Homemade Turkey Sausage

My husband loves sausage, but I'm not thrilled about serving him store bought sausage for several reasons--1). We are trying not to eat much pork 2). There are nitrates in the sausage 3). It is very low quality, high fat meat and just not good for you at all. Thus, he never gets sausage at home :)

Well, I decided to try my hand at making my own sausage with ground turkey. After all, sausage is just made by adding spices, right? I must say, I was quite skeptical about the recipe I tried, but turns out, it was great! I was so surprised how much it tasted like normal breakfast sausage! I made only half of the recipe and used 1 lb of ground turkey instead. Also, I added about 1/2 teaspoon of fennel seed (chopped). Give this easy recipe a try if you like sausage but don't want to eat it for health reasons. Let me know if you like it!! I am going to form the remainder of my meat into patties and freeze it for another morning! Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons dried sage
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 pinch ground cloves
• 2 pounds ground pork

Directions

1. In a small, bowl, combine the sage, salt, ground black pepper, marjoram, brown sugar, crushed red pepper and cloves. Mix well.
2. Place the pork in a large bowl and add the mixed spices to it. Mix well with your hands and form into patties.
3. Saute the patties in a large skillet over medium high heat for 5 minutes per side, or until internal pork temperature reaches 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).