Asparagus Gratin ****

Can I just say that I love Pinterest?  Yet another winner for us from there.  My 6-year-old loves asparagus, so when I saw this one, I knew I had to make it for him.  It doesn't hurt that I'm pretty crazy about it too.  ;)  It turned out great.  I stuck to the recipe pretty much, except that I had to use regular I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Light, since that's all I had on hand.  I also used a Colby/Jack blend for the same reason.  I used a little more cheese than it called for, so I added a little milk to thin it up a bit.  My asparagus spears were HUGE, and they still came out perfect.  Big winner for us!

ASPARAGUS GRATIN
(luckymommyto2boys ~ Amy ~ via Apron Appeal)

2 pounds thin asparagus
3 cups water
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated and divided
1/2 cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat broiler. Line broiler safe baking dish with paper towels or a lint free kitchen cloth. Snap the woody ends off the asparagus and set both stalks and ends aside.
Bring water to a boil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add asparagus ends and 1/4 teaspoon salt and cook covered, for 5 minutes. Using slotted spoon, remove asparagus ends and discard. Add asparagus stalks to skillet, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until nearly tender, 2-4 minutes. Transfer asparagus to paper/cloth-lined baking dish. Pour asparagus water into liquid measuring cup. If liquid does not read 1-cup mark, add water until it does.
Melt butter in now empty skillet over medium heat. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly until golden, about 1 minute. Whisk in reserved asparagus water and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until thickened, 3-5 minutes. Off heat, whisk in 1/2 cup Parmesan and Monterey jack until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes.
Remove paper towels from baking dish. Drizzle sauce over center of asparagus and top with remaining Parmesan. Broil until cheese is golden and asparagus is tender, 4-8 minutes. Serve.

Sausage and Corn Casserole ***

This was pretty good.  Nothing spectacular, but the kids and the hubby all liked it.  That makes me happy, lol.  I couldn't find my cream of chicken, so I used cream of mushroom.  I sprinkled shredded cheddar on top for the last 5 minutes of cooking.  She didn't give a size for the bag of hashbrowns, but mine were 26 oz.

SAUSAGE AND CORN CASSEROLE
(luckymommyto2boys ~ Amy ~ Chaotic with a Side of Delicious)

1 bag of frozen shredded hash browns, thawed
1 can creamed corn
1 can whole corn
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 pkg of polish sausage sliced into small round bite size pieces (I use turkey sausage)
8 oz. sour cream
cheddar cheese if desired

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Combine all ingredients in large 13x9 baking dish and bake for 1 hour. Cover if potatoes start to get brown before cooking time is up.

Low Fat Crockpot Apple Cake ****

Another Pinterest recipe, but this was delicious.  We all loved it.  The website lists it as being fat-free, but thanks to the addition of the eggs, it's not actually fat-free.  It's still pretty low fat, though.  We all loved it.  I used all white flour, since I had less whole wheat than I thought, and I think she must have used a smaller crockpot.  Mine only took a little over an hour in my big crock, so I think I'm going to double it next time.  Besides that, when it tastes that good, it tends not to last very long, lol.  I'll definitely be making this one a lot in the future!

LOW FAT CROCKPOT APPLE CAKE
(luckymommyto2boys ~ Amy ~ via FindingJoyInMyKitchen)

1 C flour (1/2 C wheat, 1/2 C white)
3/4 C brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
3 large apples, chopped
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp. vanilla

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
Peel and slice your apples (I diced mine fairly small), and then coat with the flour mixture.
Mix the eggs and vanilla in a small bowl.
Pour the egg mixture over the floured apples. Pour/spoon into a greased crockpot (Batter will be thick).
Cover, and cook on high for about 2 hours.
Cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Pumpkin and Cream Bread **

I found this one on Pinterest, and I made it because it was supposed to only be about 45 calories per slice.  Hubby loves pumpkin rolls, and since this was supposed to resemble one, I thought it was a good snack for him while he's dieting.  After making it, I read the reviews, and it's apparently closer to 100 calories per slice.  That's still a pretty decent calorie count for a snack, though. 
We really loved the flavor, but the bread never rose at all.  After reading all of the reviews, I saw that I should have just made it into one loaf instead of two and added some additional flour.  There's great potential here, but at this point, it needs so much work that it would probably be easier to just try a different recipe altogether.

PUMPKIN AND CREAM BREAD
(luckymommyto2boys ~ Amy ~ via SundayBaker)

Batter:
1-1/2 c. pureed pumpkin
1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
1 whole egg
3 egg whites
1 c. all-purpose flour
2/3 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. Stevia Cup For Cup sweetener
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground nutmeg

Cream filling
8 oz. reduced fat cream cheese
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1 T. all-purpose flour
2 egg whites
1 t. vanilla extract

1. For the Batter: With an electric mixer, beat the pumpkin, applesauce, egg, and egg whites on medium speed until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine the flours, Stevia, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Slowly mix the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture.
2. For the cream cheese filling: Beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, egg whites and flour until creamy and smooth.
3. Grease 2 8x4x2" loaf pans. Divide half of the batter between the two pans. Pour half of the filling in one pan and the other half in the second pan and smooth with the back of a spoon. Top with the remaining batter.
4. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Don't overbake or your bread will be dry on the edges. Cool and remove from pans. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

Yield: 2 loaves (14 slices each)

Skillet Meatball Goulash ***

I've been slacking on posting lately, but we've been so consumed with basketball and Cub Scouts since we came back from Christmas break. Our meals have mostly been quick, off-the-top-of-Amy's-head kind of things. Nothing post-worthy. I hope to be back into the swing of things over the next week, since bball is finally coming to a close. Whew!

