Happy New Year! OK, so it's February already, and I haven't updated the blog since August. BUT, to be fair, (to myself) our pot-luck group was a little frazzled over the holidays. We didn't get a lot of recipes in, or even a lot of people coming to the pot-lucks. So in January, with the beginnings of a lot of good New Year's resolutions, we had a lot of ladies come, and a lot of recipes brought. Yay!
Casseroles are comfort food. They're also kinda hard for some people. I'm not sure why. You take food, dump it in a casserole dish and bake it. Then when it's hot, you feed it to your family. Dinner. Eat it! In my mind, there are endless ways to serve the same thing and call it a different casserole. Chicken and corn tortillas = Chicken Enchiladas! Chicken and Spaghetti = Chicken Tetrazinni! Chicken and Rice = One Dish Chicken and Rice Bake! Chicken and Potatoes = Chicken Pot Pie! (OK, technically not a casserole, but you get the idea...) Of course, you also need a sauce of some sort. All of my fave casseroles use a cream of soup, but you could totally change it up with a marinara sauce and use ground hamburger instead of chicken. (Beef Enchiladas, Spaghetti Pie, Spanish Rice, Shepherd's Pie) See what I mean? Now, if you use whole grain rice and pasta it ramps up the health value. Also, if you make you own sauce, then you know exactly what you're getting in your casserole. To that end, our first recipe comes from Mary Ostyn (One of my fave ladies, wish I knew her personally...)
http://www.owlhaven.net/2012/10/12/recipe-cream-of-anything-soup/
I used it in my Mom's ultimate comfort food, Chicken Enchilada casserole. My mom grew up in Mexico, so you'd think she'd LOVE spicy food. Wrong. My Mom grew up in POOR Mexico, which means she grew up eating beans and bread. My poor Dad used to carry his own personal shaker of cayenne pepper with him to sprinkle on food at social functions so he could taste it. Anyway, my Mom's recipe for enchilada's is NOT what you would expect from enchiladas. These have absolutely NO spice or even mild warmth in them whatsoever. So feel free to up the heat level to your family preferences with green peppers, chilies, pepper jack cheese, whatever. Or, just bring your own personal shaker of cayenne pepper.
Chicken Enchilada Casserole
8-10 corn tortillas
1 can cream of chicken soup (or one serving cream of anything soup)
1 can milk (or about 1 1/4 cups)
grated cheese
about 1/2 to 1 cup cooked diced chicken
Mix together soup and milk. Tear corn tortillas into fourths and make a layer on the bottom of your casserole pan. Sprinkle diced chicken and cheese over tortillas. Pour some soup mix over that and continue layering like lasagna until everything is in there. Bake at 350 for 30 min. Top with cheese and serve. (Note: If you're crunched for time, I have successfully microwaved this before in about 10 min.It's a little softer, but it's still good.)
I have no idea who any of these next casseroles come from, because nobody put their names on their recipes! Didn't you guys go to school? Didn't your teachers tell you to ALWAYS write your names on your papers? Sheesh! Just kidding, I'm actually just glad I have more recipes than just my own to type up...
This one was probably the least healthy one of the bunch... but well... it was really good. And really easy. And, your kids will probably loooove it. I'm pretty sure mine will. (I'm also pretty sure this was Darla's recipe...)
Chili Dog Casserole
2 cans chili with beans
1 pkg beef hot dogs
8 in flour tortillas
8 oz. cheese
Preheat oven to 425. Pour and spread 1 can chili on the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Wrap hot dogs in flour tortillas, layer on top of chili, seam side down. Spread the other can of chili on top. Sprinkle with shredded cheese. Bake for 30 min.
OK, now to make up for the chili cheese dogs, :) we have:
Vegetarian Mexican Casserole
1 can corn
1 can black beans, drained
2 cups cooked rice
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
8 oz. cour cream
10 oz. diced tomatoes with chilies
8 oz. Picante sauce
1 tsp black pepper
Mix it all up and dump it in a 9x13 in pan. Cook at 350 for 50 min. Top with green onions, diced olives and Monterrey Jack cheese. She served this with blue corn chips, so I'm thinking this one came from Rachel because I saw her carrying them in...
I'm such a good detective, I've figured out two so far! I guess I wasn't as busy snarfing casseroles as I thought I was! So keeping my Sherlock Holmes cap on, I'm going to deduce that this next recipe is from Jackie, the vegan in our group.
Vegan Christmas Casserole
1/2 cup almond, rice or soy milk
1 cup veganaise (I personally did not even know there was such a thing...)
