Bubble Up pizza casserole

People have raved about this on the WW boards for years, tonight I'm finally trying it. Fat/Cal will vary based on how you prepare.

Basic Ingredients:
1 1/2 servings turkey pepperonis, cut into quarters - I am actually using 6oz of the diced ham cubes. Outta pepperoni.
One can of the smaller biscuits (10 biscuits per can)
15 oz can tomato sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp Italian seasoning
I also added 1/2 tsp minced onion
1 1/4 cups reduced fat cheese

You can put whatever you'd want in it, veggies, different meat (people on the boards seemed to like turkey italian sausage and ground beef as well). Some people also say it works well with the Pillsbury canned Italian loaf diced up.

Preheat oven to 350.
In a bowl place whatever meats you use, seasonings, and sauce. Add biscuits and stir gently until covered in sauce. Pour into a treated 9x13 pan.
Bake 25 minutes.
Top with cheese, and bake 10 minutes or until the biscuits are done. Allow to sit 5 minutes before serving.

Variation posted: Use leftover taco meat, refried beans, salsa instead of pizza sauce, low fat mexican cheese, chopped tomatoes, then shredded lettuce and a little sour cream once the whole pizza is cooked. yum!

Spaghetti Casserole

This is a weightwatchers friendly recipe I used last time I did WW back in 2005. My husband liked it a lot, so I'm breaking it out again this go around.

Ingredients:
8oz cooked whole wheat spaghetti
6 slices Kraft 2% singles
3 cups boca meat or about 1 lb ground turkey, cooked/crumbled
jar of favorite marinara (5 or 6 1/2c servings)
1 cup reduced fat 4 cheese italian
most of a pack of a turkey pepperoni "pillow pack"

Preheat oven to 350, cook spaghetti, pam a 9x13 pan.
layer starting on bottom:
spaghetti
american cheese
crumbled meat (boca or turkey)
pepperoni
sauce
shredded cheese

bake @ 350 for 30 minutes

apple sauce

Fall is upon us so its apple season :)

This is what I do for applesauce, thought I'd share since someone had asked me for the recipe recently anyways.

APPLESAUCE

3lbs of apples (granny smith or another cooking apple work best), peeled, cored, and sliced
1/2 cup water or cider
1/4 cup sugar (or to taste)
1/4 to 1/2 tsp of cinnamon (or to taste)
Nutmeg, allspice and cloves may be added to taste

Put everything in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Cover and cook until the apples are very soft, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer the apples to a bowl and mash with a fork or potato masher. Allow sauce to cool and place in a container with a tight fitting lid. Store in the fridge, can be kept up to a week.

bar cookies

Today I'm in a baking mood and since we're going on a walk in a park with a big group tomorrow I can bake a few things and not have to eat them all myself :)

First up are these strawberry cheesecake bars from Betty Crocker, I had some strawberries, cream cheese, and a sugar cookie mix to use up and so this recipe worked out perfectly. Didn't change anything about that, except instead of using "fruit spread" I made my own strawberry topping of sorts. I got the original recipe from a diabetic cooking site but I changed a lot so I'll just post what I did ;)

strawberry topping:

1 tsp corn starch
1/4 cup Orange Juice
1 cup Mashed OR Pureed Fresh Strawberries
couple of tsp of sugar
1 tbsp Orange Peel Slivers
1/4 tsp Coriander

I poured the orange juice into a sauce pan then sprinkled the corn starch over top and stirred to combine. Then added the remaining ingredients and stirred on the stove over medium heat. Let it come to a boil and simmered it for awhile until it thickened up. Then I let it cool pretty much completely. It made just about 3/4 cup of topping from my one standard package of berries (less a few my 2 year old berry thief stole). Smells a little orange-y from the juice/peel but that should still be good with the cheesecake. May help counteract the sweetness of the sugar cookie crust.

I texted my sister if she had any requests for tomorrow and she wanted me to make my oatmeal jam squares so here's the recipe for that too. Really easy and pretty good :) and since it involves oats you can pretend its good for you.

Oatmeal Jam Squares

2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 3/4 cups flour
1 cup melted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 jam (I like seedless raspberry for these)

Preheat oven to 375, treat a 9x13 with cooking spray.

Mix everything except the jam together in a bowl (I just use a spatula, don't need a mixer). Separate 2 cups of the mixture and press the rest into the pan.

Spread the jam over top so its as even as possible. If you have thick jam you may need to warm it a little in the microwave to make it spread better.

Sprinkle the rest of the oat mixture over top of the jam. Bake 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Cool completely, cut into bars.

birthday party recap

For Kathleen's birthday I made the cookie monster cupcakes without the cookie monster part ;) just the chocolate cake with oreos in bottom and filling. The filling was a pain the butt. Grinding up oreos I guess I fail at because I kept clogging my frosting tip I was using to shoot it into the cupcakes. Then I didn't make enough of the easy buttercream so I had to sub dark chocolate icing in a can for some of them. Worked out to my sister's advantage because she got to take some naked cupcakes and the remaining frosting back to Kalamazoo with her ;) I also think I put too much salt or vanilla or something in the frosting I made because they tasted a little "off" to me. The oreos on the bottom were a fun surprise for people ;) and overall they tasted good, just not OMG AMAZING like I was hoping for ;) I also was rushing to make those before I started filet mignon for dinner for my inlaws, so that could be part of my problem. I was SUPPOSED to have help from my husband that week but he traveled all week then worked up till right before his parents got there. But that's a rant for a different kind of blog ;)

Kathleen's 2nd Birthday

I am entertaining the idea of making cupcakes for Kathleen's 2nd birthday instead of buying a cake from Sweet & Savory (though their cakes are soooo good). Tricia sent me this cookie monster cupcake recipe awhile ago, I may have to try them. The only thing that concerns me is the blue frosting all over two 2 year olds (her and Joey) ;) so I'm going to still poke around and see what inspires me ;) I've seen cute monkey ones before where you use round pretzels for ears on the cupcakes... so who knows. Or the lure of the mousse filling in the sweet and savory cake may lure me into their bakery. That and they have bumpy cake cupcakes. If you're not from Michigan, this is a bumpy cake. Evil. Imagine a cupcake like that ;)

Banana Split Freeze

This is one of my husband's family recipes, they compiled recipes from his Dad's family back in the early 90s and made a spiral cookbook just for the family. I got his Grandma's copy after she passed. This was apparently his favorite dessert ever and he's been begging me to make it forever so I finally did. It's pretty good! Frozen bananas are an acquired taste but once you get over that its really good. Could see changing up the flavors of ice cream and chips and fruit and making different tasty things. I made it with reduced fat evaporated milk and reduced fat ice cream and it tasted fine.

Banana Split Freeze

1 cup crushed graham cracker crumbs
2-3 bananas sliced
1/2 gallon of ice cream, softened (I used vanilla, recipe called for marbled fudge)

13oz can evaporated milk
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine
2 cups powdered (confectioners) sugar
1 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla

whipped cream and nuts optional

Spray or butter a 9x13 pan. Spread crushed graham crackers over the bottom, line with banana slices then spread ice cream over top. Freeze. Combine the evaporated milk, butter, powdered sugar, and chocolate chips in a saucepan over medium heat until melted. Bring to a boil then remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour over top of the ice cream (it will all melt it and combine, I guess this is normal). (The original recipe called for covering it in whipped cream and nuts, I didn't.) Cover and stick it back in the freezer. Best made the night before so it can be totally frozen.