We cannot see your ovens, but we can see what you open. These are the ten casserole recipes readers opened most on the site last October, which is the closest thing we have to what you actually made.
Number one was opened four times as often as number two. Anything baked in a dish counted, pasta bakes and bubble ups included, and the ten run from 1 to 8 WW Points per serving.
Swaps and toppings change the number, so check your app if you improvise. Enjoy!
1. Taco Fiesta Bubble Up Casserole
Nothing else on the site came close last October. Extra lean ground beef is simmered with taco seasoning and stirred into salsa, then layered with pieces of Pillsbury biscuit dough, diced peppers, red onion and reduced fat cheese. The biscuits bake up and bubble through the layers, so every forkful has some dough, some meat and some melted cheese. Green onion on top, and a spoon of fat free sour cream if you want it.
Six generous servings, 7 Points apiece, and the leftovers might be better the next day. Swap in ground chicken or turkey to lighten it, or add black beans to stretch it.
2. Buffalo Chicken Pasta Bake
A distant second, and still well ahead of everything below it. Cooked shredded chicken and pasta are folded into a sauce of light cream cheese, light ranch and half a cup of Frank’s hot sauce, then baked with reduced fat shredded cheese on top. Spicy, creamy, 40 minutes start to finish, six servings at 8 Points. The heat is yours to set, so turn down the spice with less Frank’s if you need to, and use Banza pasta to keep it gluten free.
3. Stove Top Stuffing Chicken Casserole
Six ingredients. Cubed cooked chicken on the bottom, frozen mixed vegetables over it, a sauce of cream of chicken soup, fat free sour cream and milk spooned on top, and a box of chicken Stove Top as the lid. Foil on, 25 minutes at 400, and a heaping cup is a serving.
Five Points for that cup, and it is the no-skill casserole on this list, which is probably why it keeps getting opened. Rotisserie chicken works. So does a muffin tin: bake it in a muffin tin and you get single portions you can freeze.
4. Weight Watchers Zucchini Casserole
Zucchini carries this one. Thin rings are layered with fat free feta and mozzarella and a mixture of egg, Greek yogurt and a little flour that sets as it bakes. Panko over the top turns golden.
Eight slices from a 9×13, it cuts clean, and a slice comes in at 1 Point.
Serve it beside chicken, or call it lunch with a piece of bread. Add leftover rotisserie chicken and you turn it into a chicken zucchini casserole that carries dinner on its own.
5. Weight Watchers Chicken Pot Pie Bubble Up
Pot pie without rolling a crust. Carrots, onion and broccoli cook down in a pan, a quick sauce of margarine, flour and milk gets a can of low fat cream of chicken soup and some broth, and the cubed chicken goes in. The filling bakes for 20 minutes on its own, then nine Pillsbury biscuits go on top for the last 12 until they are golden. The tube holds ten, so squeeze in the extra biscuit if you like and adjust the Points.
Nine servings at 4 Points, one biscuit each, and the leftovers taste even better the next day.
6. Chicken Parmesan Spaghetti Bake
Spaghetti night in a baking dish. Cooked spaghetti, shredded chicken and tomato sauce are mixed with reduced fat mozzarella, grated parmesan and Italian seasoning, then spread in a 9×13 under a layer of shredded parmesan. Foil on, 25 minutes at 350, six servings, and most of it is in the cupboard already. Count 7 Points for a sixth of the pan. Mix in cooked broccoli or zucchini for a vegetable, and a quinoa pasta trims the Points.
7. Sloppy Joe Casserole
The biscuits are the trick here. Extra lean ground beef and onion simmer with a can of Manwich, go into a 9 inch square dish under light mozzarella, and nine biscuits sit on top. Partway through baking they get a drizzle of melted margarine with garlic and oregano, so they come out tasting like garlic bread.
Nine servings in about 40 minutes, 5 Points for a ninth of the pan, and kids eat it, which may explain its place on this list. You can make the meat layer ahead and add the biscuits when you are ready to bake.
8. French Onion Chicken Pasta
The title does not say bake, but the recipe does: it finishes in a 9×13 under foil. Three cups of onion cook low and slow in a little oil and broth for about 20 minutes, then get mixed with pasta, diced chicken, onion soup mix, Dijon, balsamic vinegar and light Swiss cheese. Twenty minutes covered, then five uncovered with the rest of the Swiss on top.
Six servings of about seven ounces, 4 Points each. It does not freeze well, but it keeps in the fridge for a week, which makes it good lunch meal prep.
9. Weight Watchers Tortilla Quiche Bake
Breakfast made the list, and it is the smallest dish here: it serves two.
A low carb burrito tortilla goes into a pie plate as the crust, and the eggs, fat free cottage cheese and seasonings are whisked right in it. Peppers, onion, mushrooms and tomato go on top with fat free mozzarella, then 20 to 25 minutes at 350 until the center sets. If the tortilla tears while you whisk, mix the eggs separately and pour them in.
It looks like a breakfast pizza and cuts like one, at 3 Points for your half.
10. Chicken Fajita Pasta Bake
Fajita flavors over high fiber penne. Red and green pepper and onion are sautéed, then everything, shredded chicken, fajita seasoning, broth, salsa, fat free sour cream and most of the cheese, is mixed in one bowl and spread into a 9×13. The last of the cheese goes on top, 20 minutes in the oven, six servings, 5 Points a serving, and it holds up as a week of lunches. Short on time? Grab a bag of frozen peppers and onions instead of chopping fresh.
