Mama's Best Breakfast Casserole

• 8 slices of bread (cubed)
• 1 ½ lb sausage – fried and cubed
• 2 c. milk
• 1 c. thick cream (can be sour)
• 5 eggs
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• 1 ½ c. grated sharp cheese

Butter bottom of casserole; place bread crumbs in casserole – add cooked sausage.  Beat well milk and eggs together; pour over bread and sausage.  Sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Maple Sausage Crescents

• 16 oz Jimmy Dean Maple Sausage
• 8 oz cream cheese softened (I use light)
• 2 cans crescent rolls (I use reduced fat)

Cook and crumble sausage. Drain off grease, but do not rinse. Mix sausage and cream cheese together.

Separate rolls into triangles. Cut each triangle in half lengthwise (so you have 2 extra skinny triangles from each single triangle). Scoop a heaping tablespoon of the sausage/cream cheese mix onto each roll and roll it up.

Bake at 375 for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

These things are a little too good. Husband now craves them as a breakfast treat, but it makes too many for just me and him, so I make him wait for a special occasion. We never tried them will full fat ingredients or with anything other than maple sausage. If I were you, I wouldn't bother with variations either. These things really are perfect just like I made them the first time. Really.

**Almost completely stolen from Plain Chicken. Only the maple and reduce fat/light options have been changed.**

Fruit and Oat Cookies

Ingredients:
 - 3 super-ripe bananas
 - 1 c. unsweetened applesauce
 - 1.5 c. old fashioned oats
 - 1/2 tsp cinnamon
 - 1/3 c. Craisins

Preheat oven to 350. 

Mush the bananas up good and mix them in with the applesauce.  Dump in the oats and cinnamon and mix well. Then add in the Craisins and mix until the dough looks relatively even. 

Drop the dough onto a cookie sheet in large spoonfuls. (I made fairly large cookies--the dough divided into 12 individual cookies.)  Bake for 35 minutes.

I really liked these and so did my mama.  Tastes like  a bowl of fruit oatmeal, but you don't need a bowl.  Husband doesn't like bananas much, so these were a "no go" for him. I'm looking for a replacement mushy fruit to make him some healthy cookies, too (it won't work with just the applesauce... in fact, that was pretty nasty.)  At only about 1 WW points per cookie, these are great on-the-go breakfast treats. 

Variations:

1. Chocolate Chip Pecan. Instead of cinnamon and craisins, try adding 1/3 c. of mini chocolate chips and 1/3 c. of pecans. Boosts the WW points to 2 per cookie, but totally tastes like real dessert!
2. Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip. 2 bananas mashed up, ~1/3 c. peanut-butter (made with PB2). Mix well. Add 2/3 c. unsweetened applesauce and 1 tsp vanilla. Mix well. Add 1 1/2 c. oats, 1/4 c. nuts, and 1/4 c. mini chocolate chips. Mix well and let dough rest for 10 minutes. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. BEST VERSION SO FAR. 2 P+ per cookie. Taste best while still warm.

Pancakes Supreme

- 2 c. Bisquick mix

- 1 c. milk

- 2 eggs

- 2 TBS sugar

- 2 tsp baking powder

- 1 tsp vanilla

Stir ingredients until blended.  Pour slightly less than 1/4 cupsfuls onto hot greased griddle.  Cook until edges are dry.  Flip.  Cook until golden.

I've tried making this recipe healthier.  Skim milk doesn't seem to hurt the pancakes, but egg whites seem to make the batter a little too runny.

Recipe can also be found on the back of the Bisquick box.