Weeknight Dinner: Broccoli & Rice Casserole

On Tuesday night, I was in charge of dinner. So, naturally, I wanted to cook some sort of casserole because I haven’t made one in a long time. I still wanted it to be healthy, so I checked out Cooking Light and found one that sparked my interest. It is chock full of vegetables and looked tasty. I made quite a few adaptations but here’s the original recipe. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out because the recipe seemed complicated to me and didn’t make sense but I made some easy fixes and it turned out yummy. It was the perfect weeknight dinner.

Broccoli & Rice Casserole:

Ingredients
-rotisserie chicken, deboned
-2 C skim milk
-1 C water
-Uncle Ben’s long grain and wild rice
-1/2 yellow onion, chopped
-1 green pepper, chopped
-1 head of broccoli florets
-2 ounces 1/3 reduced fat cream cheese
-4 ounces mozzarella cheese
-1/4 C parmesan cheese
-Italian bread crumbs
-1 T minced garlic
-2 T butter
-seasonings: S&P, garlic pepper

Process:
-preheat oven to 375 and take the chicken off the bone, set aside
-add 2 C milk and 1 C water to a sauce pan and bring to a boil, then add in the rice and cook for 8-10 minutes on high heat (do not insert seasonings from the rice box); season with salt, pepper and garlic pepper; turn down heat and let simmer to let the milk/rice mixture thicken, stirring occasionally
-in a separate sauce pan add olive oil then saute onion, green pepper and broccoli; season with pepper and garlic pepper, cook for 5-10 minutes
-add in all cheeses [cream cheese, mozzarella cheese, parmesan] and stir until well combined
-pour in the rice and some of the milk mixture and stir – do no pour the entire thing over the casserole, just use your best judgment based on how saucy you want it to be
-add in the chicken, stir
-pour into casserole dish then top with bread crumbs and a little bit of mozzarella/parmesan cheese
-bake for 15 minutes; add 2 T melted butter after 10 minutes if your heart so desires