Cheesy Veggie Casserole

I think most everyone has that one thing they associate with a particular holiday.  For me that is cheesy veggie casserole at Thanksgiving.  I grew up eating it, and hoarding all the leftovers for myself:) and now I’ve made it every year we’ve been in Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving!  The first year I made it we went to my husband’s aunts house outside of DC and I wasn’t supposed to bring a dish, but I just can’t help myself sometimes….and honestly by bringing something I knew that there would be that one thing at the meal that reminded me of home.   The entire family raved about it.  The next year Ben’s mom told me that it was requested that I make it again.

And the only time I make it is at thanksgiving.  It’s not really good for you, I mean it has a pound of cheese in it! But OMG my mouth waters just thinking about it.

This year for Thanksgiving we’re staying home, er maybe going to the IL’s. the location hasn’t actually been finalized.  My mother in-law and sister in-law and I are all splitting the cooking.  I of course am making side dishes because those are really the most important part of the meal, and if left to my mother in-law everything would have mandarin oranges and cranberries in them!

So on my list is: Stuffing, cheesy veggie casserole, mashed potatoes…and I think rolls.  I need to look over my list again.

We’re going to have friends in town for Thanksgiving so in order to minimize the amount of time I’m in the kitchen I’ve started cooking already! Sounds weird, but honestly Thanksgiving is one of the easiest holidays to cook for because you can do so much ahead of time.

This past weekend I made French toast casserole and two pans of the cheesy veggie casserole and threw them in the freezer.  All I’ll need to do on Thanksgiving is throw them into the oven and do the finishing touches.

If you have been asked to bring a side dish, bring this cheesy veggie casserole. Its easy to make and honestly people will love it!  So here is my recipe. I have photos up to the last step because I put mine in the freezer.  I post pictures of the last step and of it complete after Thanksgiving.

Cheesy Veggie Casserole

2 ½ cups of chopped carrots

2 ½ cups of chopped broccoli

2 ½ cups of chopped cauliflower

1 pound of cheddar cheese

½ pint of heavy whipping cream

1 tsp. dry mustard

1 cup milk

Dash of Salt and pepper

1 stick of butter (I use unsalted)

Crushed cornflakes

This recipe is so easy. You literally cut the veggies, steam them, put them in an 9x13 pan and then mix everything else in a saucepan and dump it over the veggies!  But here are some photos that show you how I put it all together.

cut veggies, put into a pan and steam.  Only need to steam for 5-10ish minutes.  They don’t need to be super soft at this point because you’re going to cook them in the oven.  Really just steamed enough to start the softening process and get some bright color.

Please ignore my disposable pan.  #1 I’m freezing these so I can’t store them in something nice, #2 its Thanksgiving.  I thought we already established I’ll be drinking instead of cooking, so let me also ad that I’d like to be drinking instead of washing dishes too!

Next we made the sauce!  Put heavy cream, milk, dry mustard, salt and pepper into a sauce pan. make sure the dry mustard is wisked into the sauce nicely. You don’t want weird clumps.  Also, here is a photo of the whipping cream.  My mom listed it as whipping cream in my cookbook and for the longest time I couldn’t find it! I had no idea whipping cream and heavy cream were the same thing:) its OK. you can make fun of me.

Warm up on medium heat, then add the cheese to the mix.  I do a little at a time but I don’t think it really matters.  You just want all the cheese to melt.  And make sure you’re stirring so that the cheese doesn’t get burned on the bottom of the pan!  Once this is all added through pour over the veggies.

Looks yummy, right?!

The next steps I don’t have pictures of yet, as mentioned above. But you melt the butter in a sauce pan, mix in the crushed cornflakes, and put on top of the veggies.  For the crushed cornflakes you can get regular cornflakes and crush them yourself if you want, but they actually have them already crushed at the supermarket!  In my supermarket they are on the top shelf of the bread aisle next to the stuffing mixes.

Put in oven covered at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, and the last 15 minutes leave uncovered so your cornflakes get crispy!

If you want to make this dish ahead of time stop before this last step. Cover in foil, and put in the freezer. 

I also put mine in one of those huge ziplock bags…don’t know if you really need to do this but I do just to make sure nothing gets freezer burned.

Enjoy! You are going to love this dish.

 

Also, the leftovers are amazeballs.