Corn tortillas cut into wedges and tossed with seasoned ground beef, enchilada sauce, green chilies, black beans and cheese and baked.

Sheet Pan Beef Enchilada Casserole

One day I ran across this recipe while browsing through Instagram - something that I like to do when I'm avoiding doing something else I should be doing. That can happen a lot these days and social media can be really good for that!

Anyway, this fella Kevin Ashton (@oldscoolkevmo) is a chef for a sorority house and he makes a lot of good eats that he cooks for himself at home and those gals and shares them on his social media. I'm sure they must really enjoy the things he comes up with because it's a wide variety of cuisines and it all looks good!

By the way, he's also battling stage 4 cancer (but seems to be beating it), so go and give him some love on one of his platforms y'all!

My version of Johnny Marzetti, a well-loved baked casserole originating in Ohio, made with ground beef and pork, the trinity of southern cooking, tomato soup, mushrooms, egg noodles and cheese.

Johnny Marzetti Casserole - My Way

I know, I know... it's HOT! But this is one of my favorite casseroles to make, and I've made it twice here recently, so yeah, I'm sharing it, right in the heat of the summer.

Besides, it's a terrific potluck carry too that everybody enjoys.

There is something about the combination of textures and flavors here that make this an outstanding meal anytime of the year and perfect if you have a countertop oven (#ad), which is what I use the most these days anyway, especially in the summer.

A rich baked spaghetti that includes spaghetti noodles mixed with sour cream, cottage cheese, eggs and cheese, topped with a meat sauce and finished with a layer of Cheddar, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.

Million Dollar Baked Spaghetti

Million Dollar Spaghetti is another one of those baked casseroles that has been around for a long time, although, it's gotten some recent viral attention on TikTok in the last year.

Like I said in a previous post, with social media, all things old become new again!

Although I am not a TikTok user, or even a fan, I have to admit it is kinda cool to see old recipes getting a revival with some younger folks.

A long-held and well-loved casserole, made with chopped cabbage, onions, salt and pepper, and a classic southern combo of mayo and cream soup, topped with a buttery, cheesy cracker finish.

Cabbage Casserole

Any of y'all who have been around Deep South Dish for any length of time, know how much I love cabbage. I especially love the boiled or fried versions, which frankly, is what I make the most, even when my original intention when I bought a new head of cabbage was to write something new for the website!

What can I say?!

A cheesy pasta casserole made with a cream soup and sour cream base and rotini pasta.

Cheesy Rotini Casserole

This recipe is based on one that was popular back in the early 1980s among The Telephone Pioneers of America and was featured in their community cookbooks, Bell's Best and Calling All Cooks.

It was called Macaroni Casserole back then, because it was generally made with elbow macaroni. I used rotini pasta for my version because I had an opened box I needed to use up. Waste not, want not! 
 

A delicious ground beef, macaroni and tomato meal made quick and easy using the Instant Pot.

Instant Pot American-Style Goulash

I have truly enjoyed having an Instant Pot. Even though, much like the whole air fryer thing, I was skeptical, I own several pots now and I use them all the time!

For plain rice, rice dishes and boiled eggs. Potatoes for both mashed potatoes and potato salad or just for a side. Fresh green beans and carrots and cabbage and dried beans, done in no time. Pork roasts and ribs and pulled pork. Soups and stews and chicken, especially good for chicken and dumplings. And, given enough time, it's great for a nice, tender pot roast too.

It sure is fantastic for a quick pasta meal!

South Mississippi-Style John Wayne Casserole

A Tex-Mex style casserole with seasoned ground beef, layered between a biscuit crust, with tomatoes, topped with a sour cream and cheese sauce and finished with a cornbread topping, perfect for potlucks, church suppers, or just dinner at home!

Mississippi-Style John Wayne Casserole

So, it seems lots of folks around the country and in my own home state of Mississippi seem to love this casserole, and I went all my life without knowing that!

How it came by the name John Wayne Casserole is uncertain, though some say it appeared as a contribution in a 1979 cookbook of celebrity recipes, as a favorite recipe of Wayne's. I can see why. It's super tasty!

