"Fake-Bake" Healthy Casserole

A few nights ago I decided I wanted to make some comfort food because of the cold, rainy weather, but I did not want it to ruin our diets. I thought a casserole would be easy, so I searched online for some different recipes. I found 3 that looked interesting and took bits and pieces from each one. It does take a little while to cut everything up, but shouldn't take more than 40 minutes or so to make this, especially by using the 90 second rice...

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

Next brown up ground turkey sausage (I already had sweet Italian sausage on hand so I used that).

While the ground sausage is cooking, chop up the following:

2 zucchini
2 peppers (I used red & orange)
1 squash
1 yellow onion
season with salt & pepper

(remove ground sausage from pan and place aside in baking dish - you can now use the same pan to saute your vegetables in in olive oil.)

While your vegetables are cooking you can prepare the sauce, in sauce pan add:

2 cups of low fat milk

3 tablespoons of flower

(whisk these together on medium heat until it begins to thicken, then reduce heat)

Stir in:

2 cups of frozen corn

1 1/2 cups of shredded pepper jack cheese

salt & pepper

(if this thickens up to much just add more milk)

Next take two bags of Uncle Ben's Whole Grain Brown Ready Rice and microwave.

Once your veggies are done add a splash of chicken broth to keep everything moist. Then add your veggies, rice, and sauce to the baking dish and mix in with your ground sausage. Cover and bake for 15 minutes. Then remove from oven and top with:

1 diced jalapeno

1/2 cup of low fat cream cheese (just dabble this on top and it will melt in)

Return to oven, uncovered, for another 15 minutes.

Hit with a dash of hot sauce. Serve. Enjoy.