How to Make a Casserole

I have 8 siblings, therefore we grew up eating an awful lot of casseroles.  To this day, I count casseroles as comfort food.  The great thing about casseroles is that you can make and serve a meal that includes several food groups, while only dirtying minimum pans, on the cheap. Also, it may be easier to get your kid to eat their vegetables this way, and it's a good way to use up leftovers that weren't otherwise being eaten.

I'm thankful that my mother taught me how to make these meals.  And I'm going to share our top-secret recipe...

Wait, there is none.  In our house, a casserole usually wasn't something you made from a recipe card with carefully measured ingredients.  Rather, it was something you threw together with what you had on hand.  

In their most basic form, all casseroles must include 4 ingredients:

1. Grain (cooked rice, cooked pasta, or cooked egg noodles)

2. Protein (drained canned tuna, cooked and crumbled hamburger, or cooked and shredded or cubed chicken or turkey)

3. Vegetable (fresh, frozen, or canned-depending on the vegetable, you may need to precook it a bit)

4. Sauce (cream of mushroom or chicken soup, tomato sauce or other undrained canned tomato product, or enchilada sauce)

Just stir all of it together or layer it in a cake pan and bake at 350 degrees until warmed all the way through.

For variety, you can put shredded cheese and/or something crunchy (chip crumbs, corn flakes, crunchy chow mein noodles, or french fried onions) on top before you bake it.

So there you have it.  Super fancy, right?  The one pictured above was made with leftover cooked rice, cream of chicken soup, leftover teriyaki chicken (that gave the meal an interesting flavor-I can't decide if I would purposely repeat that again), leftover seasoned and baked chicken, some frozen peas, a couple handfuls of thawed frozen broccoli, and shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheese on top.

I know not all of my siblings have the same fondness for such meals as I do, but I love it!  And see that empty green plate to the top right of the photo?  That belongs to Tertius.  As I've mentioned before, this boy practically inhales food, especially casseroles!  So the love is being passed to the next generation.