Feed 6-8 for Less Then $10

My parents, but mostly my mother, raised 3 girls ( a best friend, and more often then not, 6-10 of the neighborhood kids) on a single income until I was about 12. Fresh herbs and spices were unheard of back then, you cooked and baked on a budget and became pleased that the next day brought just as many people to dinner.
Thanksgivings were never sparse, dessert brought anywhere from 8-10 variety of pies for us, our cousins, aunts, uncles and neighbors to chose from.
Christmas, brought forth dozens of varieties of cookies, and dozens of each flavor, passed out to 20+ people in platters, again, all on one income.
I rarely cooked with my mother, she did it all alone. But on the Christmas before she died, we were blessed with a recipe book, painstakingly hand scribed, and photocopied for each of us girls, with her "best recipes". Often the recipes are just a way to feed an army on a tight budget. Sometimes us girls stumble over a recipe as to what this or that means without our mother to fill in the details as I am sure she planned.

Now, with my daughter, she helps me cook most of our meals, and often times, I go back to Moms recipe book, pages tucked in a torn folder, stained and splattered, to relive a recipe I cherished growing up.

While food is just the tip of the iceberg of things my mother did for people, it's the glue that binds all good families and friends together. I have no training to be a chef, baker, or otherwise. I cook from moms recipes, life experience, and the occasional mash up of recipes on the web, combining 3-4 recipes into my own. I enjoy watching some cooking shows like Giada and Paula Dean, and am inspired by some of their recipes. But mostly, though my food seems simple to some,
it has come a long way from what I grew up with, and I think my mother would enjoy sitting at my table, as I often enjoyed sitting in Gramma's rocker, in moms kitchen, next to the old kerosene stove, rocking away to something baking.

I am proud and delighted to post this recipe, which feeds so many people on such a cheap budget, with a few tweaks of my own, in parenthesis. If you want simple, no fuss, disregard my comments in parenthesis.

Chicken and Corn Casserole






(This recipe is a trial and error of "what looks like it's right" measurements cannot be exact, use judgment)
3-4 C. cooked rice (this is usually 2 cups of dried rice boiled in 4 c. water. I boil my rice in chicken or vegetable stock for added flavor and I usually do 1.5C. rice to 3 C. stock)
1-2 C. chopped cooked chicken (I am not a fan of bone in chicken, or dark meat, but around here, it's very cheap to buy bulk thighs or drums, so I boil the chicken in goya sazon, garlic, onion and sea salt, right off the bone. Not only do you have a wonderful chicken stock after, but once the chicken is in the recipe, you don't realize it's not breast meat, you could also use a deli rotisserie chicken, chop it and save a step)
1 to 1 and 1/2 Can Corn or approx 2 C. frozen corn (don't ask me on fresh, my daughter won't eat it lol. If you are in a pinch, you can use cream corn, just remember that when you are adding the soup)
2. tbsp minced onion (here, I like to use fresh onion, and garlic, and boil it with the rice as it cooks, unless you cooked your chicken as I described above)
1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup (I use cream of mushroom, it's cheaper, and adds another depth of flavor, have a 2nd can around in case, because this recipe is mostly "cook it how it looks" not measurements)
"A Little Milk" (Love mom, but I never add milk, hence the 2nd can of soup back up)
Crackers or Bread Crumbs (both work great, in the pics I smashed up "Townhouse Crackers" which are buttery in flavor)

(After rice and chicken are done) Stir rice, chicken, onion (if you didn't cook it in as I do), and soup together, stir in enough milk until it is good and moist, but not soupy. (again, with enough soup and stock, this step isn't needed).Pour into casserole dish, sprinkle crumbs over top. Bake at 350 for 30-45 mins until hot and top is crispy.

I know my added comments make the recipe look harder then it is, and again, if you only cook with the bold items, you are good to go. But I rely on this recipe a lot, and I think through the years, I have made it a great, affordable recipe that can feed many.