We had tuna casserole and the 'leftover' casserole where mom would throw together whatever was abundant in the pantry with leftover veggies and mashed potatoes from the fridge, usually on dad's bowling night when he ate with his friends. Apparently men of that time did prefer plainer, single ingredient food since that seems to be a common memory.

I too was confused about 'boxed' casseroles. Perhaps there are different opinions of what a casserole is.

I forgot, my Mom did make chicken and rice sometimes. My husband's mother made casseroles, apparently, he speaks of them sometimes. I know she would make a tuna casserole that he liked a lot.

For a few years I did food demonstrations for a supermarket. I demo'd everything from fresh made salads, fresh cooked meats, fresh or frozen ingredients combined with pre-made sauces or canned goods, to packaged snack foods. During my tenure I became familiar with many food sensitivities. Most people were very polite. "No thank you." "Sorry, diabetic." "Doc, says no sodium." "Can't do gluten." I learned very quickly however, that with the snack foods there were people who wanted to read the label even though they had NO interest in the product. They just wanted to inform me that the sodium/sugar/fat content was too high and high fructose corn syrup was bad. A few would go on to complain about why companies would make such products.

As a service professional, all I could do was listen and nod and NOT say what I was thinking; which was, "You knew you wouldn't want to eat this product when you walked over here. If you despise the convenience foods conglomerates produce, why not cook from scratch where you have control over the ingredients? " It was also interesting to notice that people with food allergies were nowhere to be found in the store when I was giving out free pizza or ice cream bars. :-)

I cook from scratch because I am frugal. It's easier ( and cheaper) for me to put together a cream of...sauce with ingredients I have on hand, than it is to drive 10 miles to the grocery store for a can of condensed soup. That said, I have made many delicious meals using canned soups, sauces, gravies and the like and am glad they remain available on our shelves.

We ate very healthy meals and my mom made the gamut. Casseroles, meat, fish, steamed veggies, you name it. I'm just glad she taught me to cook from scratch and to eat right.

PKponder, we had the "leftover" casserole also. I love casseroles, which is funny because I do not like my food to touch.

And I never had pizza until I was in my 20's. Same with Mexican food.

I think of casseroles as ingredients combined and then baked in an oven. The combinations could be anything: fresh/frozen/canned veg's, fresh/frozen/leftover meat, cheese, rice/grains/noodles/pasta, bottled condiments.

Since I don't make my own noodles/pasta, grow my own grains, milk my own cow, make my own cheese, butcher my own meat, grow my own vegetables, or bottle my own condiments...I'm using ingredients that came packaged. Though if you were to ask me, I would tell you I made my casserole from scratch! Funny that. LOL.

llucy, me too! That is exactly how I describe casseroles and the ingredients that I use. They are a time saver for me since I can assemble in the morning before work and stick it in the fridge until an hour before we want to eat.I feel that eating this way is better than fast fried foods which would be another option with my limited time.

Although I respect everyone's dietary preferences, I am happy that some foods are frozen, canned or aged (like cheese). I am just not apt to spend all day on meals, I have work during the week and other things happening on the weekend. I don't enjoy cooking.

Speaking strictly for myself and only myself, I began avoiding all canned soups because of the ingredient list, the nutritional information, and the taste. I am only referring to canned soups.

The sodium content, alone, can be astonishing.

I try to not be judgemental about some of the recipes for casseroles that I've seen and tasted, but those soups should not be part of the diet of a person needing to monitor their sodium intake. Period. Not even once in awhile.

I've cooked a lot of casseroles with the canned soups until twenty years ago or so. That's when I had a health crisis, became a label reader, and began to take control over what I eat.

I still make casseroles once in awhile, but no more stuff with artificial thickeners, stabilizers, flavor enhancers, and other ingredients that I don't want.

Cream of mushroom soup is one of the easiest and fastest of all homemade soups to make from scratch.

In Minnesota, hot-dish (not casserole) is tradition. Used for pot-lucks, church suppers and to save money. We grew up on a farm, but my mom occasionally made tuna hot dish. I still love it. But I don't have to stretch one can of tuna to feed 8 people.

