Gobble, gobble, gobble~! Today’s Thanksgiving in the United States of America. We aren’t having the meal until afternoon, so I’ll be sure to post more photographs of the meal tomorrow. For now, I’ll share with you some recipes! I’ve been trying to make a point to keep track of the recipes we use for traditional family meals since you never know when something might happen.
Two recipes that my SO’s family likes to make for the holidays are Broccoli & Rice Casserole and Sweet Potato Casserole. I never really liked sweet potato casserole until I tried this version. The versions I always tried involve marshmallows on top, which isn’t appealing to me. I also love the smooth texture of this casserole.
Served at Thanksgiving & Christmas
Steph’s Broccoli and Rice Casserole
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup onion chopped
2 pkg. frozen chopped broccoli
1 cup raw rice (Instant rice is okay; 1 cup of raw rice equals 2 cups of cooked rice)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 small jar Cheez Whiz
Saute onion in butter. Cook broccoli for 7-8 minutes. Cook rice as directed on the package. Combine all and place in a baking dish sprayed with PAM. Bake 30-45 minutes at 350°. Can be made the day before and baked when ready to serve. Serves 12.
You can reduce the amount of rice and use more broccoli if you want, which I think is what my MIL did this year. Less carbs and more vegetables. Not that we’re really going for super healthy on Thanksgiving, but it’s pretty delicious. This is a huge favorite around here. We like to use baby broccoli for this recipe. If you just buy the chopped broccoli, you’ll often time just get the gross part of the broccoli. Mostly stem and less of the florets.
Sweet Potato Casserole
- 3 cups cooked sweet potatoes.
- 1 cup sugar or equivalent of sugar substitute: Splenda, Ideal, or Stevia
- 3 eggs, well beaten
- 1/2 cup cream
- 1 stick butter, melted
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
Mix all ingredients well with a mixer until smooth. Make sure the sweet potatoes aren’t too hot or you’ll end up cooking the eggs before they can get blended into the mixture. Pour the ingredients into a greased baking pan. (You can use more than 2 cups of sweet potatoes, just make sure you adjust the other ingredients. We don’t add more sugar when scaling up though.)
Topping for Sweet Potato Casserole
- (1) 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- (1) 1/2 cup self-rising flour
- (1) 1/2 stick butter, melted
- (2) 1 cup(s) pecans
SO, we don’t usually believe there’s enough topping for the casserole, so we ALWAYS double it. So the doubled amount is in the parenthesis. The topping is pretty much a strudel, which is delicious. In my not so humble opinion. You mix all the topping ingredients into a crumble. Top the casserole. Then bake at 350° for 30 minutes.
I had a pretty big mental health scare yesterday. I don’t want to talk about it yet, but I’m still in a fragile state. I wish I wasn’t so broken. Thanks for reading, folks. Hope today is filled with good food and good company, whether that be blood related family or the kind of family you build through comradery.
Atelier Whootique 