Jesus Loves Casseroles

art by Brock Designs

I know I know I know!!!!
But before you start sending me hate mail or want to burn my house down, hear me out and let me explain.

On the 5 hour trip to Spokane to The Farm Chicks Show we had a lot of time to chat about a lot of things. One of subjects was religion.
Now I’m not going to bore you with a play by play as to how we got to this subject or how it ended up where it did.

In the car I was traveling with a Mormon, a Lutheran, and someone who is fascinated with all different religions, especially the Jewish Religion. She claims at times to be a French Vegetarian Jew who has a secret fondness for bacon. Yeah, I know………she ain't right!

As we were talking, we somehow got on the subject of church casseroles and how most of the religions we know of all serve great food at church functions funerals.

Also how taking a casserole, a crock-pot, salad or dessert to someone is the ultimate good deed.

The conclusion was…..

Jesus must love casseroles!

Now when I ran this by some of my regular church goin' friends of all different faiths they all laughed and said “you're right!”
Making a dish of love and goodness and sharing it with friends and family is something we all want to do, should do, and do it on a regular basis.

So lets share our favorite recipes.

This is how it’s going to work
Every Wednesday on my blog I’m going to feature new recipes sent to me by you!

Send me your favorite recipe, pictures with your recipe, a story about your recipe, recipe variations, or what your favorite dish is to serve it in.

Whatever you want me to know about the recipe or yourself.

I’m going to feature what you send me on my blog giving you full credit with a link back to your blog. In return I’ll send you a little art work that you can feature on your blog that lets people know your recipe was featured.

Not a blogger?

No problem send me your recipes anyway. I’ll still post it.

Sooooooooo

Send me your favorite recipes, your blog link and where your from to

Agirlnamedtimi@hotmail.com

I'll feature the recipes in the order I receive them.

I’ll feature a main dish recipe, a salad recipe, and a dessert recipe every week.

Because we all know that Jesus doesn't just love casseroles, he loves salads and desserts too!

This week's recipes...

Chicken Stew for the Soul

(baked casserole)

From Angie Carmen

3 cups cooked, cut-up leftover chicken
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
1 can diced new potatoes, drained
1/4 cup celery, finely diced
1/4 cup onion, finely diced
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 can half & half (or milk)
1 tsp. poultry seasoning (or more to taste)
salt and pepper to taste
1 package Stove Top Stuffing Savory Herb (follow box directions to mix)

Place the cooked chicken, peas, corn, diced potatoes, celery, onion, salt and pepper in an appropriate sized casserole dish. In a bowl, mix the cream of chicken soup, half & half and poultry seasoning together. Pour half (1/2) of the soup mixture over the casserole ingredients; tossing all together to combine.
Prepare the stuffing mix according to the package directions. Place the stuffing mix over the casserole and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.
Pour the remaining soup mixture over the baked casserole and return to oven to bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes; or until the center is hot and the top is bubbly.
Serves 4.


Variations:

If you are a masochist (or have tons of stuffing leftover from Thanksgiving) feel free to make and use your own homemade stuffing;

Use favorite flavor of Stove Top Stuffing (so much simpler for a casserole);

Add 1/2 cup pre-cooked and crumbled Jimmy Dean Sage sausage to the chicken mixture;

Use cooked and diced Turkey for a post-Thanksgiving casserole;

Use cooked and diced Ham for a post-Easter casserole;

Add canned (4 ounce) sliced or diced mushrooms (drained) and substitute cream of mushroom soup;

Use a combination of cream of chicken and cream of celery soups for flavor variation;

Use 2 ounces (1/2 can) of mild green chiles, mixed with can of Fiesta Nacho Cheese cream soup (Campbell's); omit the peas and add 1/2 cup drained black beans to the vegetable mixture and use Stove Top Stuffing Cornbread flavor for a tamale like casserole;

Finally, you can forget about the stuffing and spread the whole thing with leftover mashed potatoes....yum!

Marinated Tomato & Basil Pasta Salad

Here's my favorite

It's easy, eat-too-much good and everyone always loves it.

From Shawn Severin

Chop 3-4 large or 5-6 small tomatoes, removing as many seeds as possible.

In a large serving bowl combine the tomatoes with:

1/4 cup good quality olive oil

2 Tbls. red wine vinegar

2-3 cloves of crushed garlic

1/2 cup chopped basil

salt and pepper to taste

Allow ingredients to marinate 1-4 hours at room temp

Add 1 lb. of penne pasta and 1 cup of diced mozzarella cheese and stir well.

Can be served immediately or at room temperature.

Kahlua Cake

Timi

1 Chocolate Cake Mix (I like the Duncan Hines Triple Chocolate Super moist Cake Mix)
1 Pint Sour Cream
1 small package chocolate or vanilla instant pudding
2 eggs
¼ cup vegetable or canola oil
½ cup Kahlua
Chocolate chips optional

Mix all together by hand. Do not use mixer. It doesn’t have to be mixed until the lumps are out. Just mix until the cake mix is mixed in with all the other ingredients. Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes in a greased bunt pan. This also works well in cupcake tins. Frost with either chocolate frosting, powder sugar frosting, or sprinkle with powder sugar.
I like to make this cake in mini bunt pans and give it away as gifts with a plate of cookies for the holidays. It’s always a hit.

Bust out those recipe boxes and cookbooks and share a recipe.