PKponder, I totally agree. To me there are vast ranges of quality of sold foodstuffs, this includes canned, frozen, and fresh. I have seen it written that some frozen veggies are actually fresher than fresh, because they go from field to freezer so quickly.

And there are vast ranges of cooking abilities as well. I cook, and do some dishes very well, Stouffers makes a better mac and cheese than I do, however.

Make ahead, frozen casseroles were and are a boon to me. As a single working parent, I would often make several casseroles and freeze a couple, and now that I am older, I do that because I don't always have the energy to cook if I've done some big garden project that day.

We are all different. There are some frozen/canned/packaged foods I avoid because of health issues but some are both good, and timesaving.

For those who wouldn't open a can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken, I'm assuming you also grow the chickens for your soup, as many commercially grown chickens have as much or more an array of feed additives as the can might have of additives for us to use as food. Or for some reason, do you feel one set of additives is more permissible than another?

If I had to guess, I'd guess that in the 'olden' days before widely available frozen/canned/dried commercial food, ordinary folks might have lost more $ due to food spoilage.

Maybe it isn't all as delicious as fresh home made (I've never tasted a commercial lasagna as good as mine, if I do say so myself), but then again, many more women are working, raising a family, still expected to be the ones to put a meal on the table.

When you get home at 6PM, not many want to go back into the chicken house and chop off a chicken head and start plucking.

Growing up I didn't like most vegetables. When I had my son I became more nutrition conscious and more serious about learning how to cook. Casseroles and sauces became key for me in eating a greater variety of vegetables and later "sneaking" veggies into my child.

Along with being a time saver for parents, casseroles may be a help for those who have picky eaters. :-)

We ate @ the country club where my father was the manager. Mom saw it as a sit down family meal, the 3 of us and a telephone on the table. Dad never ate or ordered anything, he was on the phone. My brother worked as a server, my sister as the pool side snack shack operator, they weren't expected to join us.

Never heard of a casserole until I went to a church pot luck. I was led to believe that's the only place people had casseroles. :0)

We didn't eat casseroles. We were mainly meat and potato people with fruits and veggies from our garden. My mom pretty much quit cooking when I was in elementary school. I became the cook. I made a lot of Hamburger Helpers and roast beef. I added casseroles to the menu after I got married.

Now that everyone is in school and my husband at work, I usually only cook one meal a day. I'd say from scratch, but I do occasionally use a cream of soup or something else from a can. My cooking usually involves recipes and some fresh ingredients. With few exceptions, my kids and husband complain if I try to pick up something quick and easy from the freezer section at the grocery store.

Not really. There were six of us and we were all big eaters, it would take too many batches. A few times she tried recipes from a magazine (tuna casserole with peas, barf) but creamed soups were too expensive. If a recipe called for two cans (and we had to double it) there was no fricken' way LOL. After we were older and would get together pot luck style, we saw them more because they were easy to take, bake, and transport. For my family of three sometimes we make a chicken casserole or something just for variety...or if I want to put something together ahead of time to have something to toss into the oven on a busy night.

Lest we forget..... Before cream of ______ soup was popular, people made white sauce which was then used in casseroles. It was made into cheese sauce for mac & cheese, egg sauce (adding diced hard-cooked eggs), mock hollandaise, curry, mushroom, and many more options that were part of nearly any basic cookbook.

How many people called them "hot dish"....? I have a wonderful cookbook - "Lutheran Church Basement Women" Lutefisk, lefse, lunch and Jell-O Cookbook by Janet Letnes Martin and Allen Todnem - and it's full of offerings like "Hot Dish for Socials or Aid", "Canned Chicken and Rice Hot Dish", "Corn Hot Dish", "Hamburger-Rice Hot Dish", "Meat and Vegetable Hot Dish", "Noodle and Hamburger Hot Dish", "Six-Layer Hot Dish", "Hotdish Deluxe", "Potato Chips and Tuna Hot Dish, and the best of the bunch.... "Special Hot Dish". I believe these are the most undesirable of the bunch.

