Arlene Makes Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole and Shares a Special Message

Hi family, how are you doing? We’re hoping you’re having a wonderful day today. When we tape this, it’s cold today. It’s been snowing for a long time, like all week. And, but we’re able to get here to the studios because we want to spend some time with you and we’re glad you joined us. I want to tell you that, you know, when you send us letters when you’re writing in for the recipes or just corresponding, whatever, and you send us letters, we read every single letter because it’s important for us to know what you think or how you feel or what idea you might come up with, or a recipe that you might like to share with us. And this one, we got a couple months back now from Violet from Pittsburgh and she says, “May I make a suggestion. On the front page of your subscription of your monthly newsletter, please put an index of each recipe so you don’t have to go there every,” like if you’re looking for a certain recipe you don’t have to go through every single newsletter. And you know what Violet, you are absolutely right ’cause I’ve had that experience when I’ve had to find a recipe from two years ago and I’m going through a newsletter after newsletter after newsletter. Why we didn’t think of this? I have no clue, but let me show you. We began this in January of this year with our January edition. We didn’t do it on the front page but we did it right here on the back page. You see right here in this issue, it lists every recipe, the page number and everything and the month right here. So thank you so much, Violet. What a good idea. We appreciate that. That’s gonna make life so much easier for a whole lot of people including me. I really do appreciate that. If you’ve got an idea or a thought or a recipe or something you’d like to share with us, please feel free to send it to us. We are always open for suggestions. You know, “At Home” has been on the air for, since 1991. It’s a long time. Sometimes I say, God, how can we, how many more ways is there to make a chicken? Or how many other ways is there to make a chocolate cake? But the Lord keeps bringing us good chefs and good recipes and many of them come from you. So please, if you’ve got a great recipe, send it to us. You might just see it on “At Home.” Well, we’re gonna do one of those wonderful casserole in just a minute so stay tuned. We’ll be right back in just a minute. Here’s today’s At Home Hints. Have you ever accidentally burned your sausage links? Well, just add water to the skillet and cover and cook on low heat for five minutes. The burned bits will dissolve into the water. If you’ve got a helpful hint, we wanna hear from you. Send your hint to At Home Hints, Cornerstone TeleVision, Wall, Pennsylvania, 154-1499. Today on “At Home,” we’re making a special casserole, a quick and easy casserole, easy to put together so that when you’ve been out shopping or you’ve been working all day, you need something for the family, this would be one you might want to try, okay. It’s called chicken broccoli rice casserole. We have a 13 by 9 baking dish. You spray it with some Pam. And now we have a big bag of chopped, this is like 16 ounce bag of chopped parsley. If you have to use, chopped broccoli, sorry, and you don’t let it thaw, okay. Don’t let it thaw. Just drop it in there kinda like that. Make sure it covers the whole entire bottom. That’s the basis for this casserole, all right. Wipe my hands here. And then we’re gonna make the topping that goes over that. First of all, we’re gonna take two cups of cooked chicken. You can do this very, very easily in the microwave. Just put the single layer on a flat dish, cover it with a paper towel, put on four or five minutes. Cooks quickly. Let it cool down a little bit, chop it up, two cups, okay. All right. And then we have two cups of cooked rice. That goes in next. I like these kinds of things that you just put them together quickly and then you have a good meal because with the tossed salad, this is a great dinner. This is great and the kids will like it too. Hopefully, if they like broccoli. Okay, now we have a can, this is cream of chicken soup and you can get the low sodium or whatever works best for you. Just get that. Let me mix this rice up a little bit here. I really like rice. You could probably do this with wild rice if you wanted to. And we’re gonna just add that whole can. Okay. So what do we do when the, it comes apart? We’re gonna fish it out. Okay, would you like that piece in yours Larry? That’s just for you. Okay. Now they got me giggling. We’re in trouble. No we’re salvaging this, okay. Now we’re gonna do a small onion chopped and see that’s why you really have to pay attention to the utensils that you’re using. Make sure that they’re not falling apart, okay. And then a cup of mayonnaise, just like that. You get all that down in there. Never fear because one thing this kitchen has is a lot of scrapers. Trust me. We’re gonna try this one. We’re gonna get rid of that one and then let’s see. Let me see if I wanna put the cheese. We’re putting the cheese right in here. Why not? Yeah. This is cheddar, about eight ounces. Okay, and we’re gonna mix all of this together very thoroughly. I think I’m gonna start with my scraper. I think that’ll be better. Yeah, sometimes you just can’t get a handle with a wooden spoon. I don’t know why, maybe it’s just me. But I can feel it better if I’m doing it with a scraper so, let’s mix it well. No salt and pepper in this because you have your