Smoked Sausage Rolls

Hillshire Farms Smoked Sausage (or any of them, I just used this because I got a bunch recently on sale)

6 Slices Cheese (I used Velveeta brand)

Pepperidge Farms Puff Pastry 

Melted Garlic Butter

Prep:

Set oven to 400

Slice sausage down the center, then cut 5 time to give you a total of 12 sausage chunks

Lay out puff pastry onto floured surface, roll out (very thin).  You will need 12 strips of dough, approximately 5"x 3".  

Slice cheese down the center

Wrap cheese around sausage, then wrap dough around sausage.  Make sure to close ends or the cheese will melt out and burn.  If your dough is a bit hard and won't stick to itself, just wet your fingers, then press the dough.  Also, make sure that when you finish rolling, you lay the roll on the pan with the extra flap of dough facing down.  Otherwise, when it bakes, it will puff up and separate from the roll.  Place the rolls on a sprayed cookie pan and brush with melted garlic butter.  Bake for 20 minutes or until crust is golden.  

Obviously, there are many options with this recipe.  There are a couple of things that could make this much easier and less time consuming.  

~First being using cresent roll dough.  You don't have to worry about flouring and rolling out dough.  I get that.  But my beef with that is you don't get full coverage with this kind of sausage, and I think puff pastry is considerably fuller and more flaky.  But if you like the cresent rolls, by all means, please use them.

~Second, you can use the smoked sausage franks.  

I don't because of price.  I don't find these on sale ever, so I just ignore the fact that they exist.  Plus, they don't scream healthy to me and if I could make these one at a time, I would without a doubt eat them much more often!  Anyway, if you notice this one has bacon and cheddar.  So in that respect, you may actually be able to save a bit by not using sliced cheese.  I personally like a good amount of cheese, but if you want to cut back a bit on the amount, here's a great option for you.  Also, if you use these with the cresent rolls, you don't have to worry about as much cheese burn when the roll doesn't fully enclose the sausage.

And in my opinion, the best option of all is selection!  There is such an enormous variety of sausage and cheese out there that you can make these spicy, by throwing in some pepperjack cheese, or really hot by using hot links (great for sports parties).  You have a variety of meat choices as well.  I used Turkey in my latest one because, well, that's what was on sale.  And for the most part, smoked sausage taste like smoked sausage.  Sorry to diss on turkey bacon, but it's terrible, but when it comes to smoked sausage, you don't lose that great juicy flavor.   They also have chicken and beef so experiment a bit!  I seriously don't think your family will notice a difference.  

If you or your family is like my husband and you aren't a fan of hot dogs or sausage, look at what your family does like and use it.  I've got an idea for maybe some roast beef and provalone or shredded chicken with taco seasoning in the future.  Is it as easy as making chicken tacos or a roast beef sandwich? No, obviously not.  But it does offer some variety.  Being on a very strict budget means eating at home much more often than not, and having a large variety of food makes up a bit for not being able to go out to dinner on a whim.  

Some other ideas for filling:

Tuna Fish Casserole (without the noodles or crackers)

White Chicken Chili (Check out recipe in another post)

Barbecue Chicken/Beef/Pork <<I love barbecue pizza so this sounds wonderful

Ham and Cheese

Steak-ums and Cheese

Hotdogs

Pizza Filling

Taco Meat