Meat Casserole Recipe

 This is a dish a friend taught me many years ago. He originally refereed to it as a European Casserole, thought I have no idea why. It is a pretty simple and cheap dish to make. It also makes a large quantity.

Ingredients

• bacon
• turkey
• spam
• mixed vegetables (I normally use a mix with broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, etc)
• elbow macaroni
• mushrooms (optional)
• fresh or powder garlic (optional to taste)
• chicken stock (option I use it to add more flavor)
• Italian seasoning mix (again optional)

As you can see in the photos, at the bottom of this post, I use two pans to cook this dish. In a cast iron skillet I cook the bacon to a crisp so it will crumble, as well as brown the cubbed spam and turkey. Make sure to set aside a small amount of the bacon grease, maybe 3 or 4 table spoons. In a dutch oven or large stock pan, cook your elbow macaroni. I cook my macaroni in a seasoned chicken broth. Part way through cooking the macaroni add in the vegetables. Once the noodles and vegies are cooked, mix in the meat. Drizzle the bacon grease you saved earlier over the top of the mixture. Mix very well. Let cool.

I find I like this dish better the next day, rather then fresh off the stove. I have no idea why. Also because of the chicken broth there may be a lot of salt in this dish. And obviously the bacon grease adds a lot of fat. So be conscious of this and be as health minded as possible.