Mama Kat Thursday: Vintage Velveeta Recipe

The Mama Kat blog prompt for today is: "Share a favorite recipe from your childhood that you still make today."

Golden Meatball Casserole. It's a vintage Velveeta back-of-the-box recipe that my Mom made when I was growing up and that I still make!  Who can resist Velveeta?
 The hubby loves it. I usually make it for him for his birthday and generally fairly often during the winter months.

It's rich, cheesy and delicious skillet meal that only takes about 40 minutes to put together in total, including prep time--as long as you use frozen meatballs!

For this recipe you'll need either a large skillet,12-inches diameter size or a 16-inch size electric skillet. Either will work.

Golden Meatball Casserole Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 bag containing 28-33 frozen regular size meatballs in either beef or turkey. (Italian is fine)

1 cup of chopped carrot. (1 inch chunks for regular size; 1/2 inch for baby carrots)

1/2 cup chopped onions

1/2 cup chopped fresh green pepper (or multi-color frozen bell pepper strips)

1 cup raw, uncooked medium or long grain rice

3 cups of water

1 1/2 to 2 inches of Velveeta, which = about 5 or 6 quarter-inch slices. (can be either low fat or regular Velveeta). 

Salt & Pepper to taste.

Directions:

First chop your 1 cup of carrots into chunks, then boil them in a small pan of water for 5 minutes to pre-cook them a little. (You can make the carrot water part of the 3 cups of water you add later.)

While the carrots are cooking, in a oil sprayed skillet: add onions, peppers, meatballs and raw rice. Give a light stir to combine and spread around pan. Give a shake of salt & pepper over top. Once the carrots have cooked 5 minutes, scoop them out of the water and add to the skillet. Now add 3 cups of water to the skillet (including hot carrot water). Give a light stir to combine. Bring the skillet contents to a bubbling boil over medium high heat, then turn down to simmer, cover with a lid and simmer 25 to 30 minutes until all the water has been absorbed by rice. (You make want to check and stir about halfway.)

Now you can turn off the heat. Remove the skillet lid, add your slices of Velveeta to skillet casserole, then cover again and let sit 5 minutes or until all the cheese is melted. (I break the slices up into small chunks to melt faster.) Once cheese is melted, give casserole one final stir, then serve. Makes 4 good servings.

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That's it. My childhood recipe. Hope you try it!

If you don't like green peppers, substitute frozen broccoli or green peas. The kids will love it!

So, what was your favorite meal growing up?