Binder Recipe: Minute Rice Whatchagot

Found this recipe in an old recipe collection of my late grandmother. Before she died, she had her daughter put together 3 binders worth of recipes, clippings, and other information for all the food that she had ever cooked. I was looking for a quick and easy casserole to make before my parents arrived in town, and this turned out to be a delicious choice.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Minute Rice
  
• 1 cup Milk
  
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
  
• 1 cup grated swiss cheese
  
• 1 small onion, chopped fine
  
• 1 cup chopped ham
  
• 1/4 tsp. Salt
  
• 1/4 tsp. Pepper
  

Preheat oven to 350°. In a 1.5-quart casserole dish, mix all ingredients well. Do not beat. You may have to turn the mixture over quite few times to get the soup milk and cheese well mixed and consistent throughout. Bake for 45 minutes at least, or until top is brown and delicious and all liquid is absorbed.

Notes: The cool thing about this dish is that you can do anything with it. The three main ingredients are the rice, soup, and milk. You can substitute any "cream of ..." soup in this recipe. Onions are optional, but recommeded for flavor. Any cooked meat can be used here. Chicken, ham, breakfast sausage, link sausage, whatever. I added some chopped green chiles, some chopped green onion, and some cilantro to make it a more "southwest" type of casserole. As long as you don't mess with the rice/liquid ratio, add any extra ingredient you want.

This dish can be a side dish or a main dish. Whatever ya like with whatchagot.