Hearty Squash & Sausage Casserole

If you love yellow squash, you may want to try this!  I came up with this concoction during one of my "raid the fridge and pantry for some kind of miracle dinner solution" moments.  There's been a time or two, not many, that the aforementioned moments resulted in not-so-great results, but this one's a keeper for me.  I really like it.  I chose to go with lower carb options when it came to a few things, and I'll point those out and offer up what I would have done instead, which, I admit, would taste EVEN better....

I started out by cooking fresh squash, using what I had on hand, which was 9 medium ones...

with a single packet of Lipton Recipe Secrets Onion Soup & Dip mix, salt and pepper, and 1/2 cup of water.  Normally, I would have diced up a medium onion and used it instead of the mix, but... I didn't have one.  I need to go grocery shopping, but... I'm not in the mood.  I stirred it all up, covered it, then let it cook on medium heat until the squash was tender.

I then took two cups of browned Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage and mixed it with...

a can of drained Ro-tel Fire Roasted diced tomatoes.  I was so thrilled when I first discovered the fire roasted variety, I love fire roasted everything!!!  I'll never use regular Ro-tel tomatoes again!!

After the squash was cooked to my liking, I drained it well in a colander and then gently pressed the top with some folded paper towels to absorb a bit more of the moisture.  Don't want a soggy casserole...… :)  

Here we go, now it's looking better all the time.  I add the meat mixture to the squash, right back into the pan I cooked the squash in, and this is off the burner, no cooking with any of these additions.

Time to add more stuff!!

I'm going strictly with whatever I have on hand here, so this is one packet of Velveeta cheese sauce and a handful of grated Mexican Blend cheese. Into the pan it goes!  I stirred it up and then here's one of those lower carb options I mentioned earlier.  I cut up a 4 carb Mission Carb Balance tortilla into very small pieces and mixed it in, to help absorb some of the moisture and give the casserole body without losing the flavor in all those moist ingredients.  What I WOULD have done were it not for the carb avoidance issue, is crushed about 8 Ritz crackers, or even better, a big handful of Cheese-its, and stirred that in.  That's my go-to mix-in for many things!

Almost ready for the oven... topped with more cheese. Of course. 

I sprayed that baking dish with butter flavored non-stick cooking spray before loading it up with my soon-to-be dinner.

Carb avoiding tactic # 2:  I diced up another one of those low carb tortillas and mixed it with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and smoky sweet paprika, just to add a wee bit of color and set that aside.  I baked the casserole at 350 degrees, center rack, with just the cheese on top for 20 minutes, then removed it from the oven, sprinkled the flavored tortilla bits over the top, and returned it to the oven for another 8 or so minutes. What I WOULD have done instead is spread a canister (yes, the whole thing!) of  French's Fried Onions all over the top.  They brown quickly, it only takes a few minutes for them to crisp up and brown a little, so watch closely if you choose to use them instead of the tortilla bits.  And it's also much prettier when it comes out of the oven... and tastier... and carb-ier.  

But I'm plenty happy and actually only miss those darn fried onions just a little. This was still a tasty, satisfying meal.  I served it up with a good mixed salad. 

I did have some fully cooked smoked sausage on hand, which I was originally planning to slice into coins, brown, and then use instead of the Jimmy Dean, but I talked myself out of it. Maybe next time I'll try that, or some other kind of meat. Or no meat. IDK!!!

As it is here, this dish, considered 4 servings at my place, has 15.5 net carbs per serving.