flavorings in the soup. It’s good. Nice and moist, mix it well. Make sure the chicken all gets moistened. Don’t you just love casseroles? I met somebody one day and said, you know my husband hates casseroles. I thought how can you hate a casserole that has like everything in it that you want. It has all the goodies in there, like usually a vegetable, some meat and then like some kind of a sauce. Why wouldn’t you like that? Never quite understood that. But now we’re just gonna spoon this on top of the broccoli. Try to get it as evenly spaced as you can. What I kind of do is take some like this and just put it in general areas then go back that way you know you have everything covered. This makes a lot, it’s covering it well. Okay. There we go. Makes a lot. Yummy. Got the oven fired up on 350 degrees ’cause we want that good and hot. Preheat the oven always when you’re baking something like this. it just gives you a head start. Okay, now smooth this out like that. Whoops. Turn it around. Make sure it covers north and south, east and west, all right, so everybody gets a little taste of that. Okay. Now we’re still not done because you have to have a topping on there. What I have here, Ritz cracker’s about a half a sleeve. Put them in a Ziploc bag and just crush them like that. Just quickly. It makes the best crumbs. You wanna do more, do more, but that’s probably gonna be enough to sprinkle over top just like that. And you know what their buttery to begin with but then we’re gonna put some little pats of butter on top so they’re really gonna taste buttery. And that’s gonna go down in with that broccoli. My mouth is water and it’s not even cooked yet, okay. This is something you’re gonna like. Okay. And then just some pats of butter. You don’t wanna get like carried away with this and make it too much but you do wanna have some here and there, okay. Just like that. Well, cooperation is important. Okay. Don’t forget, 350 degrees, nice and hot. You say, well, how long do I have to preheat? About 15 minutes, 20 minutes. Maybe even as long. What I usually do, when I start to put it together I turn on the oven first. And then that way I’m always sure that it’s gonna be hot enough when I put this in, okay. We’re gonna pop this in the oven. We come back more of “At Home” in just a minute. Our chicken and rice and broccoli casserole is in the oven and it’s baking about 45 to 60 minutes. Every oven’s different so you might wanna take a look at that about 45 minutes in and if it’s hot and bubbly and it’s hot, go into the center, take a little spoonful, and if it’s hot or bubbly, you know, it’s ready. If it’s not, leave it in until it’s real ready. You don’t cover it or anything, just leave it in that heat. You know, I was thinking the other day about a time in my life when everything wasn’t so pleasant. And, it was before I met Paul and I was probably about 20 years old, 19 or 20 years old and I experienced a bout a very deep depression. You say, Arlene, how could you be depressed? Well, you know, you wonder that when you’re going through it, you’re saying, what do I have to be depressed about? I lived at home with my mom and dad. My brothers were gone, they were married so they were gone. Worked in the church with my dad. Things in life were fine. So it would seem. And I won’t tell you what triggered the depression ’cause that’s a very personal thing. But it had to do with another person saying something to me. And you know, for somebody that’s on top of the mountain to be knocked down within a moment because of what someone said from their lips, knocked me down into the actual pit that I had to fight to get out of. For two years I fought that battle. It was the most horrible time in my life like I said. And you know some people that’s never experienced any kind of depression or oppression of any kind, they have no clue what you’re feeling or what you think or how you feel. And only people that have experienced that really know when someone says to me, I am so depressed, I know instantly how they feel. I did everything I knew, you know, I would say, okay, God. Of course I’d call on the Lord because that’s who was my helper. I said, God, please help me through this. Please God, you know, I think, well I’ll talk to my dad ’cause he’s my pastor. He’s also my dad but he’s my pastor. And then the enemy, the enemy of our soul, the saint and the evil one would say, “Do you really think he’s gonna tell you the truth? He’s gonna be so biased because he’s your dad.” And I thought, oh I can’t talk to him about this because you know what, he won’t tell me the truth. And that’s so wrong ’cause I know my dad would tell me the truth no matter what. And then there were times when I’d think well I’ll talk to somebody. But you know, that’s just when you’re cut and you’re so down that you can’t get your head above it, you can’t talk to anybody. I hated the nighttime and I hated the daytime and every time in between. There was never a good time. I withdrew from life. That’s the second thing the enemy tries to do, isolate you from people who will help you. I quit going to church. See cut you off from where your help is. I quit going to family functions. I kept withdrawing and my parents were constantly asking Arlene, what is wrong? What’s wrong? Let us help you. I could not put it into words to tell them what the problem was ’cause it was so devastating. I remember thinking, God, I can’t handle this, not another day. My mother would say, “Come on, you’re going with us. We’re going shopping and you’re going with