Accidentally delicious!

I needed a quick, easy, healthy-ish last minute (like half my dinners) idea for dinner.  I had a few things on hand that I hoped to use up-roasted chicken breasts and a tiny bit of black rice I'd picked up some time ago.  The kids freaked out a little at the color the last time it was a side, and I swear it tasted like regular rice, but I can't serve it plain, so I gotta use it in some kind of casserole to camouflage it. :)  Again, I searched my Pinterest boards.  I found a recipe for cheesy chicken and rice from laaloosh.com.  It looked good, but I didn't have any broccoli and I didn't want to use 3 saucepans, because, let's be real here-that's a lot of dishes to wash and they won't all fit in the dishwasher!  So, I searched my pantry, did some thinking and got to work... 

...and voila!

 

 

Ingredients:

 

1 1/2-2 cups  cooked rice (I had black rice on hand, but any rice you like will do.  I followed the directions on the package to cook 1 cup dry rice)

 

2 cups cooked chicken (shredded, cubed, whatever you've got on hand)

 

1 1/2 cups frozen corn

 

2 cups frozen green beans

 

1 can or container of cream of chicken condensed soup (I used Pacific Natural Foods Organic soup and it comes in a little box)

 

1 -2 cups of shredded sharp cheddar cheese (I'm always a little heavier on the cheese in any recipe...I was closer to 2 cups for this recipe

 

 

 

1. Cook the rice according to the package directions.

 

2. Meanwhile, boil a small pot of water and blanch the frozen veggies for 3-4 minutes.  You don't want to overcook, just get them thawed and somewhat soft.  Remove them from the water immediately. 

 

3. Put half of the cheese and the rest of the ingredients into a bowl and toss them gently to mix.  To eliminate another dirty dish, I just mixed it in my greased 9x13 casserole dish.  That worked just great!

 

4. If you aren't as lazy as I am, and you mixed in a bowl, spread the mixture into a greased 9x13 casserole dish. 

 

5. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.

 

6. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes.

 

 

The great thing about this recipe is you can use whatever veggies you have on hand, fresh or frozen.  If you use fresh, I recommend cooking them a bit as well.  You can use up leftover chicken, roast your own, or pick up a rotisserie chicken at the grocery.  If you don't have cream of chicken, cream of anything else will do the trick.  This happy accident of a dinner will definitely be put in our rotation.  I'll be making this with broccoli for sure since that's one of hubby's favorites.

 

In case you're counting calories, the dish as I made it was only 192 calories per serving.  This should serve 8, or in our case, our five and several dishes of leftovers!

 

Enjoy!