The "new" casseroles are the "Bowl Meals" and "Fusion Bowls".

Like Joanmn, I grew up in Minnesota. Hot dishes (casseroles) were a mainstay. Our large family had them 5 or more times a week to stretch out the food budget. Never mixes, and only later in my teens did we use cream of something soups. One meal may have the meat and potatoes, but the other main meal of the day was a large hot dish with the leftovers. I didn't know pasta could be served with a separate sauce!

Green bean casserole, scalloped potatoes, scalloped corn, ham bake, chicken and rice, tuna hot dish, goulash, chow mien hot dish and shepherds pie were served all the time. Lots of egg based baked dishes too. Couldn't afford Mac and Cheese - cheese was too expensive!

I used to use canned soups in cooking, but since my skills have improved, I no longer do. I wouldn't look down upon anyone who uses cans (especially since reduced sodium soups are common now). It beats getting your meal from a window.

I have no qualms about using canned cream soups occasionally -- handy when cooking for only two. I did find it amusing that ALL of that lady's recipes started that way -- and that she was so proud of her collection.

We just teased our visiting friend (born and raised in St. Paul) that she'd arrived Maui too late for the annual "Minnesota Potluck".

We ate one called "Baked spaghetti" My Dad loves it still. He is 96! Also tuna noodle casserole. I don't understand why people are talking about pizza, and chef Boyardee as casseroles? My Mom also made stuffed manicotti..everything was wonderful!

pizza and Chef Boyardee=casseroles

because they're trying to lump all convenience foods together. And label them as unacceptable. At least, that's what I got out of it! Knowing me, I'm off and lucille will say it much better (you are on a roll!).

You said it perfectly. And I wouldn't fit on a roll. :)

"Lest we forget..... Before cream of ______ soup was popular, people made white sauce which was then used in casseroles. It was made into cheese sauce for mac & cheese, egg sauce (adding diced hard-cooked eggs), mock hollandaise, curry, mushroom, and many more options that were part of nearly any basic cookbook." ~ Thanks GrainLady for saying what I wanted to elaborate on.

We were a LARGE family (6 kids as well as adopted/semifostered children were always coming and going from our front door), poor, hardworking, self sustaining, home canning, home butchering, home cooking family. We never bought a sauce, soup or pizza, although dry pastas, rices, beans, and flours were storebought. I learned to make white sauce/gravy/custards/puddings from scratch before I was out of grade 3.

I'm befuddled by the thoughts that casserole = Chef Boyardee or KD. Occasionally casseroles were leftovers, were one pot wonders of "huh..wonder what THAT is?" LOL, but they were made from home cooked meals to begin with, sometimes from recipes, generally from passed down memories, and just as much work/cooking as today's recipes I believe.

Every member of our family, upon leaving home, packed their belongings as well as their very own copy of The Joy of Cooking, a small assortment of wooden spoons, and a bread bowl..boys and girls. I don't make many casseroles anymore as it's just the two of us, and I don't know how to cook for two..scalloped potatoes for 12..absolutely..for 2, not as often as I should!

I do worry about the future of our childrens children, if they can't make a biscuit or loaf of bread, casserole, pot of soup, or oatmeal, should needs necessitate. I will always stay on top of my basic cooking skills..just in case of that random zombie apocalypse :)

My son is 16 and can make a meal from beginning to end from scratch (not even any cans of any cream of _____) so don't worry about the future of our children's children. It's still being taught?

I mentioned pizza just because I had never seen or had one till high school. We never that I can recall had pizza at home with my parents. When my parents were much older they would occasionally go out to eat pizza. This discussion did make me think of something that my mom would vary rarely buy canned, a canned ham! She would bake it with the pineapple slices and cloves like the pictures in the magazine. Which is where she saw it I am sure. My aunt, that lived in the big city of Beaumont, TX lol and was "rich" would bring us piles of her old magazines. Omg that was like a Christmas gift! We loved seeing how others lived, clothes they wore and of course the foods! I can tell you that canned ham has very little similarities to real baked ham lol! But we all "loved" it because mom was so proud of her magazine meal. We much preferred her Gumbo lol.

