Cheesy Mushroom Bread Pudding

The first time I made bread pudding was probably more than a year ago on Valentine's Day. Because my then-boyfriend was out of work and still trying to put himself through school, my gift to him was a dinner in, lovingly purchased and cooked by yours truly.

I can't remember what I made for dinner that night so it probably wasn't that memorable. But I do remember searching F-O-R-E-V-E-R for a dessert that neither made a giant dish of highly caloric or something with costly ingredients. And by the way he hated chocolate.

I'm still convinced he claimed to hate chocolate just to be difficult. I just can't believe there are people who won't eat chocolate. It's not real.

Anyhow. I finally found a lower-cal dessert with absolutely no chocolate. A cinnamon bread pudding with caramel sauce. It was perfect. Simple, delicious, and was molded into it's own muffin cup for portion control.

I haven't made another bread pudding until now. Instead of a sweet one, I opted to use the leftover bargain mushrooms in this savory version: Cheesy Mushroom Bread Pudding.

Now, don't let this photo fool you — especially the gooey cheese in the center. I like cheesy goodness as much as the next gal, but this really wasn't anything to write home about. It was just meh. Maybe it was because I didn't use whole milk. I admit, skim doesn't work in everything. But even if the texture was a bit watery, it was just missing something. Maybe salt, I don't know.

I do know, that even though I swapped in skim milk and used less Parmesan and less olive oil, it was 11 points. It was a pretty sizable serving, but still. And I'm not one of those people always looking for the lowest calorie option. I will eat make room for "regular" foods if they're worth it. This, unfortunately, was not one of those foods.