Chicken Sausage and Butternut Squash "Risotto"

The joy of running a workout facility as part of my daily tasks is that we get a lot of magazines for our gym, and I'm always up on Hollywood gossip, health and fitness articles, and Time magazine.

Fitness Magazine, last month, ran a recipe for Pumpkin and Chicken Sausage "Risotto."  While we don't necessarily do "healthy" around our house, I'm always up for trying a really good new recipe, especially if it looks filling and relatively cheap.

Luckily, the local Fresh and Easy keeps butternut squash in already cubed packages.  I bought 2, 16oz packs because I love extra veg.  Same amount of oil and sage, though, as I mixed it up all together in the bowl.

I couldn't find a "dried sage," but I did get a powdered sage in the spice aisle.  I figure it's still sage, and I still used a heaping amount, as called for in the recipe.  It's mostly for fragrance, right?  I don't know that sage is really great for anything, other than keeping the harmful spirits away.

I piled everything onto a raised edge cookie sheet (lined with foil since I hate cleaning).  I bought two of the apple chicken sausage packages (5 pre-cooked sausages a piece), sliced them into chunks, and loaded them on the bottom and on top of my squash.

Then, we roasted at 375 for 15 minutes.

As the squash and chicken roasted, I started my three cups of broth, 1/4 cup white wine, and 3 cups of quinoa to simmer.  I'm sure I could have used farro, like the recipe called for, but quinoa was at Costco last month, so we'll have enough to last us through January.

I flipped everything in the pan after 15 minutes, and roasted for another 15.  I didn't separate it or anything, just turned it the once and then added in some chopped, flat leaf parsley.  Super simple, no worries.

Once the quinoa had absorbed the liquid (about 15 minutes or so), I mixed in one 5 oz pkg of Parmesano Reggiano cheese shards. This really congealed everything, so I added a bit more white wine so it wasn't so...pasty like.

I put the rest of my flat leaf parsley in here.  I probably only used a third of a cup total, but I split it between my roasted items and the quinoa.  I did this because I skipped the last part of the recipe where it says to mix the grains, veg, and meat together. 

I kept them separate because I liked the look.  They are definitely amazing served together, though, so definitely make them both for the same meal!

Sorry I didn't clean the plate pre-photo.  I was more interested in eating than picturing!!