Easy Rice Bake Casserole with Cheese and Spinach

Happy Women's Day everybody! In true American style it was celebrated at my office by cutting some cakes with colorful icing. Surprised by the gesture but it was sweet of whoever thought of it. My fervent wish is that women will be more supportive of each other.

I read this opinion piece in the Washington Post - What's so bad about American parents?. The topic of parenting and parenting advice especially is loaded with heartaches, judgements and other not so happy stuff but I liked the gist of this article which said to focus on kids' happiness rather than their achievements. Happiness should lead to achievements and not the other way around. This advice is true not only for bringing up kids but for leading one's life as well one would think.

Anyway we have been a month into our shared cooking duties and it has been working out well so far. DDs have been doing pretty good and enjoying creating food that everybody can eat. Last week even with a lot of work to do DD asked me not to step in. She had already picked out the recipe and purchased the ingredients and wanted to complete it. Yes! they are into it 100%. The week before she had made butternut soup and it turned out to be like baby food (her words not mine) so she was determined to come up with a better and tastier recipe and with this recipe she succeeded beautifully. The recipe was top class if I might say so myself.

You have leftover rice and don't know what to do with it this recipe deserves a second look.

Recipe Source: Food Network

Easy Rice Bake Casserole with Cheese and Spinach
Ingredients
1. 2 tbsp of butter
2. 1/4 cup of minced onions (about 1/2 medium sized onion)
3. 2 cups of loosely packed fresh spinach leaves
4. 1 cup milk
5. 2 eggs
6. 2 cups of Mozzarella cheese (recipe called for sharp cheddar cheese)
7. 2 tsp of red chili powder
8. 4 cups of cooked rice
9. 3 - tbsp of chopped coriander leaves (parsley, thyme and basil leaves as per recipe)
10. 1 tsp black pepper powder
11. salt to taste

Method
1. Preheat oven for 350F. Butter a large casserole dish.
2. In a saute pan heat the butter and saute the onions till soft. Add in the spinach leaves and saute till they are slightly wilted. Add in the red chili and pepper powders and salt and mix it in. Add in the rice and mix it into the spinach mixture.
3. Whisk together the eggs and the milk. Add the milk and egg mixture to the rice and also half the cheese and the coriander leaves and mix it in well.
4. Now pour the rice mixture into a prepared casserole dish. Spread the remaining cheese or if needed add even more cheese on top.
5. Bake for 30 minutes.

Slice and serve.