Maybe I had a bad experience growing up or maybe I just had too many of them in my younger days, but I've had an aversion to casseroles for most of our married life. Then about a year ago I read a how-to article and ever since then not only have I enjoyed eating my casseroles, I've enjoyed creating them.
I never use a recipe for my casseroles, I just follow these simple steps.
1) Start with a starchy base. Pasta and potatoes work great. Or tortillas for a mexican casserole.
2) Add a protein - beans, ham, tuna, chicken, beef, whatever I have on hand.
3) Add a veggie or two. Once again, whatever I have on hand.
4) Something gooey to hold it all together. Most people use cream of chicken/mushroom soup (I usually add some sour cream when I use these). Those are good, but making a quick white sauce is the cheapest. A tomato based sauce works for an italian flavor.
5) Mix in a "goody." Something to add a little zing. A can of diced green chiles for a mexican flavor, shredded cheese is good for potato/ham casserole, slivered almonds, or anything taking up space in the pantry.
6) Topping. Most casserole recipes call for breadcrumbs/crushed cornflakes sprinkled with melted butter. I forgo these for a nice, thick layer of cheese. I've found that my family will eat just about anything with hot, melty cheese on top.
Some people like to layer their casseroles but I just mix it all together and bake for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees.
Last weekend we hadn't been to the store in a while and I needed to make dinner. Here's what went into my spur of the moment casserole:
1 2lb. bag frozen hash browns (best if thawed before putting in oven)
2 lbs. ground beef, browned with onion
4 sliced carrots (we decided afterward that they would have been better shredded)
some leftover kale, chopped finely
a couple cups shredded cheese
half a container sour cream
half a container french onion dip (needed to be used up)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
Most of these ingredients don't sound like they would go well together, but everyone ate it up and Cody mentioned that it was good!
This recipe made 2 9x13 casseroles. I estimated the cost to be approximately $10.30 and will give us 4 dinners. So that's 64 cents/per person/per dinner. Nice!
One of my favorite tricks I have learned is how to store extra casseroles. Since it's almost as quick and easy to make 2 casseroles as to make 1, that's what I usually do. Then I can freeze the second one for when we have a busy day. So I line with foil the dish that I'm going to freeze for later, leaving enough foil on the edges to lift it out of the pan later. After filling the dish with the casserole, I cover it with foil, label it, and put it in the freezer. Then the next day when it is frozen I lift off the top layer of foil, take hold of the bottom foil layer's "handles" and lift the casserole out of the pan. Then I cover the casserole back up with the top layer of foil and put it back in the freezer. That way I don't have a casserole dish sitting in the freezer for 2 months. When we're ready to eat the casserole, I put it back in the pan and thaw or bake it.
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