I have a problem in my household and that is that my son can't have much in the way of dairy. He's still a little guy, and I'm hoping he'll grow out of it, but it used to give him hives, and now he doesn't get hives, he jut wakes up in the middle of the night screaming because of an upset tummy. So, since I don't like giving my kid hives, and I don't like missing out on my sleep, I don't give him dairy. Which means that I have to completely relearn how to cook. And like 97.6% of all casserole recipes aren't useful to me now. So today when I had a couple chicken breasts that needed to be used and our garden gave us our first two little zucchinis I figured it was time to make myself a non-dairy casserole. So I winged it. And I like it. Quite a bit actually.
Nearly No Dairy Casserole
3 cups cooked brown rice*
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can olives, sliced
1 large can (or 1qt jar if you can your own) tomatoes, mostly drained
1 can corn, drained
2 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
2 small zucchini sliced into half coins
1-2 tsp each of thyme and oregano
salt and pepper to taste
about 1.5-2 c grated cheddar cheese (I used extra sharp and it was superb)
It's a casserole, so really, you just throw it all together (except the cheese), put it in a large casserole dish (I used a 13x11, but a 9x13 would work too, it would just come up higher) and put the cheese on top. Cover it tightly with foil and bake at 350 F for 30 minutes. Give the zucchini a poke with a fork to make sure it's tender, if it isn't give it some more time with the foil on. If it is, take the foil off, and let it bake for 10 more minutes. Take it out, let it cool a bit, eat it. Hope for leftovers for lunch tomorrow. It serves 6-8.
*you could probably use white rice, leave it uncooked, add the tomato liquid and probably the corn liquid too, and let it steam in the oven, but that's not what I did, so I can't make any guarantees.
