A vegetable-filled casserole with the wholesome goodness of brown rice, broccoli, and corn – perfect as a main dish or a side. Easy to prepare in very little time, but with impressive results!

Corn and Broccoli Brown Rice Casserole is a dish prepared out of necessity. The necessity is that John.e cannot ever get enough broccoli! If you’ve been reading my posts for some time, you’ll no doubt have heard me mention many times before that John.e loves broccoli.

In fact, Dear Reader, he loves it a little too much, in my opinion! No matter how it’s prepared – soup, broiled, baked, steamed, or raw – he just can’t get enough broccoli!

BROCCOLI – IT’S ALWAYS BROCCOLI!

If at any time I’m running out the door to go to the grocery store, and I ask if he or McKenna would like anything particular. John.e’s answer is always the same – broccoli. But, Dear Reader, it’s not like, “oh, just broccoli.” It’s like, “Broccoli!!!!” This one simple word is projected from his lips with such enthusiasm. It’s usually accompanied by a cartoon-like nodding of the head, paired with the wide-eyed look of a child on Christmas morning. Every. Single. Time.

So, in an effort to prepare some meals on Sunday for a busy work week, I opted for this Corn and Broccoli Brown Rice Casserole. I love to make a few meals on Sunday afternoon that will keep well in the refrigerator and can easily get us through the week. A casserole is the perfect dish to reheat a day or two later.

IT’S STORY TIME!

Speaking of reheating, I have to share this story with you. As I said, I prepared this casserole on Sunday afternoon and waited until it had completely cooled. I covered the dish well and placed it in the refrigerator. On Monday night, I separated the casserole into two individual-sized baking dishes. That might seem like a lot of food for two people, but I wasn’t planning to serve anything else with dinner that night. They are generally big eaters, so I knew they could handle it.

John.e usually arrives home around 7pm. Poor McKenna, she can’t wait until then to eat – she’s usually starving by 6pm. So I put the casseroles into the oven at 5:15pm at 350 degrees, thinking that they would take about 25 minutes or so to fully heat through. I took McKenna’s casserole dish out of the oven and served her dinner. I left John.e’s in the oven thinking that the residual heat would keep it warm enough until he arrived home an hour later.

McKenna and I ate our dinner. We cleaned up the dishes and she went off to study. I had been working on a blog post when I realized it was a few minutes before 7 pm. I decided to turn the oven back on to bring up the temperature of John.e’s casserole. Well, much to my dismay, the oven was already on. I had left the already cooked casserole in the oven for almost two hours!!!

AND THE RESULTS ARE IN!

The top had charred slightly. The bubbling around the edges had all dried up. And the entire dish looked sad and unappealing. Failure! Of course, it was at that exact moment, John.e walked in the door. Not one to complain or toss food, he decided to eat it anyway. And, guess what!? He loved it! So, you see, Dear Reader, not only can you make this Corn and Broccoli Brown Rice Casserole ahead of time, but you can reheat it ( or overheat it!) and it still tastes great! In my humble opinion, that’s a winning dish! (Or John.e is too considerate and too polite to say any differently. I guess I’ll never know.)

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