Depression Casserole

I know what you are thinking... Depression Casserole? Does it make you depressed or do you eat it because you are depressed? The answer is neither.This dish was created during the depression and thus named depression casserole. My Grandmother grew up during the depression with 13 other brothers and sisters up in Ohio. Her mom knew how to make food last and sustain you. Then she became a wife of a blue collar construction worker with 7 kids and continued the tradition. So she really knows what it means to be creative with food. This is one of her recipes. 

Good, hearty, warm, and will fill you up.... and keep you there!

You start with a deep casserole dish and spray it with baking spray. Set the oven to 350 and brown the ground beef. We use 2 pounds in my family because there are 6 of us. There is usually left overs so I'd say this recipe feeds about 8. 

While that is cooking pour one bag of still frozen hashbrowns into the bottom of the casserole dish. DON'T COOK THEM! You could use tater tots too if you so choose Then pour between 1 and 2 cups of milk in to help those potatoes cook. 

Dust them with a visible amount of season salt. Gives it a lot of great flavor. 

When the meat is browned, spread it evenly across the hashbrowns in the dish as the next layer. 

Next, my family always uses green beans because we like them so much but really it works with mixed frozen or canned veggies, corn, peas, whatever you want. Remember, this was made in the depression so they used what they had. Be creative! 

I used 2 cans of french cut green beans. layer them on top of the beef.

Next, take 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup (I like Campbell's best) and spread that across the veggies. A spatula will probably work best for you, it does for me. Don't worry if the veggies come up in it, we aren't looking for perfection here. If you so chose you could use any cream soup for the flavor you like best (cream of chicken, celery, asparagus, etc)

Take the spatula and just poke all the way to the bottom a couple of times is random parts of the casserole just to make pathways for everything to mix together. 

Finally, sprinkle the cheese. We use a LOT of cheese on our but you could completely omit the cheese if you didn't want it. I use cheddar or colby jack or something of that sort. 

Stick that sucker in the over for an hour covered with foil. About the last 5-10 minutes I take the foil off to get the cheese a little bubblier. After baking let it sit for about 10 minutes to rest and let everything set, otherwise it will pretty much fall apart as soon as you take some out. That's it! Enjoy!

It's a real favorite around this house. comfort food at it's finest. I suppose if I were depressed, this would be the kind of food I'd want to see for dinner! Haha. Until next time!