Lazy Dinner Paustages (Pasta and Vegan Sausages)

Sometimes a Lazy Dinner is just what you need.

The past few weeks have been incredibly busy for us. For two weeks straight, we had something on the calendar for every single night (and weekend days, too). Part of the busyness includes the classes Shana is taking, part of the busyness was due to the festivities surrounding the inauguration of Earlham's 18th President, and part of the busyness is that we like to see our friends. I loved all of our activities, but I also love that things have calmed down just a little, and we have the occasional evening with flexibility. Tonight was one of those nights.

We'd planned for easy meals all week (mostly), just because I knew that I wasn't going to want to spend a lot of energy on making dinners after all that we'd been doing. This dinner, paustages, was one we'd not had in a long time. It was quick and delicious; just perfect for hectic nights.

You may be wondering why we call this dinner paustages. Well, it's mostly because I love playing with words. While not a perfect example (we took some liberty with letter order), our made up dinner name is essentially a portmanteau, which is the combination of two words and their meanings. Common examples are things like smog (smoke + fog) or brunch (breakfast + lunch). Plus, paustages is just fun to say!

Maggie's Lazy Dinner Paustages (pasta & vegan sausage)
Ingredients
8 oz. whole wheat pasta (we like rotini)
2 Tofurky (or other brand) Italian sausages, cut on a diagonal
1, 15 oz. can plain tomato sauce
1/4 c. water
1 T. Italian seasoning
1 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper (more or less to taste)
pepper to taste
nutritional yeast (or other topping, such as a faux parmesan)

Directions
1. Cook the pasta according to package directions.
2. In a small pot, add all other ingredients and heat until boiling, stirring occasionally.
3. Drain pasta. Combine pasta and sauce mixture in a pan, then serve, sprinkled with a bit of nutritional yeast.

Helpful Hints

• These spices are pretty standard spices for an American kitchen. However, multiple other spices could be added, such as oregano, paprika, basil, etc. Use what you like or what you have on hand. 
• If you had some veggies laying around, such as a bell pepper, feel free to add those! 
• It can be hard to find gluten-free and/or soy-free faux meat products, but there's no need to use sausage. If you have another faux meat you like that fits your dietary needs, go for it. 

The post "Lazy Dinner Paustages (Pasta and Vegan Sausages)" first appeared on Maggie's Lesvegan Kitchen.