Frugal Comfort Food – the Casserole
Sometimes it’s nice to come up with new comfort food staples in the recipe box. Keeping those meals within a frugal budget is nice as well. One of the best ways to do this is to create a scrumptious casserole. There are some easy tips to keep in mind when trying to create new, flavorful casserole:
1) Start with your favorite hunger-filler base, either rice or pasta.
2) After, think of what kind of meat, or none, that you’d like to use. The inexpensive choice would be some ground beef or some canned tuna, or choose some chicken if you are able to pick it up at a good price.
3) You’ll need to have a liquid, such as a cream of mushroom soup, a can of diced tomatoes, or possibly chicken or beef broth.
4) Pick some flavors to help your dish come to life. These might include a variety of cheeses, spices, or vegetables.
5) Remember, when creating a good a good casserole you want to cook your rice or pasta until tender so your cook time is cut down and so your liquid isn’t “soaked up” while cooking.
6) Finally, top your casserole with a nice topper, such as cheese, bread crumbs, green onions, or various spices.
Some good suggestions to get started? Try a tuna casserole made with cream of chicken soup, tuna, egg noodles, and other goodies. Or maybe a beef macaroni-n-cheese, chocked full of beef, elbow macaroni, tomatoes, spices, and cheddar cheese. If all else fails, check out a cookbook, such as “101 Things to Do with a Casserole“
