Blue Cheese Broccoli Casserole

Dustin said if there are two words that turn him off to a dish, they are "broccoli" (or any other vegetable I'm sure) and "casserole," but let me tell ya, this is the way to eat your broccoli, or any other vegetable for that matter. I've always really enjoyed broccoli with cheese (with a low broccoli to cheese ratio, of course), and in the last couple of years, I've become obsessed with blue cheese. Naturally this recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything instantly jumped onto my "must-try" list.

Here's the green before we drench it with blue cheese.

This recipe is as simple as steaming the crowns from a head of broccoli in the microwave, making a simple creamy, blue cheese sauce, and crumbling Ritz crackers with melted butter on top. To make the sauce, melt 1 tablespoon of butter with crushed garlic, then add two tablespoons of flour before mixing in 1/2 cup of (low-fat) whipped cream cheese, a cup of (reduced fat) milk, and 1/2 cup of crumbled blue cheese, topped off with freshly ground pepper. You don't need any salt courtesy of the blue cheese. To make the cracker crumble for the top, I combined one sleeve of whole wheat Ritz crackers because that looked like plenty to me after I opened the package with only 4 tablespoons of melted butter. You gotta save the calories where you can, and I really don't feel like we missed out on anything.

Bake in the oven at 350° for 15 minutes with only half of the cracker crumble sprinkled on top covered then 10 minutes uncovered with the rest of the crumble added. Allow to cool before serving. This made 6, what I would consider to be, generous servings, so it's best made for a bigger family or when you have guests to dinner when you are only a family of two. Your waistline doesn't want you keeping leftovers in the house. It wants vegetables from a dry salad the next day.

You will definitely go back for seconds, a rarity for vegetables! A rarity for us at the very least!