How to Boil Water: Sausage & Broccoli Skillet

This meal was a tough one for me. Don't misunderstand me - this is a very simple meal to make but I really really didn't want to cook, plus I was feeling a weak and dizzy. Lack of sugar for the day maybe? But you know me - I cook regardless. Plus, Rob helped me and helped make this a little easier for me. But my question is how does everyone else cook seven days a week without getting burnt out and not wanting to cook anymore? I sure haven't figure it out yet. So for now, I keep cooking despite my extreme dislike to actually be cooking at that moment.

But today I chose something with meat. I don't get enough meat. I'm seriously missing protein from my diet so I'm trying to cook more. I don't have a moral thing against meat but I just don't eat much because I just don't care for it. I could very easily go vegetarian and be just fine. But for now I'm still trying meats. I'll let you know if I decide to change. I think I like turkey and chicken too much.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds sweet Italian pork sausage, casing removed
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can (10 1/2 ounces) Campbell's Condensed Cream of Broccoli Soup
1/2 cup milk
1 bag (about 16 ounces) frozen broccoli cuts
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
 4 cups corkscrew-shaped pasta (rotini), cooked and drained
Crushed red pepper (optional)

Directions:
Cook sausage in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until well browned, stirring frequently to break up meat.

Meanwhile, cook your pasta.

Reduce the heat to medium on the sausage. Stir in onion and garlic to skillet. Cook and stir until the onion is tender. Pour off fat.

Stir in the soup, milk, broccoli and 1/4 cup of the cheese into the skillet. Heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 5 minutes or until the broccoli is tender, stirring occasionally.

Put pasta in a large serving bowl. Pour sauce mixture over pasta. Toss to coat. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Serve with red pepper, if desired.

A few notes:
*This meat was actually super easy to cook. It always seems like I struggle with cooking meat but unlike chicken you can clearly tell when it is well cooked and when it mostly definitely is not. I just got a pound of Italian sausage from the grocery store. And here's where I caution you: this meal makes 6 servings - 6 generous servings. If there is only two of you, I strongly recommend cutting this recipe in half or even possibly a third. Let's just say that Rob will have plenty of leftovers for lunch this week.

*So we had a problem with the soup step. A few days ago I accidentally tried to use the Cream of Broccoli soup for another meal. When I realized my mistake I dumped it in another container for this meal. Well, when I went to open the container today it was all moldy. Lesson learned. So since everything was cooking we used Cream of Mushroom because it was either that or Cheddar Cheese soup. We didn't have a lot of choices. I have no idea if it changed the taste in the slightest because this was the first time I have ever cooked this meal, but it wasn't bad. It didn't make it taste horribly horribly bad or anything. But we learned something new I guess - don't do that!

It actually wasn't too bad (even though it looked like hamburger helper). I was definitely expecting worse. I did not have high hopes for this meal because it just seemed like too much meat for me. And it was just one taste. If it make this again I might cook something else with it. I did have some bread and butter with it just to break up the same taste thing. I was better than I expected. I'm sure it's even a little better with the right soup. Maybe?