Lighter Mac and Cheese, with buffalo sauce

My hubs loves buffalo chicken. He gets a buffalo chicken sandwich with cheese on it when we go to Beef O'Bradys. When I saw a recipe for buffalo chicken mac and cheese, I knew I had to try it! Of course, I had to make it low carb to meet his needs and lower fat to meet mine. I left the chicken out and had this mac and cheese as a side to a baked chicken breast dinner. You can also leave out the buffalo wing sauce, and this would make a yummy mac and cheese, but you will probably want to add more salt.

Lightened Buffalo Mac and Cheese
(Printable Recipe)

8 oz of elbow noodles (we used low carb)
1/3-1/2 cup buffalo wing sauce (I used Franks)
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp flour
1 cup milk (I used skim)
8 oz shredded cheddar (you could get creative and use any cheese you like, I used 2% sharp cheddar)

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Prepare an 8 x 8 casserole dish with cooking spray.
2. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add noodles and cook until just slightly underdone.
3. In a saucepan, melt 1 Tbsp butter. Add flour and cook for 1 minute (do not brown). Add milk and hot sauce (which you could leave out at this point and have a yummy cheese sauce). Stir until thickened (about 2 minutes). Add in cheese and mix until smooth. (I put some cheese to the side to melt on top).
4. Put macaroni into prepared baking dish. Top with cheese sauce and stir to combine. Add reserved cheese (if you decided to do this) to top. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

French Toast Casserole

Before you read any further, you must know that you will need to refrigerate the uncooked french toast overnight prior to baking, so plan ahead!
We had brunch this year for Easter instead of our usual dinner. Everyone brought along a dish, and I only had to make a few things. I wanted a pancake or french toast dish and found this recipe from Paula Deen on Foodnetwork.com. It is SUPER easy and it got RAVE reviews from the family! People went back for seconds and thirds of this item and left others untouched!

Baked French Toast Casserole
Courtesy of Paula Deen and Foodnetwork.com
(Printable Recipe)

1 loaf of french bread (I used Challah) sliced into 1 inch pieces
8 large eggs
2 cups half and half (I used fat free)
1 cup milk (I used skim)
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (I left this out for the hubby)
1/4 tsp ground nutment (I left this out as well)

1. Arrange 20 slices of bread (slightly overlapping) in a buttered 13x9 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, milk, granulated sugar, vanilla, and spices. Whisk well to combine. Pour mixture over bread slices, making sure each piece is evenly coated. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
3. The next day, preheat the oven to 350F. Bake uncovered for 40 minutes or until eggs are set and bread is golden.

Yum! So delicious!