Dh actually requested this one, which is pretty strange for him.  Normally, I'm pretty much left to my own devices when it comes to meal planning, so when dh makes a request, I almost always make it that same day, lol.  The chili sauce in this really makes all the difference, in my opinion.  That makes it a little more than the normal stroganoff-type dish.  I use turkey meatballs, fat free sour cream, and whole grain egg noodles, so it's a little bit healthier than the original recipe as written.  However, the whole grain noodles just don't soften as well as the regular.  When I use them, I make sure to add some extra water and let it simmer a bit longer.  I also like to have enough leftovers for lunches the next day, so I use the full 32-oz bag of meatballs, 8-oz of sour cream, and an extra 1/4 cup of water.  This is so unbelievably easy to throw together.  I love that the meatballs are cooked from frozen and that both the meatballs and the noodles are cooked in the same pan.  A girl's gotta love one-dirty-dish-meals!  The kids ate it up, and dh raved about it.  The house smelled wonderful.  So easy and such a comfort dish.  :)

SKILLET MEATBALL GOULASH
(luckymommyto2boys ~ Amy ~ Recipezaar)

½ cup chopped green bell pepper
1 medium onion, chopped
1 (12 ounce) jar beef gravy
1 (14 ounce) can beef broth
¾ cup water
2 tablespoons chili sauce
12-16 ounces frozen cooked Italian meatballs
8 ounces uncooked mini lasagna noodles (I prefer egg noodles)
½ cup light sour cream
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Spray 12-inch nonstick skillet with nonstick cooking spray; Heat over medium-high heat until hot.
Add bell pepper and onion; cook and stir 2-3 minutes or until crisp-tender.
Add gravy, broth, water, chili sauce and meatballs; mix well.
Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
Reduce heat to medium.
Cover; cook 5 minutes or until meatballs are thawed.
Add uncooked noodles; mix well.
Cover; cook about 10 minutes or until noodles are tender and meatballs are thoroughly heated, stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat.
Stir in sour cream until well blended.
Sprinkle with parsley.
* Amy’s notes: I use the full bag of turkey meatballs, fat free sour cream (8-oz), and 2 cups of beef broth.

Inside-Out Stuffed Cabbage ***

Big hit for our family!!!  It was actually the first time I've ever cooked with butternut squash, so that was a new experience for us as well.  We all loved it, though.  I made a few changes to make it work for us.  I used ground turkey, white rice (no brown on hand, but would have preferred that), and shredded coleslaw mix with carrots.  Will definitely do that again.  Hubby and I added a little hot sauce to our servings, since it just needed a little extra "something," so I'm thinking of either adding a little chili powder or cayenne pepper while it cooks next time.  It has the spicy hot V8, but you really can't get that flavor coming through at all.  So, so good, though!

INSIDE-OUT STUFFED CABBAGE
(luckymommyto2boys ~ Amy ~ Taste of Home)

2 pounds ground beef
3 cups cubed peeled butternut squash
1-1/2 medium green pepper, chopped
9 cups chopped cabbage
17 1/4 ounces spicy hot V8 juice
1-1/2 cup water
1-1/2 envelope beefy onion soup mix
1-1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
3/4 cup uncooked instant brown rice

In a Dutch oven, cook the beef, squash and green pepper over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the cabbage, juice, water, soup mix and brown sugar. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 8-10 minutes or until cabbage is tender, stirring occasionally.
Stir in rice. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat; cover and let stand for 5 minutes or until rice is tender. Yield: 6 servings.

Pepperoni Rolls ****

Let's just say that I've actually made this one twice in the same week. Does that tell you how much we loved it? ;) I only made one can the first time, and I pretty much stuck to the recipe exactly. I didn't have Mrs. Dash, so I melted some butter and added some garlic powder to it before brushing the rolls. I also added a pinch of shredded mozzarella to each roll. SO good! We then dipped them in spaghetti sauce. I made them again yesterday, and I halved the biscuits along a layer in the middle, getting two rolls from each biscuit. I then only needed to cook them for 15 minutes. It's a good thing for me to make them smaller, so that I can eat twice as many, lol. I also made a few with chopped ham. These I put in the fridge and nuked this morning for the kids' breakfast. Perfect! The only change I would make to doing it that way would be to use deli sliced ham, but I didn't have any on hand. I had some ham I needed to use up, so there you go. I'll be making this one lots in the future!

PEPPERONI ROLLS
(Rachel ~ 4*kowboys)

2 cans large flaky biscuits
1 lb. deli sliced pepperoni
Mrs. Dash Garlic Seasoning
Butter; melted

Roll biscuits out on table; add some flour so they don't stick to your rolling pin. Lay 3 slices pepperoni on flat biscuit. Fold in edges and roll up to form log. Baste with butter and add Mrs. Dash Garlic seasoning on top. Bake 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
*Amy's notes: I halved the biscuit layers and added a pinch of shredded mozzarella to each roll (only cooked for 15 minutes when halved). I also brushed with garlic butter instead of Mrs. Dash.