Betty Crocker loves her casseroles, but why aren't they healthier?

Betty Crocker loves her casseroles. But I learned this week as I flipped through that part of the cookbook that it's tough to find casseroles that are actually good for me. In fact, the casserole I chose for this week's recipe from that cookbook had 440 calories and 25 grams of fat (9g saturated) per 1 cup serving. Not ideal.

It's too late to turn back the clock on this recipe, as I've already made it, but I aim to look for healthier recipes going forward or to adapt the recipes in the cookbook to be healthier.

For my weekly Betty Crocker recipe, I chose the Santa Fe Chicken Tortellini Casserole. Find the recipe here.


The ingredients and recipe were simple: cheese tortellini, chicken, a white sauce, broccoli, red pepper and onion, and Monterey jack and Colby cheese. Sounds like a tasty, creamy treat, but it ended up being pretty bland. One reason may be because I forgot to put crushed tortilla chips on top. Black pepper helped.

Here's the process I followed ... and this time I largely succeeded in creating the dish as the cookbook outlined.

I started with a glass of 2009 Robert Mondavi Private Selection Cabernet Sauvignon. Yum.

 I cut up the veggies.

I mixed up a sauce of milk, chicken broth, some flour for thickening and cumin. I'm not good at sauces; this is something I need to work on for future recipes, easy and hard.

My dog served as assistant, waiting to clean up any scraps that might fall on the floor

Here are all the casserole ingredients mixed up before putting them into the casserole dish.

And the final product, sans the tortilla chips:

All in all, if I'm going to indulge in the future, it won't be on this dish without a few alterations, like changing out the sauce to alfredo, for example, or adding more spice. I'll save the calories for the Girl Scout cookies we had for dessert.