The oldest casserole on this list went up in November 2014. I have been adding to the pile every year since, and a lot has changed along the way.
These are not this month’s picks. They are the sixteen I come back to every fall, when the temperatures start to drop and the leaves change. Bubble ups, pasta bakes, potato bakes, two for the morning. All but one feed a family from a 9×13 dish, and most of them freeze.
They run from 2 to 8 WW Points per serving. Swaps and toppings change the number, so check your app if you improvise.
I’m always adding more, and they all land in the casserole collection. Enjoy!
1. Taco Fiesta Bubble Up Casserole
I built the first bubble ups on the little 7.5 ounce biscuit tubes I used to cross the border to buy, four to a bundle at Walmart. This was the one that took off, and it is still one of my most popular recipes.
Extra lean ground beef cooked with taco seasoning and mixed into salsa. Two cups of diced peppers, a cup of red onion, a reduced fat three cheese blend, and the biscuit pieces, layered twice over, with green onion on top. Thirty five minutes under foil at 350, fifteen without, then a five minute rest before you cut it into six, at 7 Points a serving.
Readers have done a lot with it over the years: ground turkey instead of beef, black beans stirred in, even no biscuits at all. It freezes before or after baking. And if your dough ever comes out doughy in the middle, prebake the dough pieces for five minutes before you layer.
2. Chicken Enchilada Bubble Up
Avocado and cilantro go on after it comes out of the oven, and that is what makes this one. Underneath is shredded chicken tossed with enchilada sauce, a diced red pepper, a diced tomato, and chili powder, layered with biscuit pieces and a three cheese blend over a thin smear of sauce in the bottom of the dish. It is a favourite of the bubble ups. Six servings at 5 Points each, up to a week in the fridge if the avocado waits until serving, and there are two ways to freeze it, whole or by the portion.
3. Loaded Mashed Potato Bake
January 2015, and a side dish, the only one here. Seven russet potatoes, mashed with light margarine, a splash of 1% milk, light cream cheese, light ranch dressing, and half a cup of light shredded cheese. The rest of the cheese goes on top with four slices of crumbled center cut bacon and green onion, and it bakes just long enough to melt.
Eight servings, 5 Points apiece. You could halve it if you are cooking for two, but who does not want leftover mashed potatoes?
4. Chicken Chili Bubble Up
This one does not make the prettiest pictures, and it does not matter. Ground chicken is cooked with green and red pepper, red onion, corn, and garlic, then simmered with a big can of diced tomatoes, tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, and oregano. The biscuit pieces get stirred straight into the chili before it goes in the dish, so every one of them soaks it up. Cheese for the last fifteen minutes. Six servings of about ten ounces, 5 Points each, a week in the fridge or three months in the freezer, and if you would rather have protein than dough, try Banza pasta instead of the biscuits.
5. Chicken Lasagna Roll Ups
Eight rolls, and a roll is a serving. It is portioned before it goes in the oven, and at 3 Points a roll it is one of the lightest here.
Cooked lasagna noodles get a spread of shredded chicken mixed into light tomato pasta sauce and a sprinkle of parmesan, then they are rolled and lined up in the dish. More sauce over the top, light mozzarella, the rest of the parmesan, bread crumbs, parsley, 25 minutes at 350. Seven ingredients. My favourite swap is light Alfredo in place of the tomato sauce for a chicken Alfredo version.
6. Buffalo Chicken and Potato Casserole
November 2014. This is the oldest recipe on the list, 6 Points a serving, and it is the one that takes its time.
The potatoes go in first: cubed, tossed in olive oil, pepper, paprika, garlic, and a third of a cup of Frank’s hot sauce, then roasted for an hour and turned every ten minutes. The cubed chicken breast sits in whatever sauce is left while that happens. Then it all comes together for twenty minutes more under light cheese, bacon crumble, and green onion.
Six servings, and one warning: it does not freeze well, so eat it within the week. Not a hot sauce house? Make the BBQ chicken version with G. Hughes sauce.
7. Sloppy Joe Bubble Up
A sloppy joe you eat with a fork, which is the better way to feed one to a kid, because nothing falls out. A pound and a half of ground chicken, browned with garlic and red onion, then simmered in reduced fat pasta sauce, reduced sugar ketchup, Worcestershire, a tablespoon of brown sugar, mustard, chili powder, and Italian seasoning. Biscuit pieces stirred in, mozzarella for the last twelve minutes, six servings at 5 Points, three months in the freezer. The sauce from scratch is the point, but canned Sloppy Joe sauce in a pinch will do.
8. Chicken Bacon Alfredo Pasta Bake
Bite a piece of the penne while it boils. If there is a tiny white dot in the center, it is ready, because it finishes cooking in the oven. That is the one tip that matters here.
