O casserole, my casserole.

Since the weather has indicated the season has finally changed, the energy needed for me to cook has returned. Like actually turning on the oven and going through multiple steps for a meal kind of cooking. I can’t fathom doing that when it’s 100 degrees out. But now, that it’s in the 70s (welcome to Fall in SoCal!), I’m game.

I’m committed to cooking one big meal a week, that will hopefully provide leftovers for a few days — and one of the easiest ways to do that is to make a casserole. I’m always looking for new ones – and while I could easily go vegetarian, the Man prefers a meat product of some sort. So this last weekend, I went back to GimmeSomeOven, where I found my Chicken Enchiladas recipe and poked around some.

I ended up trying the Chicken, Spinach and Almond Bake. I didn’t follow the recipe to the letter, but it still turned out to be pretty darn yummy. So yummy, it only lasted for two nights plus a lunch.

Here are some of the ingredients I used:

Yes, yes, I know, another shameless Trader Joe's plug. — Yes, yes, I know, another shameless Trader Joe’s plug.

While the recipe called for me to cook chicken on my own, I don’t fancy handling raw chicken if I don’t have to and more to the point, was feeling lazy and wanted to save time, so purchased that pre-sliced roast chicken breast. It also called for toasted, slivered almonds. I must not have felt that lazy because I actually toasted them (well, the oven did anyway).

It didn’t take that long and I didn’t make THAT much of a mess in the process, though there were several pots and pans to wash afterwards (thanks honey!). The finished product looked like this:

It was a hit – we each had several helpings the first night alongside our Trader Joe’s Harvest Blend Complete Salad – and yes, I did hear angels sing as I ate that salad. Please try it…it’s criminally good…and it looks like this: