Not Quite Grandma’s Chicken and Rice Bake

I saw something in my grocer’s freezer that I really wanted. I don’t know if it was some craving for comfort food at the tail end of my cold or what, but I saw this Stouffer’s frozen meal and really wanted it. I couldn’t find a bigger photo on the web, but as I walked by it really caught my eye, as well as my appetite.

No, I didn’t buy it, but I did start thinking of how I could make something similar at home. Since I didn’t follow a recipe, I’ll tell you exactly what I did. I did start in the frozen foods section, using Morningstar Farms frozen meal-starter chick’n strips.

Ingredients:

1 cup rice, cooked (my favorite instructions for basic white rice here)
2 stalks celery, roughly cut
1 cup carrots, roughly cut
1 cup frozen peas
1 can vegetarian cream of mushroom soup
Shredded cheese (optional)
Salt and pepper

Start by cooking the frozen chick’n in a bit of oil (I used Earth Balance as I was looking for a buttery taste) in a skillet. It will brown if you use some oil or margarine and patiently turn it from side to side. Once I started cooking these strips, it smelled like a KFC with the eleven herbs and spices. Set those aside, then cook the veggies in the same skillet.

Add the cream of mushrooms soup to the veggie skillet and thin it with half a can of water. Add a bit more salt and pepper if you like. I was careful not to add too much because the strips seemed so well seasoned and I knew the condensed soup tends to be salty, even though I used the reduced sodium kind. Finally, mix in the rice and transfer to a casserole dish. Bake at 325F for half an hour. Some recipes include some cheese, so I tossed on some leftover shredded Swiss. We both really liked our cheesy bites.