Italian Sausage Burgers with Spinach and Squash

This meal was a happy accident.  I had thawed some ground pork for dinner and had a few vegetables in the fridge that needed to be cooked: a spaghetti squash and some fresh spinach.  At the last minute, I decided to make the pork into Italian sausage patties. The rest is history.  It just turned out that these three components go perfectly together to create a delicious, cohesive meal that needs no other accompaniment.  I thought about adding some sort of sauce, but honestly, it was so yummy that it just didn't need it.  Parmesan cheese might go well and I plan to try that next time (We were out), but with or without, this combination will for sure be in our regular rotation of meals.  Delicious!


1 pound ground pork
2 tablespoons Italian sausage seasoning mix
1/2 spaghetti squash, cooked and shredded with a fork
1 bag fresh spinach
2 Tablespoons butter
salt
pepper
Parmesan cheese (optional)

1. Bake the spaghetti squash in the oven, remove the flesh and put away half of it for another meal.

2. Stir a little salt, pepper and butter into the rest and set aside.

3. While the squash is baking, mix about 2 tablespoons of Italian sausage seasoning mix into the ground              pork.

4. Shape into 4 patties.

5. Cook pork patties how ever you'd like: grill, broil, skillet, griddle.

I made a double batch and cooked them on my griddle. 

6. While patties are cooking, heat up a skillet and melt some butter.

7. Add the whole bag of fresh spinach and some salt and pepper.

8. Saute spinach till tender.  Add a little water for steam if the skillet gets too dry.

9. Once all the components of the dinner are cooked, just assemble the meal by placing a serving of                   squash on the plate. Top that with 1/4th of the spinach and top that with a pork patty.

Servings: 4

Notes:
If you have kids that don't like spinach, just make some green beans or something for them.  That's what we do for Claire.  Broccoli also goes great with the sausage and squash.   Most kids will love the sausage!