Broccoli Cauliflower Artichoke Casserole

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I can hardly believe that it's March already. I love the color green. I am part Irish, and I love thinking of today as GREEN DAY! :) I love that band too. :) Well, I'm trying my hand at theme cooking. I know shocker! I don't usually do anything for St. Patricks day except wear green. Today however, I feel more in the spirit of St. Patricks Day so today I am having a Green Meal planned for dinner tonight. Well, all except for the meat, it's marinated chicken legs (store bought). I participate in something called Bountiful Baskets and I got some green colored cauliflower and I thought to my self, what am I going to do with this? I had bought some broccoli earlier in the week so it was still good. Realizing today was GREEN DAY! I thought, "why don't I make a green dish for dinner". So that's just what I did. I searched online for broccoli casseroles, I didn't find one that I thought I had everything for, so I combined two with ingredients that I already had on hand. So here's hoping it turns out. I also made a green jello cake for dessert. Fun huh!? I think so.

Ingredients:

2 heads of fresh broccoli

1 head of cauliflower (mine was colored green)

1/4 of a red onion (I would have used yellow if I had any)

1 can artichoke hearts (rinsed and chopped)

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 can cream of broccoli cheese soup

1 cup sour cream

salt, pepper and paprika to taste

1/8 tsp celery salt

2 tsp butter (melted)

2 cups herb stuffing mix or (8 oz)

Directions:

Boil the broccoli and cauliflower to desired tenderness, then chop. Add the chopped red onion, artichoke hearts 1 cup cheddar cheese sour cream, salt and pepper in a bowl. Stir in the broccoli and cauliflower. In a 9X9X2 pan, spread mixture in the pan.

Then melt the butter and stir in the stuffing mix to incorporate, the sprinkle or spread on top of the broccoli mix the stuffing and butter mixture.

Bake in preheated 350F oven for 30 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of stuffing mixture and bake an additional 5 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Serve warm.

Broccoli Cheeseburger Mac

Tonight, my kids asked if they could have cheeseburger mac. I tried to think of some way to sneak in veggies into dinner that were not corn. Since that was the side dish they requested. I had some broccoli that I needed to use up from Bountiful Baskets. I had some bulk breakfast sausage and half an onion that I thought would be good and add flavor to the mac instead of just plain hamburger meat.

This was a delicious dinner, that had all the basic food groups in one dish. So yummy! I'm heading back for bowl number 2... Mind you, I didn't have lunch... So I'm a little hungry. This makes enough for company if your kids have friends over for dinner, and it's also good if you want leftovers for your spouses lunch the next day. This would be good re-heated and the next day. :)

Ingredients:

2 boxes Mac N Cheese

1 stick of butter

1/2 cup milk

4 oz velvetta cheese, cubed

3-4 cups fresh or one frozen bag of broccoli

1/2 onion

1 lb bulk sausage or ground beef

Directions:

Boil water in a large pot on the stove. As the water is boiling, dice the onion and cut up the broccoli... in a medium skillet add the bulk sausage and onions and cook until meat is browned and the onions are slightly transparent. Then set aside. In the water pot once it's boiling add the noodles from the mac n cheese box, holding out the powdered cheese to add later. Cook the pasta, about 2 minutes after you add the pasta, add the fresh or frozen broccoli to the same pot. Once the pasta is al dente or til desired tenderness drain the broccoli and pasta together. Then add the milk, velvetta cheese, powdered cheese, and all other ingredients including the sausage onion mixture and pasta broccoli. Stir until all incorporated and the velvetta is melted. Then serve.

This is SO DELICIOUS full of yummy vitamins from the broccoli and onions. Great flavor! no added salt, or pepper needed. Except to cook the noodles which adds flavor to the pasta.

* Make sure you salt the noodles when cooking them.