Leftover Sausage Barley Skillet

I'm doing so great this week using up leftover ingredients! I had some leftover sausage in the freezer from a breakfast about 2 weeks ago, and about half a package of hot smoked sausage leftover from making shrimp & grits last week (which were AMAZING by the way), so I hunted down this recipe to use up both kinds of sausage. I decided to add some fresh okra to up the veggie content, I didn't add all the barley because it just seemed like too much, and I didn't have Madeira wine so I substituted Chardonnay. I cooked the onions longer than the rest of the veggies (with a few spices) to get a good base flavor and leave the rest nice and crunchy. And as usual, I rinsed both types of sausage after cooking them to lower the fat content.

It came out SO yummy! The hubby absolutely loved it; I was really surprised because he's not a huge veggie eater and I was apprehensive as to how he'd feel about the barley. Turns out, he went back for seconds and even heaped some extra "oats" (as he called them) on top! So we've got a winner.

We served it with some fresh basil from my herb garden- so tasty!

Even though I'm trying not to eat sweets, I had a full carton of fresh figs in the fridge that were quickly passing their peak. So I tried to come up with several recipes that could incorporate them for the week. Last night we cheated and I made Emeril's Upside Down Fig Cake! I knew I couldn't make a whole cake or one night of cheating would turn into a whole week on a sugar high. So I did some research and found you can easily freeze cake batter in zip-lock bags for up to 6 months! Who knew?? So I made the whole recipe of cake batter, but only enough figs for 2 servings. I cut down the sugar in the batter by about 1/4 and it still came out delicious. I put it together in a 10 oz stoneware crock, which we split. I hated the idea of heating up the whole oven for this personal-sized cake, so I baked it in the toaster oven and saved energy! It came out just as nice as ever! So I was feeling pretty good about how my meal came together. Sorry no pictures of the cake, but I just loved the idea of making the 10 oz size. No leftover cake = no guilt about wasting food! I froze the batter in 2 quart-sized bags and hope to get 2 more 10 oz cakes out of them. Maybe next time I'll try peaches or apricots on the bottom.

Tonight we're set to have a grilled chicken and fig dinner with roasted veggies, and in the morning I'll finish up the figs in some green smoothies. Here's to hoping I can finish this week without many leftovers in the fridge!