Re: pizza & Chef-boyardee,

Reading through this thread, "growing up" for those of us who have contributed spans 5, 6 perhaps more decades. A meat plus veg or two, plus starch, maybe bread also seems to be the most common dinner, regardless of the decade(s) each of us grew up in. I can see how 'food mixed together and baked', 'food combined and baked on a crust', and a 'meal in a can', for some may have been new experiences within in similar time frame.

And when you think about it, pizza actually has a lot in common with casseroles: one can pick any combination of ingredients and "bind them" if they choose with a sauce and /or cheese. Yum.

Very much agree with plllog, casseroles have always been around in some form and likely always will be. It's the names for the type of dish change. If casserROLE sounds too old fashioned, how about French pronunciation? CassoLAY, or AU Gratin? :-)

I've spanned five decades and grew up with casseroles AND meat/starch/veggie . I didn't grow up on a farm, but coastal, tropical, and mid sized cities. Only because people keep wanting to pigeon hole answers. I'm not sure it's working!

Well, Rob, I'm in your camp, though not actually tropical. :)

I think the biggest differentiation is about what ingredients were easily available (inc. price), what the food background of the cook was, and whether the cook enjoyed cooking or just had a dozen recipes that were made over and over again so the family was fed.

I did not grow up with casseroles but did cook them when the children were young and continue to on occasion. I generally make my own cream of sauce for those casseroles I use them in. I will say though that I keep cream of mushroom and cream of asparagus soups in my pantry along with "heaven forbid" canned mushrooms. We don't need to watch sodium in my house (although I know canned soup has crazy amounts). On occasion a quick meal is better than carry out.

I never have any other canned soup. I wouldn't eat canned chicken noodle or whatever for anything.

If others want to ...who am I to judge.

We cook at home for most meals and some nights chicken on top of stuffing with a cream of mushroom and canned mushroom sauce is better than eating a bowl of cereal or driving into town to pick up a pizza.

Mom and Dad came from Germany in the 1950's. Yes, she made casseroles, but no pre-packed items were used.

Her version of mac and cheese is very different than the one most know. None of us liked the bright orange goop stuff. Hers was cooked mac, diced ham and tons onion and Parmesan cheese mixed in and more on top to brown. I still make it for Dad and myself. The other one she made was a goulash casserole. The goulash is not the one with ground meat but beef chunks in a rich paprika gravy. Leftovers are poured over cooked and sliced potatoes and topped with parm again. Both dishes were always a hit at church pot lucks and block parties. One neighbor loved the goulash dish so much he asked for it in his final days. They were also sent to those in need or when a new baby arrived.

I would like to add a comment about processed food. Home canned items are not in the same league as boxed or commercial canned item. Home canning is done to preserve your harvest for use throughout the year. Home canning of some things, like soups or even my Moms goulash are way healthier than commerical. I control the salts and do not have the preservatives in them. Low salt, no MSG, no HFCS, no artificial flavorings are ever used.

Casseroles are called 'hot dish" here in Minnesota and have a long and venerable cultural history, including being ubiquitous at church suppers, funerals, family gatherings, etc. Nothing more comforting than casserole on a cold winter night, preferably (from my point of view) with cheese.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/512143788856430716/

In her almost 84 years on earth, my mother never made a casserole. And I've never made one.

Do those who don't make casseroles ever make soups or stew?

pkramer, you brought back a delicious memory of my VPI (now called Va. Tech) days. I was taking a graduate course in entomology and had the great fortune of having the department head teach that class. He and his wonderful wife always hosted the students in that class in their lovely home in the Blacksburg hills.

They were both from Budapest and the menu was goulash, rich, fragrant, and so good with the beer that flowed at those events.

My father wouldn't allow it. It was always meat & 2 veg.

I was just reminded of something. At Thanksgiving we often had threads here about dressing on the side versus stuffing the bird. Well it seems to me if you make it on the side you've made it into a "casserole".

Watchme, stuffing or dressing placed in a dish would not be a casserole according to Websters dictionary.