A classic, homestyle lasagna, made with a ground beef and Italian sausage, a homemade tomato-based pasta sauce and layered in with lasagna noodles and cheeses.

Classic Lasagna

Lasagna is one of the best loved casseroles there is. Even on the All Recipes website, the all-time, most popular recipe is what's called "World's Best Lasagna," which turns out to be pretty much the same as my recipe, my Mama's recipe, and likely I'd guess, pretty similar to just about every other good, homemade lasagna in the world, really.

Even that recipe has a striking resemblance to the McCalls 1973 cookbook recipe, that I'm certain many homemakers adopted as their own at the time.

A shortcut sweet potato casserole with the unusual addition of banana and finished with rows of marshmallows and brown sugar sweetened cornflake cereal crumbs.

Sweet Potato Banana Crunch

I am all for being about tradition when it comes to holiday meals. Keep the dishes that you know and love on the menu, because everyone will be expecting them, every, single year!

My Mama's holiday table was the same every year, with very little variation between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I miss those times so much, and while we now share our holidays with my son, our daughter-in-law and grandkids, I still find myself missing my Mama tremendously this time of year.

The flavors of a sloppy joe sandwich in an easy, baked casserole form.

Sloppy Joe Bake

The Cajun loves my homemade sloppy joes, but my hamburger buns were a little on the not so fresh side, so I decided to go with the baked version this time. It's a delicious and creative way to change up the sloppy joe routine - plus there's cheese involved!

A casserole of cubed rye bread, shredded corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese finished with a savory egg custard.

Baked Reuben Casserole

I know that some of you make a New England Boiled Dinner of cabbage, root vegetables and a full corned beef brisket for holidays like St. Patrick's Day, but I'm a cheater. The Cajun doesn't care much for any of that stuff, so I take a shortcut to get the corned beef and cabbage I want, and he eats leftovers. I've been making it that way for years, using shredded deli corned beef or the canned stuff, and I love it, so it suits me just fine.

That said, I'm guessing some of you have been consuming Reuben sandwiches from the St. Patrick's Day leftovers, something that I also enjoy occasionally, but my husband can also do without. This casserole is yet another way to use some of that leftover corned beef. Almost a strata, except that it's tossed instead of layered, and sometimes referred to as a savory bread pudding, it's apparently a pretty common recipe around the net, though I hadn't made it myself before. The recipe that I patterned it after is from the Taste of Home cookbook, 201 Recipes You'll Make Forever. {affil link}

This chicken and dressing casserole is an old school well-loved dish in the South. It goes by many names - Poulet de France, Poulet de Normandy, Poulet Chicken or simply Poulet - made with cooked chicken, stuffing mix, milk sauce, topped with cream soup, and finished with cheese.

Chicken and Dressing Casserole

I have mentioned here before that once upon a time I did the Once a Month Cooking (OAMC) system {affil link} where you spend one weekend essentially cooking meals to freeze for the month. I did it with a small upright refrigerator freezer too and I loved it. The internet was a different place back then and nothing like it is now, so everything occurred on bulletin boards and forums.

Anybody else remember when AOL, Prodigy and CompuServe were the top three ways to the internet and you could only access them with a dial up connection, meaning that you had to tie up your home phone line? There was no such thing as a smartphone in those days.

Boy oh boy am I datin' muhself there.

Unbundled Green Beans with Brown Sugar Sauce

Fresh green beans, blanched, tossed with bacon and onion, then baked in a brown sugar sauce.

Unbundled Green Beans

No doubt at some point you have seen or made bacon wrapped green bean or asparagus bundles. Marinated with either a brown sugar sauce or a seasoned olive oil vinaigrette, then wrapped in bacon and broiled, baked or grilled, they are indeed delicious, but pretty time intensive to make. This recipe gives you the flavor, in a casserole form, without so much work.

A casserole layered in with pasta, pasta sauce, cheese, sausage and pepperoni. All the flavors of a great pizza, in a casserole! Half recipe pictured.

