Cream Cheese Sausage Balls

Ingredients:

• 1 lb hot breakfast sausage, uncooked - good luck finding a MSG-Free version :(
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/4 cups Bisquick
• 4 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (feel free to be a little on the generous side)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
2. Mix all ingredients until well combined.- easier to use hand or stand mixer with dough hook attachment.
3. Roll into 1-inch balls and place onto lined (I used Reynolds non-stick aluminum foil - they slid right off!) baking sheet. 
4. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until brown.
5. Prepping for a party? These may be frozen if left uncooked. Just add a few minutes to the baking time.

Recipe courtesy of Plain Chicken

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Cocktail Meatballs or Little Smokies

This is a super easy appetizer to put out at a party that is delicious! I added the lemon juice to help cut the excessive sweetness of the grape jelly - its your call.

Ingredients:

• 1 bag frozen original meatballs or 2 packages of little smokies cocktail sausages (watch for MSG) or homemade meatballs if you are feeling adventurous!
• 2 bottles chili sauce
• 2 cups grape jelly
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Directions:

1. Bake meatballs as directed on package (normally 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees).
2. While those are baking, combine chili sauce, grape jelly & lemon juice in a pot. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. 
3. Add meatballs and continue to simmer for the next hour. 
4. Serve with toothpicks!

• Option: combine all into crockpot and let simmer on high for an hour. (FYI - I tried this on low overnight and it burned the sausages beyond recognition; hence why the pic is of round 2 -> meatballs)

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Breakfast Pizza

Ingredients:

• 1 (8-ounce) can reduced-fat refrigerated crescent dinner roll dough
• Cooking spray
• 12 ounces breakfast sausage
• 1 cup frozen shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (or use Original Mrs Dash)
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 3 eggs
• 2 tablespoons grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°.
2. Separate dough into triangles. Press triangles together to form a single round crust on a 12-inch pizza pan coated with cooking spray. Crimp edges of dough with fingers to form a rim.
3. Cook sausage in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until browned, stirring to crumble. Drain.
4. If you like your hash browns crunchier, cook in skillet until lightly browned. 
5. Top prepared dough with sausage, potatoes, and cheese. Combine milk, salt, pepper, and egg substitute, stirring with a whisk. Carefully pour milk mixture over sausage mixture. Sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes or until crust is browned.

(Adapted from Cooking Light)

Adventures with this Recipe:

     Word of advice: If you don't put this on a pizza pan or some other pan with a lip around the edge, make sure you place aluminum foil under the crust and form your own border. 

    I decided to make this on my air-bake cookie sheet (lined with foil for easy cleanup) because I don't have a pizza pan, only a pizza stone that I did not want egg/cheese baking/burning into it. So about 5 minutes before I was going to take it out, I checked on it only to discover that the egg had run not only out of the pizza and onto the pan, but also had dripped down into the bottom of the stove. NOT HAPPY. I knew that the egg was obviously runny, but I had expected that if it did in fact escape out of the pizza that it would probably just cook in place on the air-bake sheet. I was mistaken. What a mess. The upside: It still tasted delicious!

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