cover image Simply Casseroles: Over 100 Quick, Delicious One Dish Dinners

Simply Casseroles: Over 100 Quick, Delicious One Dish Dinners

Kim Lila, Lila. Surrey Books, $14.95 (150pp) ISBN 978-1-57284-013-3

Assembled to launch Surrey's Simply Cooking series, most of the dishes here take under 20 minutes to put together. Lila's trick is a liberal use of canned, frozen and otherwise commercially prepared ingredients. Chicken Divan, which takes but 15 minutes to create and is fat-sensitive like most of these recipes, assembles pre-cooked chicken breasts from the grocer, a thawed package of frozen broccoli, a package of shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese and either minute- or boil-in-the-bag rice. The sauce is made of skim milk, flour and light mayonnaise or salad dressing. Time is saved elsewhere by not browning meat before adding it to a casserole. For Veal Scallopini, two-inch strips of meat are floured, layered with mushrooms, garlic, dried parsley, basil and wine, and then baked for a long one-and-a-half hours. When preparing Beef Stroganoff, even noodles go in uncooked. Such quick-and-easy approaches are applied to grain casseroles, side dishes, brunch meals and desserts. In the Fast Fixes section, Lila includes her favorite comfort food, The Thing, serving six. Mix together a pound of cooked and drained ground beef, two cans of reduced-fat cream of mushroom soup, a one-pound package of macaroni, cooked, and a can of peas; bake for 20 minutes. ""It doesn't get much easier than this,"" Lila says justifiably. Nutritional data is provided for each recipe. (Dec.)