Italian Sausage & Three Cheese Tortellini

I tried a new recipe tonight. It was so good I decided I needed to share it. It's super quick and easy to make. I hope you enjoy it as much as my family did.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground Italian sausage
• 8 oz. cream cheese (I set this out for a couple of hours to soften. It makes it easier to melt.)
• 32 oz. chicken broth
• 2 cans Italian seasoned diced tomatoes
• 21 oz. Buitoni Tortellini

Directions

• In a large pot, brown sausage.
• Add chicken broth, diced tomatoes and cream cheese.
• Stir well until cheese is melted and bring to a boil.
• Add tortellini and bring back to a boil.
• Stir to insure all tortellini is covered.
• Boil for 7-8 minutes or until desired tenderness (stir frequently). 

Creamy Chicken Noodle Tomato Bisque Casserole

Please pardon my well used casserole dish.

I love playing around with food and trying out new combinations of some of my favorites. This recipe was born out of one of those experiments.  It's really simple and in my opinion very tasty.  It also received the seal of approval from my son, who is a very picky critic.

I'm following Weight Watchers and this dish has a little bit higher point count than I normally eat. But, I'm willing to use a few extra points now and then to have a creamy, cheesy, comfort food.

Ingredients:

• 1 - 12.5 oz. can of chicken breast meat, drained
• 1 - can of condensed Campbell's Tomato Bisque Soup
• 1/4 cup water
• 4 oz. of cream cheese
• 3 cups of egg noodles, cooked and drained
• 1/2 cup colby jack cheese, shredded 
• cyan pepper, to taste
• Morton's Nature's Season Seasoning Blend, to taste

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Cook and drain egg noodles.
• Drain chicken and place in a bowl, breaking it up with a fork.
• Season the chicken with cyan pepper and season salt to taste.
• Add the soup mix, water, chicken, and cream cheese to the noodles.
• Cook over medium high heat, stirring constantly, until cream cheese is completely melted and everything is blended.
• Pour mixture into a medium casserole dish and cover with shredded cheese.
• Place in preheated oven and cook about 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and starting to brown.

This will yield 4 generous size servings, 12 points per serving.  Pair this with some fresh steamed vegetables and this makes a great meal.  (If you steam those vegetables with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray and some season salt or Cajun seasoning, they will be 0 points.)  YUMMY! 

Chicken & Corn Chowder

This is another recipe I just threw together with ingredients I had on hand.  It turned out really yummy!  I plugged the ingredients into the recipe app on Fitness Pal and a one cup serving comes out to 219 calories and only 19 carbs.  I will definitely be making it again in the future.

Ingredients:

• 1 - 12 oz. Bag Frozen Sweet Corn
• 1 - 15 oz. Can Sweet White Corn
• 2 - 12.5 oz. Canned Chicken Breast, Drained
• 4 Cups Chicken Broth
• 1 Block Cream Cheese
• 1 Packet Taco Seasoning
• 1 Packet Dry Ranch Dip/Dressing Mix
• 1/2 tsp. Ground Red Pepper

Directions:

• Place all ingredients in crock pot on high.  Cook for at least 4 hours.  Stir occasionally to break up and blend cream cheese.

Pecan Cranberry Spread

This is so yummy!  I always double the recipe;

that's how good it is! 

Ingredients

• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 2 tablespoons frozen orange juice, thawed

Directions

• In small bowl mix together cheese, pecans, cranberries and orange juice.  Refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes to blend flavors.  Serve with crackers.