The rest is layers: whole wheat penne, cubed roasted chicken breast, steamed broccoli, and two strips of crumbled bacon under a sauce of cream of chicken soup and skim milk, with low fat cheddar on top. Twenty minutes under foil at 375, ten without, five to rest. Six servings of about a cup and a half, 5 Points each, rotisserie chicken welcome, and smoked ham chips if you want to skip the bacon.
9. White Chicken Chili Bubble Up
This one started on a taco night. I was making my white chicken chili tacos and it hit me that the filling wanted to be a bubble up.
A quick sauce of light butter, flour, milk, fat free sour cream, and chicken broth, spiced with jalapeno, cumin, and chili powder, goes into shredded chicken breast, corn, and white kidney beans. The bottom layer of biscuit pieces is pre-baked for five minutes first because the filling is heavy. Forty minutes under foil, then mozzarella until it melts. Six servings, 5 Points a serving, and it keeps a week or freezes. You can leave the beans out and add another cup of chicken.
10. Chicken Caesar Bubble Up
A piece of site history. The very first casserole recipe on this blog was a chicken caesar pasta bake, and this 2017 bubble up is the same idea on biscuit dough. Shredded chicken, fat free caesar dressing, green pepper, red onion, reduced fat mozzarella, parmesan, and bacon crumble, spooned over the biscuit pieces, with crushed croutons on top for the crunch. Forty minutes at 350, six servings of about six ounces, 6 Points a serving. It might just be my favourite bubble up, but I say that every time I make a new one.
11. Chicken and Broccoli Casserole
The oven runs at 450 before it runs at 350. Halved mini potatoes roast first with garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, and a pinch of cayenne, and while they do you make a cheese sauce on the stove from light butter, garlic, flour, 1% milk, a three cheese blend, and parmesan.
Cooked chicken and three cups of broccoli go into the sauce, then the potatoes, then thirty minutes more in the dish.
It is the heartiest dinner here, the one for a cold Sunday. It comes in at 7 Points a serving, and it freezes well. For a crunchy top, add a Ritz cracker crust with Italian seasoning mixed in.
12. Chicken Bacon Ranch Bubble Up
One ranch dip packet does the seasoning. It goes into shredded chicken with 1% milk, fat free sour cream, and half the light mozzarella, and that gets spooned over biscuit pieces in the bottom of the dish. The rest of the cheese, five slices of crumbled center cut bacon, and green onion go on top, and it bakes 40 to 45 minutes until the biscuits are golden. Six servings, 6 Points each. This is the one I bake in aluminum pans to freeze for later, and if you keep a spice drawer you can make your own ranch seasoning mix instead of buying the packet.
13. Taco Potato Casserole
Confession: this one lives in the slow cooker. It is also 2 Points for a cup, the lowest here, which is why it stays. Browned ground chicken, sliced mini potatoes, peppers, onion, and garlic go in with low fat cream of chicken soup, a taco seasoning packet, chicken broth, and reduced fat cheese, then it cooks on high for four to five hours or low for seven to eight. Eight one cup servings, and it freezes for up to six months.
Want the oven on anyway? You can bake it in the oven instead, about an hour at 400. Add a small can of green chilies. It is so good.
14. Bubble Up Lasagna
I made this one again a while back to get new photos, and the old photos are still there because I could not bring myself to delete them. They remind me of when we first started the blog.
The recipe is lasagna without noodles. Extra lean ground beef mixed with red onion, light pasta sauce, and Italian herbs, half of it in the dish first. A layer of light ricotta beaten with egg whites and a little pesto. The biscuit pieces. The rest of the meat, then fat free cottage cheese and parmesan. Twenty five minutes at 375, mozzarella for ten more, six servings at 8 Points, the top of the range here, and it freezes well.
15. Pillsbury Breakfast Casserole
May 2015, and the first of the two breakfasts. Biscuit pieces cover the bottom of the dish, and five eggs, three egg whites, a cup of milk, diced ham, diced peppers, red onion, and light cheese get poured over them. Twenty minutes uncovered, 25 under foil, the last of the cheese for five more. Six servings at 6 Points, five days in the fridge, a minute in the microwave, which makes it a meal prep breakfast. Turkey sausage works in place of the ham, and if the oven is already full you can make it in a crockpot on low.
16. Cinnamon French Toast Bubble Up
One hundred and twenty pieces of dough in a bag of cinnamon sugar. That is the whole prep. They go in the dish, five eggs whisked with milk, vanilla, and more cinnamon go over them, and 35 minutes later you pour on a quick icing of icing sugar, milk, and vanilla while it is still warm.
Twelve servings at 4 Points each, so it is the one for a full table on a slow weekend morning. It is best the day it is baked. It never lasts long at my house, so that has not been a problem.