us,” and I didn’t have any desire to go. And she’d say, but you’re going. We’d get to the store and we’d be walking through the store and the devil would say, huh, look all around you. These are my people. Look how much fun they’re having. How do you feel, Arlene? You serve God, what’s he doing for you? And you know, I had to question that. Yeah, God, how come you’re not helping me here? What’s wrong? I could not get my head above the darkness, the heaviness. I felt like there was the weight of the world pushing me down literally, emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually. And where’s the help, where’s the hope? I had no hope I had no hope. Have you ever felt hopeless? I really know that I’m talking to a lot of people out there today. The hope that you’ve had in whatever it was, the stock market, your business, your abilities, your family, your wife, your children has been taken away and you’re there and you’re saying, I have no hope. I’ve been there. I know exactly what you’re talking about. It was almost to the end of this two years and I was totally spent. Didn’t care if I took care of myself, didn’t care if I got washed, got dressed, got, did my nothing was important. I was wallowing at the bottom of this pit of hopelessness. I thought my life will never change, it’ll never be any different ’cause the enemy tells you that. It’s always gonna be just like this. I know I’m talking to people today. You’ve experienced that. You know. Well at the time when all of this was happening Catherine Coolman was on the radio, never forget this. Her program was on a 2:30 every day on WPIT radio. And one day I was fiddling with the radio in my room and I heard her voice, very distinctive. My mom took me to her meetings when I was a little kid not even in school with my peanut butter and lettuce sandwich and I’d have to get up and give my chair to someone else ’cause the place would be so packed. But what I saw when I was a little kid like that in the miracles, I will never forget. It was outstanding. Even as a little child I saw that and when I heard her voice, I stopped to listen. This is what I heard her say. The Bible says in Psalms 42, a scripture, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why are thou is quieted within me? Hope thou in God.” And when she said those words they pierced into my heart like a knife. I said, God, you’re speaking that to me. For one month she ministered on that verse every day and every day at 2:30, it was like a dose of medicine coming into my body, coming into my spirit. And by the end of that month I had, I won’t say a 100% turnaround but I was 90% on my way to wholeness because you know why? I chose to believe that God’s word said through David, hope thou in God. I want to tell you today, hope thou in God. You know what? He will never leave you. He will not forsake you. He loves you, he cares about you. Your hope today, if you’ve tried medications, if you’ve tried doctors, you’ve tried everything you can imagine, can I ask you today to try God? Try Jesus. Just cry out to him like I did so many times. God, will you just help me today? Will you be my hope today? Turn it around. And you know what? He will because he loves you and he cares for you. When you mean business with God, when I got to the point where I meant true business with God, he met me right where I needed him to meet me. I will never forget it. Can I pray with you today? We’ll ask God to meet you at your point of greatest need. Father I thank you for my family that’s watching. Those that have just dropped by today, I thank you for everyone. Lord, of those that are sitting there saying, but Arlene my depression is so great, I know Lord that, you know just where each of us is. And I pray father that one that has no hope, today, let this be the day of hope for them. You are the blessed hope, Lord. I pray today Lord, as they call upon your name that you will indeed minister to them at their point of greatest need. Lord, let that be the hope that they need to flood into their souls as they call upon your name today. And Lord, I ask you make that verse very real to them as you did to me in Psalm 42. Thank you father. This I ask in Jesus’ wonderful name. Amen. We’ll be right back. Today on “At Home,” we did a quick and easy casserole right here. You have to see how delicious this looks. Look at that, nice and soft. Look at that. Ah, hot broccoli on the bottom with the chicken and all the goodies on top. Added a salad to that. Nice. Look at that, doesn’t this look like the Italian flag, the red, white and green? No, but it’s a great salad. And we did a little bit of a Parmesan bread there, just drizzle a little bit of oil, put in the oven, put some cheese and some herbs on it. There’s your dinner for tonight? What else do you need? Well, we hope that you need to get the recipe for this and if you do go to our website and get a subscription there, or you can write through the mail, which we’ve already told you about. Whichever way, you’re gonna want to have this recipe and a whole lot more. And if I spoke to you earlier about depression, don’t be embarrassed. Don’t feel like, oh, I shouldn’t tell anybody. You know what? You tell someone, reach out to someone, someone will help you. We’ll pray with you and bring you through to victory. Like our prayer line is always available so please go there. And be sure to join us the next time because it just wouldn’t be the same without you right here “At Home.” We’ll see you then.

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