My Food on Fridays for June 26th

Make-Do Strata

So for breakfast this last Father's Day morning, I planned on doing strata, per Pilot's request. I rarely make it the night before, because I rarely have room in my fridge to hold a pan overnight. So I asked Pilot to get a loaf of bread out of the freezer, so that it would be ready for the morning put together.

When I came down to the kitchen this morning, there was no loaf of bread thawed on my counter. Pilot had forgotten to get out the bread. So it was improvise time. I had some old- 2 weeks at least- square sandwich rolls in the fridge. It was panini bread or something of the sorts. It had been in the fridge and they were cold and dry. The bag they came in was not airtight and they really dried out. So into the Magic Bullet they went. Now I had bread crumbs instead of cubes for my strata.

I decided to use leftovers from the fridge this time and not my traditional recipe. So into a bowl I put about 6 eggs and whisked them up. Then I added about a 1/4 cup of Green Enchilada Sauce. Then about a 1/2 cup milk, to rinse out the green sauce bottle. The milk has a pull date of May 7, it was a manager special and 2%. Noone in my family likes 2% and so it has been sitting on the top shelf for over a month and I only use it for cooking. It still smells and looks fine.

Then to that I added about 2/3 cup cottage cheese that I found upside down with a pull date of May 1st. I really thought it was sourcream and I knew that sour cream would last a long time in the fridge unopened. I usually keep all my sour cream and cottage cheese containers upside down to help the seal stay sealed.

Then I added cheese, the remnants of 2 different bags, for a total of about 1 1/2 cups. Also a can of drained french cut green beans and a chopped up small pre-cooked chicken breast. I forgot to add any salt and pepper or other seasonings.

While I was putting the ingredients together, I turned on the oven to 350 degrees. I stuck a 2nd hand oval crockpot bowl in the oven to preheat. When the bowl was good and hot, I pulled it out and brushed it with bacon grease. Then I poured the 'strata' mix in. This was now not a strata. It was not a quiche, it was a breakfast casserole of some sort. It sizzled as it hit the hot greased crock. I finished it off with a can of cream of chicken soup that I basically iced on the top of the mixture. It would become icing gravy, if all went well.

I stuck it back into the oven, set the timer for 40 minutes and headed up to shower. When I came back down, I checked the casserole and decided to turn up the heat to 375 and added 30 more minutes. I really don't know how long it baked, but finally it was done. Hot and set in the middle, a little brown crust starting to form on the sides and bottom. It smelled good.

It sat for a few minutes, and then it was time to scoop it out and try it. This is the results:

---With a possible 5 stars---

Me............................................. 5
Hubby............................................5
Pilot...................................................4
Angel...................2 after the first bite

And then Angel said to send it to the starving people of the world!
So I guess her new rating would be a -5! Bless her for her honesty and generosity!!
However, there just wasn't enough left to send to the starving people of the world.

It must not have been too bad or the pan wouldn't be looking like this!



So my Make-do portion was making do with the ingredients I had on hand. Making Do with my new $1.50 old (looks brand new) crock pot crock as a casserole dish. Cheap and it really cooks nicely. I love using cast iron, stoneware and crocks to bake in. Everything turns out awesome!!!

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