Food Experiments: Made-up Zucchini Casserole

When I finally decided I wanted to learn how to cook, my experience came mostly in 2 waves. My mom taught me how to read recipes so they made sense, how to make the best rice krispie bars in the world, and basically got me started. My dad then took over and started to teach me how to make stuff up.

That's a skill I'm still learning, but it's coming easier as I cook more and get a better idea of what things go together and what I like. One of my biggest challenges is branching out--I have a few made-up recipes, but since I like so many of the same spices and ingredients so much, a lot of my new attempts end up tasting just the same. Last week, based on the produce from my garden and the farmers market, I successfully made up a casserole (that's a new attempt for me!) that was not only good, but different from my past experiments. And on top of that--not only was it relatively healthy (at least, most of the ingredients are good for you, although I have no idea on calorie count) but Henry even liked it. For healthy food, that's quite a compliment! Unfortunately, I cooked this in my father's style, which means I have only a very general idea at best as to how much of things I put into it. When you make it, just put in lots of the spices you like and not so much of the ones you don't. It works for me!

Made-Up Zucchini Casserole
I used a 9x9 ceramic casserole dish with a lid, and I think it was probably 3-4 inches tall. You could probably make it in a wider, shorter dish, but I liked the layers I added in this. They make it seem more casserole-y to me.

Ingredients

• Mixed brown and wild rice to cover the bottom of the pan (around 3/4 or 1 cup?)
• 1 large-ish zucchini, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
• 1/2 large green pepper, diced
• 2 jalpenos, diced
• 1-2 tomatoes, diced
• 1 small onion, diced
• minced garlic (I used a lot. probably 2-4 tablespoons?)
• pepper
• cayenne pepper
• rosemary
• oregano
• 1 large chicken breast, cut into 1/2" cubes
• spaghetti sauce (about 3/4 of a normal sized jar)
• Cheddar cheese, enough to cover the top of the casserole and extra to sprinkle on before serving (1 cup?)
• Bread crumbs, enough to cover the top of the casserole (1/2 cup?)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Cover the bottom of the casserole dish with the mixed rice.
3. On top of the rice, layer the zucchini rounds, green pepper and jalapenos, tomatoes, and onion. Lightly cover with the spices (garlic through oregano).
4. Top the spices and veggies with the dicecd chicken breast and pour the spaghetti sauce over the top, making sure it covers as much of the casserole as possible. (I also added a little bit of extra water here for the rice, but I'm pretty sure I didn't need to. The finished product was plenty liquid-y.)
5. Cover with cheddar cheese and bread crumbs.
6. Bake covered for 1 hour. Remove the cover and bake for another 30 minutes. Top with more cheese for serving.