Broccoli Cheese Casserole

This is a dish my mom and grandma have been making for quite a while.  I love it and always ask for it every holiday and thought I whould share this simple, tasty recipe with everyone here at Instructables!

I just found out I won Runner up in the Safeway Tastier Holiday Recipe Contest!  

How awesome is that!

Ingredients:

• 1 pk. Frozen Broccoli or equivalent (1 lb.) in fresh
• 4 oz. Cheese Whiz or other type of cheese (I ended up using the whole jar of 15 oz. and it was a great choice.)
• 3/4 cup Margarine
• 1 pk. of Uncle Ben's white and wild rice
• 1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup

Optional Ingredients I chose to leave out:

• 1 med. chopped onion
• 1/4 cup Slivered almonds

Equipment:

• Dishes to make rice
• Casserole Dish or Dutch Oven + Cover
• Cutting Board and Knife (if fresh broccoli)
• Spoon
• Stovetop Pan big enough to hold cooked onion, broccoli, soup, and cheese (I used the Dutch Oven for this.)
• Oven
• Stovetop

Total cooking time will be the amount of time it takes to cook rice (half an hour for me) and baking time (half an hour): approximately 1 hour.

Cook rice according to the package.

While the rice is cooking, cut up the broccoli and set it aside (if using fresh).  Also, when the rice is almost done, you can start cooking up the onion in the butter (if you are using it).

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Once the onion is cooked, (if you used it) add in the broccoli, soup, and cheese.  

If you didn't have onion, add about three tablespoons of butter into your pan (I used the Dutch Oven) on low heat, let the butter melt a little and then add in the broccoli, soup, and cheese.  Let it heat up and make sure everything is melted and mixed together.  If you used frozen broccoli, make sure it is thawed.

Then add in your rice (and almonds if you used them).  Once everything is mixed together, put it in the oven with a cover.

Let it cook for half an hour.

You are done.  It is a really easy casserole and very much worth making.

Enjoy!