Chicken, Broccoli, Rice, Cheese Casserole - Broccolicious Good!

Nashville is experiencing beautiful weather that is giving me a really bad case of spring fever. It makes me want to redecorate my house, or maybe just give it a good cleaning.  I want to put away my winter clothes and break out my sandals.  Oh yes, I love sandals and I really hate closed shoes.  But, I know this is just nature's way of teasing us, making us think it is spring.  There is going to be more cold weather, you can bet on it.  I just hope the trees and shrubs don't freeze their little buds off.

We spent today running around doing errands, enjoying every moment of this glorious day.  Our daughter is due to give us another grandson around February 14, and we spent time buying some baby boy things today.  Even though she has a 23 month old son and he had lots of stuff, every baby deserves a few new things just for them don't  you think?  Besides, Grandma and Pawpaw like to shop for the grandsons.  It is so much fun.  You can get so wrapped up in looking at all the amazing things they have for babies these days.  There are so many wonderfully handy things that I wish had been available  when our children were little, but we survived.  Sure wish I had thought up a few of them though.

It was mid afternoon by the time we returned, and there were those inevitable chores to do. You know, the ones the elves never come and do.  They are always waiting for you when you get home.  When the sun shines so brightly in the windows, you can see how icky the kitchen floor is along with the windows and everything else.  Ugh.  I opened the refrigerator to check out what I could make for dinner and decided that it needed cleaning before I did another thing!  It was just one of those moments when one thing led to another.  I tossed out some things that were past their prime and said thank you for coming,then  wiped down all the shelves and drawers.  That felt good.  One thing accomplished.  Now the floor was demanding attention, so I mopped it.  Awesome.   Another accomplishment.  Whew.  Still, what to fix for dinner.

There were two whole chickens in the fridge that needed to either be cooked or frozen before they passed their prime.  I decided to cook them.  I got out the 12 quart stock pot, put the chickens in, filled it with water and let them cook until done.  Guess that meant something with chicken for dinner.  Don't you hate when it's always your decision what to fix for dinner?  Anyway, I decided some kind of casserole since I now had a huge bowl of chicken I had picked off the bones.  Broccoli sounded good.  Cheese always sounds good.  So, I fixed a really, really delicious chicken, broccoli, rice and cheese casserole that has a wonderful home made cheese sauce and is topped with crushed Ritz crackers that gives the casserole that "what is that" flavor.  Oh, and strawberry banana muffins.  Yeah, they are fantastic.  That will be tomorrow's post.  I love when I am ahead of that curve ball, because tomorrow is our volunteer day at a local non-profit organization we support.  We sure are busy for retired people.

Anyway, here is what you need for this fantastic casserole.

Ingredients:

1 lb fresh broccoli, cut into florets and steamed for 2 minutes.  (I also cut thin slices of the stems about half way down and used those too)
3 cups cooked chicken, cut into bite sized pieces
1 cup minute rice
1 8 oz block cheddar cheese, grated and divided in half

Sauce:

1/3 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup cornstarch, dissolved in 1/2 cup cold water
1/3 cup chicken broth
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 cups milk
1/2 of the  grated cheddar cheese

Topping:

1 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed (not too fine)
1/2 stick butter, melted

Directions:

Grease a 9x13 casserole or baking pan.  Place the steamed broccoli on the bottom of the casserole.  Cover with the chicken,  sprinkle the cup of dry rice over the casserole and cover it with 1/2 the grated cheese.

Make the sauce:

Melt 1/3 stick of butter (5 tbsp) in a heavy sauce pan.  Combine the cornstarch and cold water and stir until dissolved making a slurry.  Add the cornstarch slurry to the melted butter.  Add 1/3 cup chicken broth, seasonings and 2 cups milk.  Cook until sauce starts to thicken.  Turn heat to low and add the other half of the grated cheddar cheese.  Stir until completely melted.  Pour over the broccoli, chicken, rice and grated cheese in the casserole dish.

Topping:

Crush one sleeve of Ritz crackers in a large zip lock bag. I used my rolling pin.   Don't crush too fine, you want some bigger pieces.  Melt 1/2 stick of butter in the microwave and pour over the crumbs which you have placed in a bowl.  Sprinkle topping over casserole.

Bake at 350 for 30 to 35 minutes until bubbly.  Remove from oven and serve.

The buttery Ritz cracker topping gives a wonderful crispy crunch to the goodness of the chicken, broccoli and rice in the casserole.  The home made cheese sauce is so much better than any canned soup you can use.  It is delicious and easy!  For us, it is "just right" as Goldilocks would say.  Feel free to add more cheese if you like things cheesier.  Also, you can add another sleeve of crushed Ritz crackers and another 1/2 stick of butter if you like really thick topping.  It's up to you.

