Food Friday and a Bonus

This week for Food Friday, I bring you a recipe AND a special bonus.  It's because I love you.  You're the wind beneath my wings, really. 

First up, the recipe.  We tried a couple new blogworthy recipes this week, I'm gonna save the other for another post but this one was so good and so simple.  Not so much on the healthy and light part but oh well, you only live once might as well eat sausage. 

I originally saw this recipe on The Girl Who Ate Everything's blog .  I've told you about her before, she's the one who brought us CAKE BATTER BALLS so I trust her implicitly.  It looked simple and scrumptious and she said it was man pleasing and since 60% of my household is male those kind of statements are important to me. 

I modified the recipe a little bit based on what I had on hand and I think I like it better my way, I mean Italian sausage beats ground beef hands down any day of the week right?   Also, I always get bonus points with GI Joe if I use sausage instead of hamburger in anything ex:  chili, spaghetti sauce, you name it.  Given my recent track record of being a high maintenance wife I need all the bonus points I can get. 

Here's my modified recipe:
Zesty Italian Crescent Casserole
1 lb Italian sausage (ours was homegrown if you know what I'm sayin')
! T. (more or less to taste) dried onion or onion powder
1 c. spaghetti sauce (I used Prego Heart Smart Ricotta Parmesan)
1 1/2 c. shredded mozzarella, let's be honest I probably used closer to 2 cups
1/2 c. sour cream or cottage cheese (I happened to be out of sour cream which is what the recipe calls for so I improvised and used cottage cheese, it worked just fine)
1 can crescent rolls (pressed together)
1/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese
2 T. melted butter
sprinkle of Italian seasoning and/or garlic powder (optional but that's what I did)

Heat oven to 375°F. In large skillet, cook sausage and onion over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes or until thoroughly cooked, stirring frequently. Drain. Stir in sauce; cook until thoroughly heated. Meanwhile, in medium bowl, combine mozzarella cheese and sour cream; mix well.Pour hot beef mixture into ungreased 9 1/2 or 10-inch glass deep-dish pie pan or 11x7-inch (2-quart) glass baking dish. Spoon cheese mixture over beef mixture. Lay crescent rolls on top overlapping and pressing together until you've created a layer of crescent roll dough, it may not look pretty but that's ok it'll still taste good. In small bowl, mix Parmesan cheese and butter, italian seasoning and garlic powder. Spread evenly over dough.Bake at 375°F. for 18 to 25 minutes or until deep golden brown.

It was like a cross between a pizza and spaghetti and garlic bread.  In other words, it was awesome.  We loved it except for Ryder who didn't really even try it because he was too busy begging me to buy Hamburger Helper Chili Mac instead of making "this kind of gross stuff" all the time.  Excuse me, Hamburger Helper Chili Mac?  Oh you mean the nightmare of my childhood?  The reason I went to bed hungry so many nights as a kid because no matter how much my dad liked it I could NOT, would NOT eat that nasty stuff?  Barf.  Oh yeah Chili Mac is SO much better than this casserole...NOT.  He's out of his mind. 

Now for the added bonus.  My friend Sara posted a video on my facebook wall the other day with a note that said this is so perfect for you.  She knows me well, which is funny considering we've never actually met face to face. We're friends through the world of facebook and blogging and oh yeah, she's married to a boy I used to be in youth group with.  A boy who I had such a crush on when I was an 8th grader/freshman.  He was 4 years older,  cute, super smart, funny and had great pecs and abs.  Hey, I'm just keepin' it real here, I bet any girl that was in the youth group at that time remembers the same thing about him, after all we did spend hours noticing.  ;) Thank goodness our church didn't enforce the full shorts and tshirts over bathing suits rule when there was coed swimming, I don't know what we would've had to talk about if not for his physique.  While it wasn't meant to be for BM and I, he did marry a delighful girl.   A girl, who one of these days I'm going to meet face to face and we're going to eat copious amounts of Mi Ranchito's together while solving the world's problems.  (Well, maybe not now that I've made wildly inappropriate comments about her (now) husband on my blog..) But until then we'll continue to converse on facebook.  Here's the video that Sarah sent me and she was right it IS perfection.  ENJOY! 

PRETTY PINK TRACTOR

I love everything about this video and NEED that pink tractor in my life ASAP. Thanks Sarah and I promise I've moved past my crush on your husband. 


Happy Friday!