Sausage and Pepperoni Pizza Pasta Casserole

I mean, how can you not love something that has a stack of pepperoni on top, and while it may look like a pizza, there's pasta under there, another favorite of mine.

Yum, yum y'all!

I've been trying to get a new post up forever, so not a lot of chat today... some of you who are happening across this blog will be happy about that I'm sure! {I've seen those memes!}

A Tex-Mex casserole made from seasoned shredded pork, chicken or beef and beans, layered with corn tortillas, cheese and taco sauce and finished with chopped onion, tomato and shredded lettuce.

Tex-Mex Chalupa Casserole

I have struggled from day one over what to call this casserole.

The recipe I patterned this after was called Chalupa Casserole. Okay. Except "chalupas" apparently is the Spanish word for canoe or small boat, or something to that effect, so an authentic Mexican chalupa is so named because the tortilla dough is formed in the same manner, to make a corn canoe if you will, then stuffed with a variety of fillings.

On the other hand, I have gone to a Mexican restaurant before, ordered a chalupa plate expecting that, and received what really was a tostada to me - a flat, fried tortilla, topped with refried beans and meat and dressed like a taco, with lettuce, onion and tomatoes. Nothing concave or boat shaped about it!

A quicker prep version of meat lasagna, using ground beef, commercial pasta sauce and oven-ready lasagna noodles.

Shortcut Lasagna

There is nothing that can touch a homemade lasagna. Nothing. And let me tell you, when it's made with a sauce made from homegrown, backyard summer tomatoes, it is out of this world. But, like a good classic ziti, it's a labor of love from beginning to end and takes hours. Is it worth it?

You bet it is!

But the time factor pretty much relegates it to being a day off or weekend kind of meal.

Classic and basic tuna noodle casserole, made with a homemade cream sauce, tuna and peas and topped with kettle chips.

Old Fashioned Tuna Noodle Casserole

Canned tuna is always a good standby, anytime really, and definitely during Lent. We eat it most often in its most basic forms, straight out of the can over white bread slathered with mayonnaise, or on a melt, in tuna and egg salad, tuna mac, or even a slightly more fancy tuna pasta salad.

And then, of course, there's this classic tuna noodle casserole to stretch it out into a full out meal. Since it's just me and The Cajun, I'm making it in a smaller 2-quart size here, which amounts to about 4 full adult servings with other sides, but double it up for a 9 x 13 inch dish if you've got a bigger family to feed.

A tomato-based ground beef and sausage meat sauce, baked with rotini pasta and a mix of Cheddar and Parmesan cheeses.

Baked Rotini in Meat Sauce

Wow, has this cold and flu season been a challenge for me this year. You hear about how frightening it is around the country, but when it hits home and you experience it in your family multiple times, it's exhausting. 

The Cajun, who is exposed to those pesky little germs much more often than me, and has such a strong constitution and rock solid immune system, he's done well fighting it, unlike me. I'm feeling okay today, but that seems subject to change at any time this winter. Hope y'all are faring better than I have, whew!

Mirliton (Chayote Squash) Seafood Casserole

Mirliton (Chayote Squash) Seafood Casserole, a casserole made with mirliton, the trinity, shrimp, andouille, crab, bread crumbs and seasonings. Increase bread crumbs for a mirliton dressing.

Mirliton Seafood Casserole

It's mirliton season in the Deep South! I'm guessing that some of you are likely thinking right now... what the heck is that?

Mirlitons, or in Cajun Country, Alligator Pears

A cabbage and rice dish, commonly called dressing here in the Deep South, made with the trinity sauteed in bacon drippings, stewed down with cabbage, browned ground beef or sausage, cooked rice, and cream soup, baked, and finished with a buttered bread crumb topping. Pictured here with my collard greens and squash salad.

Cabbage Rice Dressing

Okay all you kindred cabbage lovers - if you've been around here any length of time, y'all know how much I love the stuff... though to be honest, 99.9% of the time when I pick up a new head of cabbage, thinking I'll bring something different to the blog, good intentions fall the wayside and I end up making fried cabbage. What can I say? It's an easy dish, and it really is my number one favorite.