Tyler Florence Copy Cat meal

A couple years ago I was out to eat with my family and this was two kids ago so just my hubby, my older two kids and myself and we went to Applebees.  And I remember having this very yummy pasta dish by Tyler Florence with penne and sausage and peas I thought it was so cool they added to the pasta.  By the end of the night I had paid a little over $10.00 for the meal with salad and a drink.  Well tonight I wanted that meal again so I made it.  And it cost me less than 10 dollars.

I did make one change and I used whole wheat pasta instead of white pasta we like our white pasta but I thought this would a nice change we also fine whole wheat more filling than white pasta.  I also got a great deal on this and paid .09 a box!  I made extra of this for lunch tomorrow.  And I made a salad as well.

Cost break down

• Sausage 1 pkg 3.19
• pasta 1.5 boxes .14
• 2 jars pasta sauce @ .85 each =  1.70
• 1 bag of salad 1.12
• 2 roma tomatoes about .50
• 1 cucumber .30
• about 1 cup frozen peas .50

As you can see I got some stuff at prices you can't believe this was because of sales match ups and coupons.  Coupons alone about paid for my pasta.  Anyways all that made a dinner for 5 and lunch for the next day.

Now I feel weird writing a recipe but I still took pics of how I made it. It's simple though cook you meat till about halfway and then cut it up and put back in the pan with sauce and finish cooking it.  while that's cooking cook your pasta or make your salad.  about 3-4 before your sauce is done add your peas.  and then service it's that easy.  I feel like such a chump for paying what I did for that meal.  I like to eat things when I do out that are hard to make or I don't know how to make. Anyways here are the pics

I always start my sausages with water in the pan to start cooking them it saves them from getting to dark on me.  I fill the pan with water until about  halfway up the sides of the sausages.  I also add a little EVOO so it's there when the water cooks out and to help them brown up nicely

Even though I cooked them until about half done I let them rest before I cut them.

Then I cut them pretty as my hubby and kids say.

Added back to the sauce

Mmmm....peas

The peas do not take long at all to cook so add them at the end you want them to still have a bite to them.  Not mussy well unless you like them that way.

Salad honestly I can't make these big enough but I make it as big as my biggest bowl which isn't big. I can't wait to get new ones.

Are you a little bit of sauce person or a lot of sauce person this house hold is mixed on that.  So I always make the sauce on the side so we can all get the right amount for us this is my hubby's plate he likes lots of sauce.  I also make it on the side because of left overs. 

Well there you have it a dish you used to be able to pay about ten bucks for made for the grand total of $7.20. You really can't bet that.  And I didn't have to worry about keeping the kids quite. I hope you enjoy the meal it's really easy and a little bit will last awhile.  

Thanks for Reading 

Spirit