Beefy French Onion Potpie

• 1lb ground beef
• 1 small onion, diced (I was lazy so I used dried minced)
• 1 can french onion soup
• 4 slices of mozzarella cheese (or shredded)
• 1 can of refrigerator biscuits (reduced fat if you want, super fatty if you prefer, whatever)

1. Preheat over to 350-degrees.
2. Brown ground beef with diced onion.
3. Once browned, add soup and boil for 3-5 minutes.
4. Pour into 9x9 baking dish, pie dish, whatever.
5. Top with cheese and bake for 3-5 minutes, until it's melted.
6. Remove and top with biscuits.
7. Bake ~20 minutes.

Serves 6, 10pts + each.

Wild Rice & Shrimp Casserole

• 1 pkg wild rice mix, prepared
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1/2 container mushrooms, chopped
• 1 Tbsp franks
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste
• 1 cup fat-free half and half
• 1/2lb shrimp (frozen and cooked or raw - whichever)

1. preheat over to 350, grease baking dish
2. saute onion, green pepper and mushrooms in butter
3. once tender, add everything else and stir
4. transfer to baking dish
5. bake 30-45 minutes

We head to bake ours more like 45 minutes because I over did on my liquid a bit and our shrimp were frozen.  If it's soupy when the timer goes off, try again in another 5-7 minutes.  This didn't look very appetizing but it was delicious...even Bryker gobbled it up - vegetables and all!

Serves 4, 8pp each.

Hawaiian Meatloaf

Meat:
1 lb ground beef, 90%
1 egg
1/3 of a can of crushed pineapple (drain and save juice)
1/4 cup onion, chopped
2 Tbsp pineapple juice
2/3 cup panko crumbs (more or less)
1 tsp salt

Sauce:
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup ketchup

1. Preheat over to 350
2. Mix meat ingredients together
3. Combine sauce ingredients in sauce pan, cook until it's all mixed together
4. Pour sauce on meatloaf
5. Bake for 1 hour

6 servings...7 ww points+

4 servings...10.5 ww points+

Some thoughts for cutting points down - cut the brown sugar to 1/4 cup.  Use less panko crumbs...mine needed the 2/3 cup, but maybe my pineapple was too juicy.

Meatloaf pictures always look disgusting - but here's a picture of it anyway...it was - DELICIOUS.

Tomato Tortelline Soup - with chicken!

Another pinterest find we adjusted to our tastes and it was delicious!  Bryker declared it REALLY good and claimed he's "in love with it"...I'd take that as a compliment.

• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp olive oil (or butter or whatever)
• 1 pkg frozen cheese tortellini
• 2 cans condensed tomato soup (I did one healthy recipe and one regular)
• 2 cups chicken broth (I used 3-4 cups to make it a little less creamy)
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 pint half-and-half
• 1/2 cup tomato paste (plain, seasoned, sun-dried - whatever you like)
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 2 tsp italian seasoning
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup shredded parmesan
• 1 cup shredded chicken (or diced or none at all)

1. Saute garlic, don't burn
2. Add soup, milk, half-and-half, chicken stock and spices
3. Bring to a simmer
4. Drop in pasta and chicken
5. Simmer another 10-15 minutes, until pasta is done
6. Serve with shredded parmesan and garlic bread

(This picture is from someone else's blog - not my kitchen...but it looks so delicious!)

Pretzel Bites

We love soft pretzels and cheese so it made perfect sense that I at least try to make some on my own...turns out...it isn't that hard!  And it was a fun recipe for Bryker to help with!

I actually only did half of the recipe the time I made it...and while delicious they were salty.  So next time I will probably eliminate the salt from the dough and just do salt for topping.

• 4 tsp active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup + 1 tsp white sugar
• 1 1/4 cups warm water
• 5 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup baking soda
• 4 cups hot water
• 1/4 cup kosher salt, for topping

1. In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast and 1 tsp sugar in warm water, let stand about 10 minutes
2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, rest of the sugar and salt (as mentioned, I'd skip the salt here)
3. Make a well in the middle of the mixture and pour in the oil and yeast mixture - mix and form into dough
4. If dry, add a little water
5. Knead until smooth, about 7-8 minutes
6. Lightly oil a large bowl (I'm going to do melted butter next time), place dough in bowl and turn to coat
7. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour
8. Preheat oven to 450-degrees
9. Dissolve baking soda into hot water in a large bowl
10. When risen, turn dough out onto floured surface and divide into ropes, cut into bite sizes
11. Dip each piece into soda water mixture
12. Place on greased baking sheet, sprinkle with kosher salt
13. Bake for 8-10 minutes
14. Serve with nacho cheese!

(This picture is from all recipes, not my kitchen...)