in toaster or in skillet In a 12-inch skillet, sear chicken sausage on all sides then remove from pan and slice into buttons. Add olive ol and butter to skillet and when butter is melted, add onion and green pepper and cook until slightly softened. Add diced tomatoes and paste and cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring often. Add tomato paste, stir into veggies and then add red wine vinegar to deglaze pan. Add sausage buttons back in and cook until heated through, stirring often. Make sure when you're stirring you don't crush the onions and peppers - you want them to have some substance to them. Serve sausage and peppers on toasted buns, dusted with grated fresh Parmesan. This is a knife-and-fork sandwich - but you can certainly try to pick yours up if you're so inclined. I served these with some roasted redskin potatoes and iced tea and felt like my next move should be either the tilt-a-whirl or a big bag of kettle corn! I hope you're enjoying our Fivesisters65to78 blog! Please follow us by email, google+ and on Pinterest (wrightsisters).