Campfire Broccoli Cheese Casserole

I mentioned in my Thanksgiving post that I wanted to teach you how to make my delicious broccoli dish over a fire. Hey, maybe you'll end up stranded in the wilderness with some cheese, breadcrumbs and frozen broccoli. Or perhaps you'll want to wow your friends at a backyard barbecue. Or maybe you'll just think, huh, that's cool...and then make it in your oven. Whatever floats your bubble! Just make it. You'll never see broccoli the same again.


Ingredients:

1 lg. onion
2 pkgs. frozen broccoli florets
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 egg
whole milk
1 pound of muenster cheese
garlic powder
onion powder
salt
pepper
seasoned bread crumbs



First, dice up half a large onion.

Get out a large pot and add the onions, frozen broccoli florets, and water. Bring to a boil over the fire or on a propane cookstove. Cook until soft but not mushy.

Place your colander in a bowl on the ground. I'm serious. There's no sink out here people. Then dump your broccoli and onion in and lift the colander to drain.



Choose your cookware. A cast-iron dutch oven works great. But since there were only so many to go around for all of the dishes being prepared, I chose a disposable foil casserole dish. They're so much easier to clean up afterward, too. (Oh, and pretend these onions are mixed in with the broccoli. I promise you can boil them both together.)


Now add a can of cream of mushroom soup. If you have no can opener (like me) you ask the nearest man with a knife to make himself useful and open the can with it.

Save that can! It makes an excellent measuring and mixing cup. Fill it with milk. Add the milk to the broccoli mix.

Still haven't thrown away the can yet, right? Now use it to crack your egg and beat it with a fork (the egg, not the can).




Notice the seasoning dusting the top of the broccoli mix. I add garlic powder, onion powder, and plenty of salt and pepper. And I never do it the same way twice! Measurements are such a downer.



At this point, I realized that my casserole was getting too big for its britches. I decided it would be better off in two foil pans instead of one.


Ahhh. Much better.



Here comes the cheese!

Oh muenster, you make my mouth water. I will not be afraid to use the whole block. (Save a little to sprinkle on top!)




Now, sprinkle on some seasoned bread crumbs and a handful of reserved cheese for that extra oomph.

Okay, now we're ready to bake!

This can be the tricky part. You must have the right kind of fire for "baking" a casserole.

This fire = bad.

This fire = good.

The first fire picture is for flame broiling and for singeing your eyebrows off. However, once it has burned down and developed a lot of glowing hot coals (those little black and white chunks of glowing wood in the bottom of the fire), it will look more like the second fire. This is the key to baking in a campfire. Lots of hot coals, not so much flame. Cover your casserole with heavy-duty foil if you are using the disposable pan like I did. Or, turn over the lid of your dutch oven, knobby side up. Place your casserole on the coals of the fire and add some to the top. This will literally surround it with heat like an oven. Continue to monitor, rotating the dish so it doesn't burn, and switching the coals on top with fresh hot ones. Do this for 45 minutes, give or take.



OH my goodness it's ready! Doesn't that look amazing?

This dish is always a hit, no matter what the occasion. Like, dinner, for example. And don't forget to make two so you can have some the next day, too.

Another Update & Recipe

Well Seth has finally gotten well enough to return to work this evening, and for that we are all extremely grateful. Things have been terribly out of rhythm for the girls and me these past few weeks. Noodle's schooling has been unpredictable though strangely fruitful. Hopers has been whiny and defiant (yet I can hardly blame that on an odd schedule, since she did recently have a second birthday). I have felt somewhat claustrophobic, having been penned up with three needy people for what seems like ages. Not only that, but I haven't been allowed to have chocolate! Who ever heard of a worse fate than that?
Desserts aside, I thought I might write down another recipe that we have been enjoying, one that I invented myself. That isn't to say that I'm the first person to have ever put these ingredients together, but I didn't have an idea of what I was doing until I was eating the concoction and thoroughly enjoying it!

Garlic Chicken Lettuce Wraps

olive oil
4 cloves garlic, diced
1 onion, diced
2 chicken breasts, uncooked, chopped in very small pieces
8-12 oz frozen chopped spinach
sea salt
1 head iceburg lettuce


Heat a generous amount of olive oil in the bottom of a large skillet. Add onion. Sautee for 4-5 minutes, then add garlic. Continue to cook until soft and the garlic is just beginning to brown. Add the chicken. Cook until the chicken is no longer pink, stirring often. Toss in the spinach and plenty of sea salt. When the spinach is heated thoroughly, remove pan from heat. Take crisp, whole lettuce leaves, fill with warm chicken mixture, fold, enjoy. A very filling meal for two.

Update

We're halfway through another week of the special diet (see Feb 7th, 2008) and Seth is actually beginning to show some small improvement. The core body areas that were really inflamed in the beginning are now just somewhat red and peeling, without the pain, swelling, and bumpiness. The inflammation moved outward to his arms and legs, but even today, some of that started to lessen. Overall, things are much improved. Seth even went to the gym today because he can move around without fear of tearing something!
We're still figuring out how to feel satisfied on this rather bland and limited diet. One of our everyday favorite snacks is homemade flax crackers and guacamole. This is a fiber-filled, omega-3-packed, delicious appetizer that everyone should try.

Flax Crackers

2 cups ground flax seed
3 tablespoons sesame seed
1 clove garlic
small amount of chopped onion
sea salt
stevia
water

Set the oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl, combine flax, sesame seed, a pinch of stevia powder, and sea salt to taste. Add water, small amounts at a time until the mixture will form a ball. Using a garlic press (I love my Pampered Chef one!), press the garlic and then the onion into the bowl providing flavor from the tiny pieces and the juice it produces. Use a fork to mix the onion and garlic into the "dough".
Place a sheet of parchment paper or a silicone mat on a baking sheet. Place your flax dough on that and then cover with a second sheet of parchment paper. Use a rolling pin or your hand to flatten the flax as thin as possible (about 1/8 inch). Remove the top sheet of parchment and tidy up the edges with a pizza cutter. Then use it to make a grid in the flax for easy cracker shapes once they're cooked. Bake for 12-17 minutes or until lightly browned and crisp.

Guacamole

3 ripe avocados
1/4 of a lemon
1/4 of a lime
small amount of cut onion
2 garlic cloves
sea salt
mixed pepper corns

Remove skins, seeds and then mash the avocados in a bowl. Squeeze lime and lemon juice by hand into the bowl taking care not to add any seeds. Press the onion and garlic cloves in the garlic press and add. Mix in sea salt and fresh ground pepper corns to taste. Chill for 30 minutes for maximum flavor!