Lightened Up Hashbrown Casserole

I made this scrumptious potato casserole last week to go along with some BBQ ribs for dinner one night.  I changed up the recipe quite a bit but didn't sacrifice ANY of the flavor. We had my inlaws over for dinner and my MIL had seconds.

Ya, it's that good! 

This type of hashbrown casserole dish has been around for some time. If you haven't made it, you have probably eaten it at some time.   It's basically frozen potatoes, a can of condensed cream soup, cheese, sour cream, butter and cornflakes.  The original recipe called for 1/2 cup of butter mixed with crushed cornflakes for the topping, which I omitted completely.  I used 5 crushed up Ritz® crackers for the topping instead.  They were perfect and greatly reduced the fat and calorie count in this dish.  I used reduced fat sour cream and, because I didn't have any cream of mushroom soup, (as originally called for in the recipe) I used a can of cream of cheddar.  I totally replaced the processed cheese called for in the original recipe with a greatly reduced amount of reduced fat cheddar cheese and added some dried onion into the casserole for flavor (because when I have made this type of recipe in the past, that is what the recipes have always called for an I like the onion flavor with the potatoes).

The result was a winning potato casserole dish that comes in at 4 PP per 1/2 cup serving!

This is an excellent pot luck type dish that no one will know is reduced anything...and no one will miss that 1/2 cup of butter or all that extra cheese!!

Lightened Up Hashbrown Casserole 

adapted from Allrecipes

Printable Recipe

Servings - approx 16   Serving Size - approx 1/2 cup   Points Plus per serving - 4 Points Plus

Calories - 150,   Total Fat - 7.7g,   Carb. - 13.7g,   Protein - 6g,   Fiber - 1.4g

1-32 oz. package of frozen Southern-Style hashbrown potatoes

1 -10.75 oz. condensed cream of cheddar soup (NOT reduced fat)

16 oz. reduced fat sour cream

8 oz. reduced fat cheddar cheese, divided

1 TBS. dried onion

salt and pepper, as you like

5 Ritz® crackers, crushed (or other similar buttery type crackers)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a 13"x 9" casserole dish with cooking spray.  

2.  In large bowl, mix the soup, sour cream and the dried onion.  Measure out about a 1/4 cup of cheese and set aside.  Add the potatoes and the rest of the cheese to the soup/sour cream mixture and stir to combine.  Season with salt and pepper, as desired.  

3.  Pour potato mixture into prepared baking dish.  Top with the reserved 1/4 cup cheese and then the crushed crackers.  Bake in oven for about and hour or until the casserole is hot and bubbly all the way through.  (I did cover mine loosely with foil for about 45 minutes, then took the foil off for the last 15 to crisp up the cracker topping.) 

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Yum.  This turned out delicious and for so many less calories than the original.  I did make the serving size 1/2 cup, which I feel is perfect for a side dish, instead of the 1 cup serving size in the original recipe.  And yes, if you follow the link to the original recipe you will find my picture there, as this was another "faceless" AR recipe I gave a face to.  

Blogger is still having issues with photo uploads through my preferred browser, but I hear they are aware of the problem and working on it.  I did find a work around.  It just is a bit more work to download pictures.  

Also, Cinco de Mayo is this weekend!  Will you be celebrating with some Mexican dishes?  Here are a few of my picks to help make your celebration festive and diet friendly!!