Last week Perkin and I took a road trip up to Oregon. And while it was an awesome trip, the 11 hour drive home was pretty exhausting. Lucky for us, I have an amazing mom who cooked us up an incredible meal when we got home that night. I loved it so much I had to get the recipe. The casserole was so pretty, would be great to serve when entertaining, and the corn salad tasted like summer. This is a high protein, vegetarian meal that could easily be made gluten free!

{corn salad}

Ingredients:

2 ears fresh corn
1 pint cherry tomatoes, sliced in halves
1 bunch of basil, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Cut the corn off the cob.
Toss the corn with tomatoes, basil, olive oil, lemon, and salt and pepper.
As easy as that!

{casserole}

This recipe makes two 9" pies and serves 8 people.

Ingredients:

2 large russet potatoes
1 large onion
4 links of spicy vegetarian sausage (or real sausage if you eat meat), cut into bite sized pieces*
8 eggs, egg beater equivalence, or combination
1/2 cup nonfat milk
2 tablespoons flour*
2 cups broccoli or kale or any greens you'd like
1.5 cups cheddar cheese
1 pinch nutmeg for each pie
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil
2 cookie sheets
2 pie dishes

*These ingredients can be changed to accommodate a gluten free diet. I would suggest just using a gluten free flour and making sure the "meat" is gluten free.

Instructions:

Slice potatoes thinly on the long, horizontal side. If you have a mandolin, that could be used here.
Spray 2 cookie sheets with olive oil.
Lay the potatoes on the sheets without overlap.
Spray again the top half of the potatoes with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Bake at 450º for 10-15 min or until potatoes are softened, but not browned.
Remove from oven and let cool to handle.
While the potatoes are cooking or cooling, sauté the onions in olive oil and sprinkle the flour on top. Then add the sausages and vegetables. Sauté until vegetables are cooked and set aside.
In separate bowl whisk together the eggs, cheese, milk, salt, pepper, nutmeg.
Line the pie plates with potatoes, this time overlapping. Starting on the sides so the edge of the potatoes are sticking up above the pan, continue layering to cover the bottom of the pans. This will be the "crust".
Layer all vegetables and "meat" into the pies, then poor the liquid mixture on top. bake at 350º for about 30 min or until pies are no longer liquified (solid in middle).
Enjoy!

potato casserole + corn salad