Gloppy Squash and Rice Casserole

On a regular basis dinner around here looks like a meat, two veggies and possibly a salad. Sometimes a salad replaces one of those veggies. Sometimes it is too predictable, and last week I'd had enough. I needed gloppy. I needed several items mixed together and baked. I needed a casserole.

Enter Pinterest.

Dang Pinterest. It is virtually a rabbit hole. Enter at your own peril. I fall in every time I log on. One morning, I found myself actually reviewing the pin boards I've made myself. I was also digging around and seeing what more there was to add. I can across a pin with x number of recipes under 300 calories.

Enter stage left: Squash-Rice Casserole from Cooking Light in 2002...

I gave Tom a choice. We could have this or black bean and sweet potato salad. He didn't hesitate. (It appears I'll be making the potato salad without his prior approval one day.) He also went down to the farmer's market that comes to the dental school every Wednesday. He came home with oodles of squash and fresh green beans. Yum!

The recipe called for zucchini, onion, rice and some binding agents and seasonings. I was to boil the zucchini and onion in chicken broth and then puree it. The puree would then be added to the rice, cheese and sour cream to be baked.

I decided I wanted to see and chew my veggies in this dish. I also wanted squash instead of zucchini. Let the interpretation begin!

The original recipe can be found here. What follows is my version.

Ingredients

8 c sliced squash	¼ c Parmesan cheese
1 c sliced onion	¼ c Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs
2 c cooked rice	1 t salt
1 c shredded gourmet cheddar cheese blend	¼ t black pepper
1 c light sour cream	½ c Three Cheese Eggbeaters
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.


Melt the butter in a large skillet while you chop the squash and the onion. When ready, saute the squash and onions until desired texture. I like them a little more squishy, but I still had some firm pieces. The onion could have used longer.

Coat a 13x9-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Combine the squash and onions with the remaining ingredients. Stir gently and pour into the baking dish. I just did all the combining in the baking dish. Why dirty up more than necessary?

Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until golden brown. I think it only need 20 minutes. I cut it off after 20 and let it sit in the oven until the other pieces of dinner were ready. 

Initially I was unsure of my opinion, but after going back for seconds (and Tom going back too) we decided it was a keeper. It was deliciously gloppy and uncomplicated. It had the consistency of macaroni and cheese with a little less guilt. I think we'll be making it again. See what you think.

My Life in Chapel Hill

The pace of things are different here, and I am very grateful for that. Instead of running around like a crazy, I have recently found that I have time to read. I haven't done this in years!

My last book was Promise Me, a memoir by the founder of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. It was really a great read. I shed my share of tears (as with any book recommended by Gwen), but the read was worth it.

Now I am working on My Life in France by Julia Child and her nephew Alex Prud'homme. I am enjoying every paragraph. It centers on the four years that Julia and her husband Paul spent in Paris and the culinary awakening, journey and education she experienced there. The book constantly leaves me hungry. I want to cook. I want to cook fatty things. I want to cook things with bacon and butter and wine and homemade stock. (Where does "I want to be skinny" fit in here?)

Much of Julia's days (at this point in the book) are spent pouring over cookbooks, saturating her brain at Le Cordon Bleu, obsessively trying to nail mayonnaise when cold weather is her foe, making friends with vendors at the market and accruing every kitchen tool one could ever desire. Luckily for me, I feel like I am getting to live life a little more too. I actually have time to read a book, to find a new recipe, to write this post. I am very happy that I have time to cook and someone to share the calories.

So here's to enjoying the little things... like having a little more time to enjoy everything.

A Weekly Letter

When I went to college Cranmommie sent me a card every week with $5 in it. I told her once that I loved fresh flowers, and she told me the $5 could help with that.

Anytime I have them on my table, I think of her and my weekly letter.