This recipe reheats beautifully.  So, if you need something "make ahead" for any occasion,  this is the casserole for you.  You can add a salad, maybe some strawberry banana muffins and you are all set.  Dinner is served.

I am happy that I have plenty to reheat tomorrow night so I don't have to come home from a day of volunteering and cook.  Yippee!  Hope you give this casserole a try.  It is broccolicious good!

Everyday Donna

Things to remember:

It's spring fever.  That is what the name of it is.  And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!  ~Mark Twain

Shepherd's Pie - Quick, Easy, Delicious

Well, it's a new year and I am having a hard time getting back in the routine of things.  Sunday evening we came home after a busy day and I wanted comfort food.  You know, something with mashed potatoes - real mashed potatoes.  I never, ever make instant mashed potatoes at home.  Ever.  Why?  Because there is nothing like real mashed potatoes, I don't care how you doctor them up.  They are easy to make and there is a distinct difference between instant and mashed potatoes made from scratch.  As a potato connoisseur, I can tell the difference.  A friend argued with me once that I could not tell the difference, but I can.  It is just worth the extra effort to make mashed potatoes.  In my book, there is nothing quite as good.  

My first thought was to make a meat loaf, but I knew it would take way too long.  We were hungry and didn't want to wait several more hours to eat.  My next thought?  Shepherd's Pie.  Yummm.  One of our favorites and it's relatively quick and easy.   The beauty of Sheperd's Pie is that it combines your protein, starch and vegetable into one easy dish and has so much flavor.  It is also easy to reheat for leftovers.

I did a little research on Shepherd's Pie to find out why it has that name - mostly out of curiosity.  (I do that a lot)  I found that Shepherd's Pie was originally made from leftover meat (lamb) thus the name Shepherd's Pie since shepherds herd sheep.  When beef was used, it was called Cottage Pie.  The term Cottage Pie was first recorded in 1791 and Shepherd's Pie in 1877.  Now, we just call it all Shepherd's Pie. Whatever it's called, it's delicious.

Here is what you will need.  (This makes a 9 x 13 casserole full, but you can easily halve this for a smaller portion.)    Preheat oven to 350.


Ingredients:

2 pounds ground beef (lamb, or turkey)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium garlic clove, minced
1/4 tsp. dried rosemary
1/4 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
3/4 cup frozen green peas

4 cups mashed potatoes (use instant if you want to)  I make my mashed potatoes first, so they are ready to put on the casserole when the meat is finished cooking.

8 ounces cheddar cheese, grated (grate my own because I like the way it melts and it's cheaper)

Directions

Brown ground beef in large pan.  Just as beef is almost done, add onion and garlic and cook until onion is translucent. Drain any fat.   Add rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper to taste.  Add green peas and mix thoroughly.  Place in 9 x 13 casserole dish.

Cover with mashed potatoes. Spread with back of spoon to evenly cover all of ground beef,

Next, cover with grated cheddar cheese and place in 350 degree oven until the cheese has melted.

Let the casserole sit for a few minutes and serve in bowls or on dinner plates.  This can also be made in individual serving ramekins if you prefer.  There is a restaurant in our neighborhood that has "Pie and a Pint" night and they make theirs in pie plates.  Do whatever suits your fancy.

This dish is so good with the sweetness of the green peas, and the creaminess of the mashed potatoes covered with melted cheese mixed with all the deliciously flavored meat.  Yum, yum, yum.  If you have picky eaters in your house (like our grandsons can be), give this dish a try.  It is filling and there are no scary ingredients in it that can make a dish "suspect" to little boys.  You know, things like MUSHROOMS.  This is comfort food at it's finest.  You can also make it ahead, keep it in the refrigerator and reheat when ready to serve.  Just wait and place the cheese on the potatoes when you place it in the oven to reheat.  We enjoyed ours with a spinach salad and hot crescent rolls.  Let me say, it truly hit the spot.  Comfort food desire fulfilled.

Give this casserole a try.  My three favorite words describe it - quick, easy, delicious. I think it will become a "go to" dish for you just like in our house.  Enjoy.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship, but never in want.    Irish Toast

This Baked Pasta Recipe May Knock Your Socks Off!

We have been working feverishly getting the little yellow cottage ready for Christmas.  So much decorating to do!  Last night I was tired and wanted something easy to fix for dinner.  I decided to try this recipe I found on Pinterest last week because, well, it sounded yummy.

