Squash Casserole

I have great memories of my parents’ gardens growing up.  We gardened a lot.

A whole lot.

When I say this to my daddy, he laughs at me and says that I am mistaken.  We never had gardens as big as I seem to remember.

Oh, yes we did.

We had a huge patch of butter beans and purple hull peas across the road from our house.  We had a gigantic field of corn, okra, and tomatoes.  We had another patch of something across the road.  We had a big patch of something else near the road close to the house.

We had a lot of gardens.  Maybe we didn’t have them all at the same time.  But we had a bunch of gardens.

One summer, Mama and I planted yellow squash up on the sandy hill beside our house.  I poked the holes and dropped in the seeds.  Mama came behind me and covered the seeds.  We had so much squash that year!

Mama and Daddy always seem to have an abundance of yellow squash.  I’m so glad because we love it and they bring lots of it to us!  This year has been no exception!  We’ve had sauteed squash and Parmesan Roasted Squash and stuffed squash.

And this!  I remember eating squash dressing and squash casserole at many Sunday dinner-on-the-grounds at church.  When I got ready to make my own recently, I pulled out at least a dozen church cookbooks (aren’t those the BEST?) and tried several recipes, but none of them were THE ONE.

So I put together this one and it is divine!  It uses sweet cornbread as its base and lots of squash, onions, red  bell pepper, and celery.  It is so good!

Squash Casserole

• 2 8.5-oz. boxes of Jiffy cornbread muffin mix
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup of milk
• 8 cups of yellow squash, cut into chunks
• 1 cup of onion, diced
• 1 cup of red bell pepper, diced
• 1 cup of celery, diced
• 2 10 3.4-oz. cans of cream of chicken soup
• 1 can of milk
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine cornbread mix, eggs, and 2/3 cup of milk.  Pour into a sprayed 9X13 pan.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until top is golden.  Cool slightly and crumble into a very large bowl.  Spray pan again and set aside.  Reduce heat to 350 degrees.

Fill a pot with an inch of water.  Add squash and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium, cover, and boil for 5-10 minutes – until squash is tender.

While squash is cooking, in a large skillet, drizzle olive oil and melt 1 tablespoon of butter.  Add the vegetables and sautee until tender.

Add cooked squash and vegetables to to the cornbread crumbles and stir to combine.

Combine soup, milk, salt, and pepper in a bowl and whisk to combine.  Pour this mixture into the cornbread and vegetable mixture.  Stir only until combined.  Pour into the sprayed pan and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Well Duh #1:  I used skim milk.  We almost never have any other kind of milk.

Well Duh #2:  I also used the 98% fat free soup.

This was delicious!  I love the sweetness that the cornbread gives it.  I also love the way the cornbread gets brown and crispy on top while it bakes.  So good!  I served this with baked pork chops and a salad. It was a perfect side dish!  It didn’t taste overly “squashy” either.  Just yummy!