Recipe Wednesday

This recipe is one from my childhood. The first time I visited home from college, I asked my mom to make this for dinner. It's a great casserole, perfect for supper on a cold autumn or winter night. It's called 7-in-1 Casserole, but I only use 6 ingredients. I don't remember what the 7th one was! I think it was something like mushrooms or celery. Feel free to throw in a 7th ingredient!

1 pound lean ground beef
2 large baking potatoes (like Idaho or russet)
1/2 small onion, chopped
about 14 baby carrots
2-8oz cans of tomato sauce
1/4c brown rice
salt and pepper, to taste

1. Preheat the oven the 350 degrees (F)
2. I like to precook the rice in 1/4c of boiling water on the stove for about 10-15 minutes. Otherwise it's still crunchy when I take the casserole out of the oven. If you like your rice a little crunchy, you can skip this step.
3. While the rice is cooking, peel the potatoes and slice them into very thin circles. Slice the carrots in thin circles as well.
4. Place the potatoes and carrots in a large glass square or oval casserole dish that you've sprayed with a quick spray of non-stick cooking spray.
5. Sprinkle them with a little salt and pepper
6. Place the ground beef and onions on top of the potatoes.
7. Pour the 2 cans of tomato sauce over the top.
8. Remove the brown rice from the stove top and drain any excess water. Add the rice to the top of the tomato sauce and mix it into the tomato sauce a little bit.
9. Bake covered or uncovered until the beef is no longer pink, and the potatoes are tender, about 60-75 minutes.

I thought I had taken a picture of it when I had it last week, but I couldn't find it. It's the casserole that's in the container in my post "A Day in the Life", but I don't think you can see it very well! This will make 4-6 servings, although my husband and I can easily eat this all in one sitting between just the 2 of us. :)