The Great Food Divide (Say Cheese!)

The two most popular magazines in the category are solidly at the low end. Taste of Home, a collection of reader-submitted recipes published by the Reader’s Digest Association, has a circulation of 3.2 million. And Food and Family has a circulation of 7 million. Who figured out the formula for such a popular magazine? Though a division of the media company Meredith produces the magazine, it is the maker of Cheez Whiz and Oscar Mayer that created and pays for it: Kraft Foods.

Tailoring to the Times, Food Magazines Feature Cheap Recipes – NYTimes.com

I have never seen a copy of Food and Family, but I have spent many happy hours mesmerized by the recipes in Taste of Home. What those women–mainly Southern and Midwestern and often the spitting image of Aunt Bee– can do with a can of mushroom soup! So could I once upon a time, and I still would if it weren’t for nutritional guilt and a husband who would bolt.

And nobody who ever fed a family would consider Kraft Foods on the “low end.”

You can get kids to eat just about anything if you cover it with cheese. Even grownup kids. When mine come home, they often request either Mac ‘n Cheese or what they simply call “Casserole” (being under the impression that casserole is not a genre, but a specific dish).

Here it is, the one and only Casserole, which started as stuffed peppers…but our then-little kids found too difficult to eat. I bet a variation of it can be found in all those 7 million Food & Family, non-Gourmet-subscribing homes. (As a bow to the Health Squad, a slightly less artery-clogging adaptation, Casserole 2, follows.)

CASSEROLE

1 cup white rice (Minute Rice will do)

1 lb lean ground beef

1 small yellow onion, diced

1 green pepper, diced

1 T olive oil

1 28 oz can plum tomatoes, drained and chopped

1 large bag grated cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375F

Butter a 9×13 pan

Boil rice.

Sautee onion and pepper in olive oil until soft. Add ground beef, breaking up with a fork. When meat is browned, add chopped tomatoes and rice. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour into greased dish, cover with cheese and bake for 30 minuts or until cheese has melted and casserole is bubbling.

CASSEROLE 2

Substitute 2 cups cooked lentils for ground round (add after tomatoes).

Substitute brown rice for white

Combine regular Cheddar with lowfat cheddar (the lowfat doesn’t melt well, which is why you need to combine)

COMING NEXT: Spiked Tuna Casserole!