Simple Definition of casserole

• : food (such as meat, noodles, and vegetables) baked together and served in a deep dish

Lots of people put mixtures of meat, vegetables, even fruit in their dressing. Seems like a casserole to me. ;-)

A lot of people consider mac and cheese a casserole. No meat or vegetable there. What about green bean casserole? No meat in that unless you add bacon I guess.

Perhaps casserole is too broad a term for the original intent. Maybe it should have been titled did you eat one dish meals growing up. Casseroles are often one dish meals but certainly not always except perhaps in some regions of this country.

My mother always called the stuffing on the side a casserole. :)

There are a lot of one dish meals that aren't casseroles.

While our children were growing up, we made and ate casseroles. Mac and cheese was common with other chopped vegetables mixed in. For variety, different meats were used, and then, the wife might play with the seasonings as well. One dish might not qualify as a casserole. It was water chestnuts wrapped with bacon slices. The bacon slices were wrapped and pinned with wood toothpicks, and baked the same as a casserole. Upon serving, the toothpicks became little handles for picking up a morsel to eat.

Interesting. I have never, and will never, consider mac n cheese as a casserole.

Whether it's the boxed stuffed that is day glo orange or my friends recipe which is made with a bechamel sauce with 4 different types of cheese blended in, then baked, mac and cheese, no matter how fancy or basic is and will always be a side dish in my mind.

When I hear casserole, I think of a one dish complete meal.

So, my cheesy ham bake, made using leftover chopped up ham, broccoli, rice, a cheesy bechamel and covered with stale bread turned into croutons is a casserole.

My enchilada casserole that layers all of my leftover Mexican cuisine, beans, beef, chips, cheese, sauce, etc topped with shredded lettuce and diced tomatoes is a casserole.

My 6 cheese Mac and cheese is not. My potatoes au gratin are not.

To me, a casserole is a complete meal in one dish.

To further expand on what I said earlier about it being economical; if I'm preparing a proper sit down meal, I need to know exactly how many mouthes I'm feeding and plan for a cut of meat for each person.

With a casserole, I can mix all the ingredients together and use MORE of the less expensive ingredients (starches and vegetables) and still feed just as many, or even more.

I'm well known for cutting protein portions as protein is generally the most expensive part of a meal.

Say I'm making spaghetti sauce and the recipe calls for a pound of ground beef, I will use half a pound and "beef" up the veggies.

That chicken enchilada recipe calls for a pound of chicken, I'm going to use half a pound and chop up an extra onion and bell pepper to supplement.

I can't do that with whole cuts of meat. In a casserole however, no one even notices if there is less beef or chicken because they are fulfilled.

I will continue to make my casseroles to feed my crowds, regardless of what the naysayers have to say about it.

You know, I'm not seeing a whole lot of "naysayers".

There are simply some people who grew up eating them and others who didn't. I can understand that they might not sound appealing to those that haven't experienced a great casserole recipe, though.

Like meatloaf. Folks who've never had a wonderful meatloaf turn up their noses at the very idea.

There are good and good for you, and bad and bad for you versions of casseroles. I also add more vegetables to bulk out my one-dish meals and meatloaf. It's not so much for saving money, because the difference between a half a pound vs. a pound, or 1 pound vs. 2 pounds is insignificant to me. It's more about using up the many vegetables I always have on hand.

I love being able to put out more volume that's been pumped up by really nutritious ingredients. Plus, it tastes even better.

Good and good for you aren't mutually exclusive. I think that's become the theme of the thread. I think that's the dissonance going on. Casseroles can be healthy! Especially if you make it like mimipadv!

There's absolutely NOTHING wrong with making casseroles!

It's one of the economical bonuses on a tight food budget, and a way to use small amounts of foods that might otherwise go to waste. (As we all know, wasted food is the most expensive food we buy.) Here's what I teach in nutrition classes about casseroles and other mixed foods items (like pizza, tacos, stir-fry, and fusion bowls).

It's not volume, it's nutrition and the number of servings within the mixed-ingredient meal.

Just because the ingredients are combined doesn't mean you don't count them towards your daily requirements of servings for each food group for the day.... Nor are casseroles an excuse to over-eat because you make large portions using cheap ingredients.

To be economical: "Stretch" an expensive protein (meat) with a low-costing protein (eggs, beans, dairy, peas, lentils, whole grains like amaranth/quinoa, nuts, plant proteins like seitan and leafy greens, even protein powders...); NOT more grains/starches in the form of pasta, rice, tortillas, and fillers like high-sodium condensed soup - with just a token amount of protein per serving. Most people consume far too many servings of grains/starches as it is. Especially those that are typically empty calories, highly-processed, low-in fiber, high-glycemic, and void of nutrition.

Examples: I serve a small 1/2 serving of chicken (about 1- to 1-1/2 oz. - a small tenderloin or a small chicken leg) with white cannellini beans for the remainder of the protein serving. A nice example of a recipe I did this with is "Tuscan Rosemary Chicken and White Beans" (http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/tuscan-rosemary-chicken-and-white-beans/854e2207-1eb9-43e9-a118-0301f615cc05). I use smaller portions of meat and increase the vegetables.

Tuna salad - add hard cooked eggs and/or cannellini beans to the mixture as high-protein extenders to get more servings of protein.

Before going gluten-free, I would mix homemade gluten, ground (aka "wheat meat" or seitan) 50/50 with any kind of ground meat as a high-protein, plant-based meat extender.

Food-for-thought: Tuna is NOT an inexpensive protein when you figure the cost by the pound. A 5-oz. can of tuna that costs 69-cents = $2.21 (rounded up) per pound. If you spend $1.19 per can = $3.81 per pound (rounded up)

A serving of protein is 2-3 ounces and the suggested amount is two servings of protein per day (whether from meat or alternative non-meat protein sources). Therefore, a 5-oz. can of tuna is 2.5 servings of protein. So you need to build your casserole to meet your daily requirements from all the food groups. Each serving of tuna and noodle, or tuna and rice casserole, should have at least 1- to 2-ounces of tuna and/or protein alternative in it (depending on the number of servings of protein it needs to meet for the day), and 1 oz. of starch (1/2 c. of cooked rice or pasta) per serving of grain/starch you need for the day. It's suggested by the USDA MY PLATE we consume at least 6 (1-oz.) servings of grains/starches each day. I follow the old "Basic-4" and consume 4 servings of grains each day because I gain weight eating more than that.

In general, 1 ounce of meat, poultry or fish, ¼ cup cooked beans, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of peanut butter, or ½ ounce of nuts or seeds can be considered as 1 ounce-equivalent from the Protein Foods Group. - See more at: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/protein-foods#sthash.0TkMWywO.dpuf

-Grainlady

My Mother did not like cheese and she did not eat fish. So those items were seldom served at home. The only casserole I think I ever fix is sweet potato casserole and not often. My husband when he could eat normal food would never eat beef stew or any kind of casserole, so I never baked any. He did not want sweet potato casserole only candied sweet potatoes. I really don't consider macaroni an cheese a casserole but it does not matter to me what it is called. I love a good home made mac and cheese. My husband would eat that when he was able. I have eaten other casseroles away from home and liked them, I just do not make them at home.

Sue

I am still saying that NO one has said that casseroles are a bad thing! I think that some of you are being hyper defensive. Really.

Marilyn_Sue didn't even make a derisive comment! She said that she didn't grow up having casseroles on the table. Period. And also that there were no store bought canned or packaged food, period. I expect that such foods were considered an expensive luxury for families that grow and can their own foods.

I made the comment about the high sodium content and artificial ingredients in canned soups.....but that is simply the truth. But I have a pile of great, much used casserole recipes that make my mouth water when I think about them.

I'd like to thank everybody who has participated in this interesting thread. It has gone off topic many times, but (for the most part) not in a bad way.

I'm going to start a casserole recipe thread.....get ready!

:)

ETA: I don't anyone was blatantly negative, but I did think that it got "preachy" at times, and the pushback is only reaction to it.