Reader Participation Week: Casseroles!
Ever since we opened up comments on this blog, people have been COMMENTING. Do you even know how exciting that is for me? Probably not. Comments for a blogger are like bacon strips for a dog. Or for my husband. Same diff.
Fact is, I didn’t really know the comments were closed to begin with. And I was always wondering, why doesn’t anyone ever comment on my blog…or, why do they always send their comments to me through email? Then one day Jim came home and nonchalantly mentioned he opened up the comments and I was all IT’S ABOUT TIME. (I didn’t tell him that I never knew they weren’t open to begin with. Because that would make him smarter than me and we cannot have that). Soooo…. this week is all about your comments. And I sure hope this works. Please don’t leave me hanging.
Let’s start with food. Because everybody likes food. And for a reason I can’t explain, people really like to give their recipes away. The reason I can’t explain this probably lies in the fact that I cannot and do not cook. But now I should say did not cook, because I am finding it to be a necessary evil if we all want to eat and go to bed in the very same day (this matters so much more when you have children). So up till now, my recipe collection consisted mostly of things like: “How to Hard Boil an Egg”. Seriously.
To help round out this robust recipe collection of mine, what I’m looking for today are your easy, tasty, (somewhat) healthy casserole recipes. Now when I say easy, I mean I hope your recipe has about 3 steps and most of them involve opening cans. Because I can totally open cans. Even with a baby in one arm!
In exchange, I’m posting my favorite casserole recipe for you. I hope you try it, like it, and comment on my blog about it. Here it is:
Spanish Red Beans and Rice
from Lickety-Split Meals by Zonya
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Ingredients:
1 can (15 oz) red, kidney or black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14.5 oz) stewed tomatoes
1 1/2 cups INSTANT whole-grain brown rice. Make sure it’s instant. I made this recipe last week without instant and we suffered through a very crunchy casserole.
3/4 cup salsa
1 cup water
4-5 Tabasco sauce
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 cup reduced-fat shredded cheddar cheese
Directions:
Mix together everything but the cheese in a large casserole dish. Cover and bake in oven for 55 minutes. When you take out of the oven, sprinkle with cheese and let melt.
Suggested sides: tossed salad and fresh or canned pears.
See how easy and wonderful that is? Now lay your easy and wonderful recipes on me.