Yummy Casserole is Yummy

I promised everyone a post this weekend, but sadly, my Nook post is not finished. There is so much that I want to say that I do not want to rush it. So instead, I offer you this: a recipe for a yummy casserole.

Due to some chaos around the house since Thanksgiving, we have been pinching pennies a little more than usual. Which has led to some creative dinner choices. The plus side to this is that I have gotten the hubby and kids to try some different things. They are very picky and like to stick with what they are used to, but to be honest, I was getting sick of the same old routine.

For dinner tonight, I decided to try a recipe that I found on allrecipes.com a few weeks ago, when searching for things that used rice and cream soup but were not broccoli, cheese, and chicken. I found an appetizing looking dish with sausage, veggies, and cream of mushroom soup. Since the hubby is allergic to the mushrooms, I opted to modify it a little by leaving out the fresh celery and exchanging the mushroom soup for cream of celery instead. 

Below is my adaption, but the original recipe can be found here.

Hot Sausage Casserole

Ingredients

1 pound bulk hot Italian pork sausage

1 large green pepper, chopped

1 med onion, chopped

1 1/4 cup uncooked long grain white rice

2 (10.75 ounce) cans Condensed Cream of Chicken soup

1 (10.75 ounce) can Condensed Cream of Celery soup

Cooking spray

Instructions

1. Cook the sausage in a large skillet over medium-high heat until it is well browned, stirring often to seperate the meat. Pour off any fat. Stir in the pepper and onion. Cook for a minute or two so vegetables will start to soften. Add and stir the rice, soups, and 1 can of water in the skillet.
2. Spray a 3-quart casserole dish with the cooking spray. Spoon the skillet mixture into the casserole. Bake at 400 degrees (F) covered for 45 minutes. Remove cover, stir, and cook 15 minutes more.

As mentioned, I opted for celery soup instead of mushroom soup and fresh celery. On this attempt, I also used 10 minute rice instead of regular uncooked rice - mostly because I had a bag laying around left over from a box dinner. I hoped that it would make it cook faster, seeing that it was par-cooked rice, but it did not. It only shaved about 5-10 minutes off of the hour bake time. The original recipe also only called for 1 cup of rice, but I used about 1 1/4 (which was what was in the baggie), and honestly felt, when all was said and done, that it could have used a little more. It was nice and creamy.

When it was done, it was absolutely delicious. To me, it tasted just a little salty. But then, I rarely cook with salt or eat salt, so I just notice it more. It is possible that it was because of the celery (celery seasoned things usually come across as a little salty to me). Or, it could have been that it was a seasoning in the sausage. Or even that the sausage was pork, and I am used to poultry. But I think, to solve the issue, next time I will make it with reduced sodium soups. And there will definitely be a next time.