Turkey Sausage and potato gratin

Heavily adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients

• 1ish lb turkey Italian sausage links, casings removed
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 large carrots, diced
• 1 1/2 pounds red potatoes, sweet potatoes or a mix of the two, large diced
• 1 small parsnip, diced (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth 
• Cooking spray
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme

Preparation

1. 1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. 2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add sausage to pan, and sauté for 5 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Remove sausage from pan; drain. Wipe pan with paper towels. Melt butter in pan. Add onion, carrots and parsnips, if using; sauté about 5 min. Add potatoes, sauté until slightly browned.
3. 3. Stir in sausage and broth. Remove from heat. Spoon potato mixture into an 11 x 7-inch glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray; top with thyme. Cover and bake at 400° for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 15 minutes or until golden.

Notes from Jill's Kitchen: I swapped out the mushrooms for carrots (obviously [shudder!]), but I should be even more adventurous and try some other veggie next time. Or even several other veggies!. I also used beef broth instead of chicken because that is what I happened to have in my fridge and I don't think it made a lick of difference. Next time I need to remember to just sauté everything in an oven-proof skillet and use the same pan to bake it. Fewer dishes to do = happy Jill. 

Update 7/14: BAD IDEA. There is a reason the recipe doesn't tell you to sauté it all in a skillet and throw that in an oven and the reason is because it doesn't work. Oh well, trial and error, right? Just don't do it. Unless you like unevenly cooked potatoes and lots of excess liquid. If that's your thing, then go for it. If not, just suck it up, put it in a casserole dish and let Sam do the extra dishes. 

Update 4/16: I have long wondered how this would taste with sweet potatoes, but wasn't sure the flavors would work together. Well, tonight I had a half a sweet potato left over in the fridge and I figured, "why not?!" I added it to the regular potatoes and carrots and it actually worked out really well! Next time I am going to try swapping out even more of the regular potatoes for sweet potatoes!