Sausage & Cheese Muffins

This recipe is an amped up version of the old stand by: sausage-cheese balls.  It’s enhanced by the addition of some flavor in the soup and onion powder as well as the richness of the buttermilk. I know, I know – there’s canned SOUP in the recipe!  But, every now and then, it’s OK right? These are actually quite tasty and worth the splurge in my opinion.

Ingredients:

1 lb. hot ground pork sausage (or 1 package pre-cooked turkey sausage crumbles)
1 tsp onion powder
3 cups all-purpose baking mix (I used the Heart Smart version with no trans fat)
1 (10.75 oz) can condensed fiesta nacho cheese soup (I used Campbell’s)
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
3/4 cup buttermilk (you can use low-fat here – same results)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Cook sausage (if not using pre-cooked) and onion powder in a large skillet over medium to med-high heat, stirring until it crumbles and no longer pink. Drain and cool. Combine sausage, baking mix, and shredded cheese in a large bowl.
2. Make a well in the center of the mixture. Stir together the soup and buttermilk; add to sausage mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.
3. Spoon until lightly greased mini muffin tins, filling to tops of cups. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until lightly browned.
4. Can easily be made in advance and frozen. Can enjoy warm right out of the oven or at room temp. Makes roughly 3 dozen mini-muffins.

Categories: Appetizers, Breakfast, Sides & Salads Tags: buttermilk, cheddar, sausage