The recipe is for baked spaghetti, but I am not a big fan of spaghetti.  I like heartier pastas that grab the sauce and have some "chew" to them.  I had penne, so that is what I chose to use.  If you want to use spaghetti, feel free to do so.

Here is what you need.

12 ounces pasta, cooked according to directions

1 pound ground beef

one medium onion, diced

one clove garlic minced

1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (I grate fresh, prefer it to canned)

1 8 oz block of cream cheese

salt and pepper

I added these two ingredients

a couple pinches of red pepper flakes

mozzarella cheese for the top of the casserole

Cook your pasta according to directions.  Brown the ground beef, onion, and garlic.  Salt and pepper to taste.  When beef is browned, drain.  Add the jar of marinara sauce and heat.  Cut cream cheese into cubes and add to sauce when it is bubbling until cheese melts.  Add parmesan cheese and stir to mix.  Spray a 9x13 casserole with cooking spray.  Place drained pasta in casserole dish.  Cover with marinara sauce and stir to mix well.  Grate some parmesan over top of casserole and add mozzarella.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  Oh my goodness good!

We had this quick and easy baked pasta with a green salad and crusty bread.   Our youngest son joined us for dinner and he and Dan agreed this was one of the best pasta dishes they had ever eaten.  Yes, it is fantastically good.  The cream cheese makes the sauce creamy and delicious and causes the sauce to adhere to the pasta in a wonderfully delicious way.

Give this recipe a try the next time you want something quick and easy.  You will make it again.  I know I am going to!  Enjoy,

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

 “Life is a combination of magic and pasta.” ~ Fellini

Bountiful Fall Harvest

The Nashville Farmer's Market is where we do the bulk of our food shopping these days.  Why?  First, we support local growers and appreciate their effort and the quality of food they provide us.  We want to know that will continue, so we give them our money in exchange for their excellent products.  Secondly, it is always an adventure.  There is always something new to see or explore.  Third, it means there will be some recipe forthcoming to make our dining experience worth the effort.

I thought I would show you some of the fall products available at the market right now and then share a recipe I made using butternut squash.  Did I take a picture of the butternut squash or the stand where I purchased it?  No, I forgot.  Silly me.  But, I did capture the beauty of the fall mums and pumpkins.  You can even see the state capital in the corner of one picture.  The Farmer's Market is not far from downtown.  It is quite large, has a wonderful variety of fresh produce and locally grown meat - beef, pork, chicken and lamb which is grass fed and hormone and antibiotic free.   There is  also a food court offering a wide variety of international cuisines.  The Jamaican restaurant, Jamaican Way, has been featured on Diner's, Drive Ins and Dives on the Food Network.  It's worth a trip just to enjoy some of the food.  There is also a large Indian market that offers a huge variety of spices and products.  And, there is a really nice nursery offering all sort of flowers, shrubs and lawn decorations.  I can spend a lot of time checking out all the beautiful flowers and I usually come home with something lovely.

Here are just some of the fall pumpkins available.  It is so hard to pick out just a couple to bring home when they are all so beautiful and interesting.

I love the way the sunlight plays on the pumpkins in these pictures.

If you look to the center of this picture, you can see the Tennessee state capital sitting grandly upon the hill.  It is quite a distance from the Farmer's Market but looks lovely on this sunny day.

This poor pumpkin looks like he needs to see the dermatologist.  There are so many interesting varieties of pumpkins and gourds - some quite beautiful, others quite prehistoric looking.  Isn't nature amazing?

Don't you love the leaning towers of pumpkins?  How cute would these be decorated on your front porch?  Or, you could just stack them like this.  They are so interesting and varied.  I could spend hours  looking at all the varieties.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures from the Farmer's Market.  Just thought I'd share them with you.  We had a lovely afternoon there with our "besties" while they were visiting.

My BFF Tonya loves butternut squash, so I purchased some while we were at the market.  I will tell you it is NOT easy to peel, but hopefully this will help you.  Butternut squash has a very hard "shell" like pumpkin.  It can be split and baked, but it had to be peeled for this recipe.  Hopefully, this will make it a little easier for you.  Using a chef's knife, I cut off the top and bottom ends.  The squash has a thick neck and a round bottom with a definite separation between the two.  Cut between the neck and the round bottom.  Next, peel the neck with a sharp knife or heavy-duty vegetable peeler, then peel the round bottom.  Cut the bottom in half and remove the seeds and pith.  Cut the neck in half.  Lay the cut sides down and cut long strips and then cut crosswise so that you have about 1 to 2 inches squares.  Do the same the with round bottom pieces.

Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray.  I used two squash for this recipe to serve 8 to 10 people.  Lightly salt and pepper the squash and place it in the casserole dish.  Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, then drizzle with honey.  I used about two handsful of brown sugar and crumbled it over the squash.  Next, I took about 3 big sprigs of fresh rosemary and stripped the needles from the stems and minced it.  Sprinkle the rosemary over the squash.  You can used dried rosemary if you do not have fresh. ( Let me say, I am going to miss my herb garden terribly this winter.  I think I may have to put some of my favorite herbs in pots and keep them in a sunny window in our sun room.)   Place the casserole in the oven at 350 and cook until the squash is soft.  It is really delicious and makes a wonderful fall side dish.  Next time, I am going to try this same recipe with sweet potatoes because I think it would be just as good and sweet potatoes are a whole lot easier to peel!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and that you will try this really delicious recipe now that the days are cooler and there are definite signs that winter is on the way.  I will miss all the summer and fall beauty of the farmer's market and all the fabulous summer produce, but we will continue to shop there all through the winter trying whatever local things are available.  Am I looking forward to cold weather?  Not at all!  But, it's part of living isn't it?  Now, it's time to start sewing on all those Halloween costumes I have to make.  Catch you later.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

“Living up to an image that you have of yourself or that other people have of you is inauthentic living.”
― Eckhart Tolle,

A Brunch Celebration

This weekend was graduation day for our youngest son's girlfriend.  She just finished her BS in nursing and we hosted a brunch in celebration.  Cortney is a wonderful person who does public health nursing and I wanted to honor her achievement.  She has worked very hard to accomplish her mission.

There is nothing like good company and good food to make a day memorable.   I had been stewing over the menu (no pun intended) for several days and finally made my decisions on Friday so that shopping could be done because we also had guests staying with us for the weekend. The menu served today was sausage, broccoli, hash brown casserole,  grits, Waldorf salad, roasted butternut squash with rosemary, fried green tomatoes with horse radish sauce, watermelon, bacon, ham, homemade pickled asparagus, pickled mixed vegetables with peppers, biscuits, homemade peach preserves and grape jelly, and pumpkin gooey butter bars.  Oh, and there were mimosas!  It was all so good!  The fried green tomatoes were done in Cortney's honor because they are one of her favorites, everything else was cook's choice (that would be me).  I will share some of the other recipes in future posts because they are definitely worth trying.

I was looking for recipes to make, searching for something different because I love trying new recipes.  This sausage casserole recipe came from the Jimmy Dean Sausage web site and it sounded so good so I decided to give it a try (with a few modifications).  Fortunately, it was quite a hit.  My son said he thought he could eat it every day!  

Here is the recipe:

1 lb regular sausage

1 medium onion, diced

 7-8 frozen hash brown patties, thawed

10 ounces frozen broccoli, thawed

1 large tomato, seeded and diced

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

10 eggs

3/4 cups milk

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

Cook the sausage in a pan with the diced onions, breaking the sausage up with a spatula until sausage is brown.  Spray bottom of 9x13 casserole with cooking spray.  Place hash brown patties in bottom of casserole dish.  Spread sausage and onion mixture over hash browns.  Distribute broccoli and tomatoes over sausage.  Cover with shredded cheese.  Beat eggs, milk, salt and pepper with whisk until well mixed.  Pour over ingredients in casserole. (This does not cover the casserole like many egg type casseroles so don't be alarmed)   Bake at 350 degrees about 40 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

This is quick, easy and serves a lot of people.  We had 12 adults and 1 child in attendance today and one casserole served everyone with a little left over for later - yum!!  This is not just for breakfast, but would be a great main dish for an evening meal also.  You could even substitute Italian or hot sausage to spice it up a bit if you like things spicy.  Or, simply use the original recipe as is  -  delicious.  The good thing about it is you have a one dish meal  which is so nice for when you come home tired and don't feel like doing a lot of food preparation.  The only cooking on the stove top is browning the sausage and onions.  Otherwise, it is just building the casserole.  Add a green salad, some warm bread and you are good to go.  

With the holidays approaching, this would be a wonderful breakfast meal for a crowd or even an easy evening entree for your family.  Hopefully, you will give it a try and enjoy it as much as we did on this memorable day.  Let me know how you like it!  Congratulations Cortney!  You did it!!

Everyday Donna,

Things to Remember:

Anybody can do just about anything with himself that he really wants to and makes up his mind to do. We are all capable of greater things than we realize. ~ Norman Vincent Peale