Jen B's Sausage Bread

We ended up not having dinner last night. The boy started throwing up after his nap, and to be quite honest having to clean that up made me lose my appetite. Plus my stomach felt kind of off too. I made some mac and cheese for the husband, then I had a piece of toast before bed. Good thing I didn't eat more because I woke up in the middle of the night throwing up as well. I think we may have gotten food poisoning from lunch yesterday. The school district near us is offering free lunches for kids over the summer, so we went yesterday, and I think maybe that's how we got sick. I don't know for sure though.

Anyway...I was doing a freezer inventory recently and saw some frozen bread dough hanging out in the back corner of my garage freezer, so I wanted to put it to use. I also found a package of sweet Italian chicken sausage that was in there as well. I remembered seeing this recipe on Jen B's blog and thought it would be a perfect way to use up these two freezer items.

Jen's Sausage Bread

1 loaf of thawed frozen bread dough
1 Tablespoon of olive oil
1 small onion, sliced thinly (or 1/2 of a large onion)
1 green pepper, sliced into strips
3 cloves of fresh minced garlic
1 package of either regular or Italian sausage (mild or hot)
1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning (if using regular sausage)
1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes (can omit if too spicy or if using hot sausage)
salt and pepper to taste
cooking spray
egg wash (1 egg beaten and a teaspoon of water)

Directions:
1) Thaw bread dough according to package directions and set aside.
2) In a separate skillet, brown the sausage and remove from skillet. Let drain and set aside to cool on a cookie sheet (spread out in even layer for faster cooling).
3) In the same skillet, saute green peppers and onions until soft and onions are translucent. Add Italian seasoning and salt and pepper to mixture. Add minced garlic and saute until just slightly brown (do not burn).
4) Add cooked veggies to same cookie sheet and spread out evenly to cool.
5) While sausage and veggies are cooling, roll out dough into a large round OR a rectangle shape (it does not have to be precise).
6) Place filling of sausage and veggies in center. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes. Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella cheese and Parmesan.
7) Fold bread dough around filling and press seams together gently. (I like to roll mine like a burrito or fold it like an envelope).
8) Spay cookie sheet with cooking spray (I use the same one that the filling mixture was on). Place Sausage Bread seam side down on cookie sheet and brush top and sides of loaf with egg wash, evenly coating.
9) Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes (or whatever bread dough package recommends for cook time and oven temp).
10) Let cool for about 10-15 minutes, then slice and enjoy!

*****

The husband and I are going to eat dinner after the boy goes to bed. Originally I was going to make this last night, but I forgot to get the bread dough out to defrost, which ended up working out since I wasn't in the mood for dinner anyway. I think the boy would like this, but maybe there will be some left that he can try. Plus I've been really careful about what he eats today and sausage probably isn't good for his tummy. Of course I was sick, too, and I'm still going to eat it, which I guess doesn't really make sense.

I'm not sure if we have salad fixings in the fridge, but if we do I'll probably make up a salad to go with this.

Oh, and GO RED WINGS!!!!!!!!