Nana’s Kitchen: Easy Hot Dish

Nana’s Kitchen: Easy Hot Dish

Greetings, home cooks, welcome to Nana’s Kitchen,

This week I was thinking of my brother and sisters when we were children. My mother was a home maker and my father worked. Having mothers at home was more common during my childhood than now. We rarely went out to eat, with 5 children it was a little expensive. Eating out was a special occasion. 

Easter was a special occasion. Not only did we girls wear hats and gloves to church and my brother a suit and tie, we all went out for dinner. There was a well liked cafeteria in a local hotel in our community. That was the preferred spot, the prices reasonable. I remember always getting meat loaf and mashed potatoes. We thought we were in high society getting to go out for a meal. Plus you could pick out your favorite desert. Sadly that hotel and cafeteria have been gone many, many years.

We did eat meals around the table in the evening. Mother had to stretch meals. Sometimes things were a little tight and my father even worked extra jobs to make ends meet. We ate pancakes and eggs for dinner and spaghetti was common. Rice and hamburger were great meal stretchers and those appeared in one way or another. So this week we are making a rice and hamburger casserole. 

This casserole provides a hot meal, stretching the food to serve 6. Served with a vegetable on the side it is a filling evening meal.

Easy Hot Dish

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
2 medium or one large onion, diced
1 cup diced or thinly sliced celery
1/2 cup rice, uncooked
1 can cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1 can cream of chicken soup, undiluted
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 cups water

Instructions:
Brown beef and onions in a large skillet.
Add celery to soften.
Mix in the rest of the ingredients.
Pour into a casserole dish.
Bake at 350 degree for 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Serve hot.
Enjoy.

Hints: 
Drain off excess grease from meat, onion, celery mixture before adding everything else. Just tilt the skillet a little and spoon the grease into a bowl for discard later. 
I thought this might cook over the top of the casserole dish but it did not.
Do not add any salt to this dish as there is so much salt in the soy sauce.
Could use the lower sodium soy sauce if you prefer.
As with a lot of leftovers it heats up nicely in the microwave and tastes good, maybe even better.
The rice cooks up well without added water.
I greased my casserole dish with a little butter to prevent sticking. Worked well.

Have a blessed Sunday.