2 Tbs. Dijon mustard
salt/pepper
1 tsp. paprika
3 cups cooked rice
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
1 lb. asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 in. pieces
3.5 oz. sun dried tomatoes, chopped
Preheat oven to 400. Lightly oil 9x13 casserole dish. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook until transparent, 3-5 min. Add mushrooms and cook another 3 min. Add asparagus and sun dried tomatoes and cook 5 min more. Remove from heat. In a large bowl, mix milk, veganiase, Dijon, salt and pepper to taste. Add cooked rice and vegetables to milk mixture. Spread in casserole dish. Sprinkle with paprika. Place in oven and bake for 20 min. Allow a few minutes to cool, then enjoy!
I'm gonna say this next one was from Margie. It seems like a Margie type of casserole. Mmm... ravioli... cheese... I can't wait to make this one for my family, serve it with a nice green salad and some french bread. I think this is gonna be dinner tonight!
Weeknight Ravioli Bake
i jar (26 oz.) spaghetti sauce
1 can (14 1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes, un-drained
1/2 cup water
2 pkg. (1 lb. each) frozen cheese ravioli
1 pkg. (7 oz.) shredded Italian Three Cheese Blend
2 Tbs. Kraft grated Parmesan Cheese
Preheat oven to 400. Mix spaghetti sauce, tomatoes and water; spoon 1 cup onto bottom of 13x9 in. baking dish. Layer half the ravioli and 1 cup shredded cheese over sauce mixture. Top with remaining ravioli and sauce mix. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Cover. Bake for 30 min. Uncover and bake 15 more min. or until ravioli is tender and heated through. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Let stand 10 min before serving.
This next one is a lot like the ravioli bake, but looks like you can use any kind of noodle. Tracy, (I think it was Tracy...) used broken spaghetti noodles, but I can easily see bow ties or macaroni noodles in here. This is one of casseroles that becomes a casserole when Daddy's not home from work yet, but you want to keep diner hot.
Pizza Casserole
Any type of noodles, cooked and drained
Spaghetti sauce
favorite pizza toppings (pepperoni, olives, mushrooms, you get the picture...)
Layer them up in a 9x13 casserole dish and cook at 350 for 1 hour.
My daughter would love this next one. She loves broccoli! (Weird kid, where did she come from?) AND... by virtue of having guessed everyone else, I proclaim this one as coming from Angela.
Broccoli Casserole
2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 cups Mayo
1/2 cup milk
Cooked broccoli
3 cups cooked rice
shredded cheese
Heat soup, mayo and milk. Layer bottom of pan with 1/2 sauce, then rice, broccoli, chicken and cheese. Add the other half of the sauce and top with more cheese. Bake at 350 for 45 min to 1 hour.
I KNOW this one's from Sheri, because she forgot to bring it, so I had to go to her house and make her give me a massage and watch my kid before I would let her give it to me. I know. I'm so nice, right? This one is a LOT like Angela's only... healthy-er? It's the same basic recipe, with a few healthy changes. So, take your pick... And if you're questioning the taste factor of the healthier version, don't worry about it. It's just as good. It comes from http://eatingwelllivingthin.wordpress.com
Broccoli-Quinoa Casserole
1 (10 oz) can low sodium cream of broccoli or mushroom soup
1/3 cup reduced fat mayonnaise (Sheri used mayo made with Olive Oil)
2 Tbs. milk
1 1/4 cups reduced fat shredded cheese (cheddar, Colby-jack, etc.)
1/2 tsp. Splenda or sugar
1/4 tsp. black pepper
Dash freshly grated nutmeg
2 cups cooked broccoli
1 1/2 cups COOKED quinoa (see note)
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
To cook quinoa:
3/4 cup quinoa
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 tsp salt
Rinse quinoa in a fine sieve until water runs clear. In a small saucepan combine the quinoa, water, and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat. reduce heat to low and cover. cook for 18-20 min. or until fluffy and the white ring/tail is visible. Fluff with a fork.
To PRONOUNCE quinoa:
say keen-wah
To continue:
Preheat oven to 350 and coat a shallow (8x8 or 5-6 cup) casserole dish with cooking spray. In a large bowl combine the soup, mayo, milk, cheese, sugar, pepper, and nutmeg until mixed well. Stir in the quinoa and broccoli. Spoon mixture into prepared casserole dish. Sprinkle with Parmesan and bake for 35-40 min or until bubbly and golden.
Well everyone, enjoy your casseroles! Hopefully you found a new family favorite, or at the very least a new way of looking at casserole cooking. Until next month, live clean!
