Chicken, Broccoli, Rice, and Cheese Casserole

Sorry for the length of the previous post, but I am still (very) new to cooking, and these are the details I treasure (and often require) in order to improve my own skills, and sometimes just to figure out "WHAT am I DOING?!" This was a Chicken, Broccoli, Rice, Cheese Casserole I put together on Monday and froze until tonight. I got lazy last night and didn't pack the leftover Taco-Potatoes for lunch today, so while I was warming those up and while we ate those for supper, I stuck this in the oven, figuring it would feed the two of us for lunch tomorrow and Friday, and supper tomorrow. I will put in the entire recipe and add my own variation at the end this time, as the person who added it to this cookbook all ready added their variations. I warn you, I haven't actually eaten this as a meal, but I have had a few cold bites, and they were delicious. Here is the recipe as written:

• 1 pkg. (8 oz.) frozen chopped broccoli
• 1 cup minute rice (uncooked)
• 1 (8 oz.) jar of Cheese Whiz
• 1 can cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup
• 1 can mushrooms or water chestnuts or chopped celery
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup onion flakes
• 3 tbsp. butter

Mix ingredients together. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes or microwave 15 minutes on high.
Above is the original recipe, Now here is how I do it:
I always make a double batch, so everything is doubled. I butter a 9 x 13 pan and mix it right in the pan. I use the cheap 16 oz. jar of cheese spread from Aldis , 1 can cream of chicken and 1 can cream of mushroom soup and 2 cans of sliced mushrooms (drained). I would use water chestnuts (and once in a while I do) because I really like them, but most of my family doesn't. I use 1/8 cup of dried onion flakes for a double batch, and less than 6 tbsp. of oleo. Since I make a double batch I bake it about 1 hour in the oven.

: I did this pretty differently, here is my recipe:

• 8 - 10 oz. frozen chopped broccoli (I bought a 32 oz. bag since I planned on having it as a side at least one other night, so I really don't know exactly how much I ended up adding)
  
• 1 cup of 20 min rice, brought to a boil and simmered for about 10 minutes (I didn't have any 5 min. rice, and didn't realize this when putting together my grocery list, so I made this while making my Monday meal, which had a side of rice. The amount was measured before the rice was cooked at all)
• 1 cup of chicken breast (I had boiled, shredded, and frozen about 7 or 8 cups of this the previous Monday, it made for a very long night, but it's been worth it, as that shredded chicken can go in a lot of things. I could have added much more chicken, and probably will next time I make it)
  
• 1 jar (16 oz.) Cheese Sensation (WalMart cheese spread, we're strong believers that "nothing can be TOO cheesy" in our house)
• 1 can of cream of chicken
• 1 can of cream of celery (I didn't want to buy a bunch of celery to cut up 1 cup and have the rest go to waste, and neither my husband nor I like mushrooms or water chestnuts)
  
• 1/2 cup milk (which I forgot about and poured on top of the casserole just before cooking, if I hadn't planned on reheating this before eating, I would have just skipped it totally)
• 1 pkg of dry onion soup mix (each little box comes with two packages, one was plenty here)
• 3 tbsp. butter
• 1/2 pkg Townhouse crackers
  

I started the rice first (as it would take at least 15 minutes to be ready to be added to the mix) and while that was cooking, I buttered my 9 x 13 pan, and pretty much just dumped all the other ingredients into a plastic mixing bowl and mixed it with the spatula I used to get the "cream of" cans empty. When the rice was ready, I added it to the mixture and made sure it melted all the butter. I then dumped the mixture into my 9 x 13 pan and spread it to the edges. I crumbled up the townhouse crackers (all I had left, in fact) and scattered those across the top. I then put the lid on the pan (it was a wedding present, and I LOVE the lid) and stuck it into the freezer until I pulled it out tonight, dumped the milk on top (oops), and baked it for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. If I had been planning on eating it tonight I probably would have baked it longer, but I figured it was going in the fridge as soon as it got out, and would be baked longer and/or microwaved before it would be eaten. You may be able to double this recipe, but if you did, I would suggest using only one dry onion soup mix, as the flavor is very strong, using just one cup of minute rice, and sticking with the 1 jar of 16 oz. cheese spread. With those restrictions (especially the rice), you should be able to get it all in one 9 x 13 pan as mine was a little over 1/2 full.