It’s officially fall and it’s been craziness around here!  Fall brings football season, cooler weather, and of course all the kids are back in school.  Fall is one of my favorite season, but it’s also the busiest time of year.  I love to cook good hearty meals when the weather gets cooler.  So, let me ask you….What comes to your mind when you think of a quick, easy, and filling meal???  CASSEROLES!!!!

My husband is a self-professed casserole addict.  He loves anything mixed together with cheese or crackers on top.  For real.  He needs to go to some sort of casserole anonymous group.

I also work full-time, so I don’t have a lot of time in the evening to spend in the kitchen.  Casseroles are great because you can plan ahead and even freeze them if you need to.  I wanted to share with you one of my favorite casseroles for fall.  It’s warm, hearty, and SO GOOD.  You can make this ahead and it reheats really well.

Here is the recipe I use to make squash casserole:

Ingredients

8-9 cups yellow squash (sliced)
1 1/2 cups yellow onion (chopped)
1 Box Jiffy corn muffin mix (prepare as directed)
3/4 cup of butter (I used Country Crock for this recipe) Country Crock has 0g trans fat per serving, no partially hydrogenated oils, no cholesterol, & 70% less fat than butter per serving.
8 ounces cheddar cheese
3 cubes of chicken bouillon
1 teaspoon garlic (minced)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon thyme

Instructions

Prepare Jiffy Mix as directed, set aside to cool. Place yellow squash in a large saucepan and add water. Cook on medium low heat just until tender, remove from heat. Drain squash. On medium temperature place all of the butter in large saucepan and saute the onions until the onions turn clear, add salt, pepper, thyme, and parsley . Add chicken bouillon cubes and garlic to onions, stir. Add drained squash and cheese, stir. Crumble corn bread in squash and mix well.

Place squash mixture in a 13″x11″ baking pan that has been sprayed with a non stick spray. Cover casserole and place in a preheated oven at 350 degrees. Bake for 50 – 60 minutes. Remove cover the last 20 minutes of baking time.

1.Diced Squash

2.  Boil squash until tender

3.  Saute onions with Country Crock butter & add seasonings
4.  Mix cornbread, cheese, onion/butter mixture, and squash together

IT’S DONE 🙂

Yummy.  Filling.  Cheesy.

Squash casserole goodness.

Check out more fall casserole recipes at the Country Crock Facebook Page & at Country Crock Pinterest

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client.We love our teachers.  I grew up in a household where my Mom was (and still is) a teacher.  It’s been amazing over the years watching how she’s touched  so many students and years later they come back as adults and tell her what a difference she’s made in their lives.  I also remember my Mom having to pay for school supplies out of her own pocket.  Teachers don’t make a lot of money, but they have huge hearts.  Teachers are willing to put their own wants aside in order to provide the best for their students.

That’s why I love Fiskars Champions for Kids Project.  Champions for Kids makes it simple to give kids in your community the resources they need to thrive! The Champions for Kids program makes it simple for Wal-mart shoppers to donate things like craft scissors & art tools that kids need to thrive. Shoppers can purchase items and drop them in purple donation bins after checkout. All of the donations go to children in the school district where the Wal-mart store is located. How amazing is this program?  So many children  come from families who cannot afford their basic needs, let alone school supplies. 

Connor and I headed to Wal-mart to pick out some fun school supplies to donate to Lena Pope.

Lena Pope is very near and dear to our heart:

In 2008, Lena Pope Home opened their first charter school, Chapel Hill Academy. Since opening, Chapel Hill Academy has provided a positive learning environment that focuses on each child, educating over 500 students each year. Chapel Hill Academy offers tuition-free, quality education that builds a solid foundation for each student so they may reach their full potential.  In addition to Chapel Hill Academy,  Lena Pope Home partners with the Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program to provide quality alternative education for local students referred by the courts. While attending our program, the students learn behavioral, social, and career-building skills to help them grow academically and be successful in their home communities and schools. 

We came home with quite the haul to donate to Lena Pope Early Learning Center.  Connor attends the ELC and I cannot tell you how much I LOVE and adore these teachers and administrators.  They provide so much for each child no matter what their background is, including financially for families in need.  We brought enough school supplies home for each child to have a lot of fun!  It blessed US to be able to bless them.  Fiskars Champions for Kids is an amazing program organized by people with equally amazing hearts.

To inspire the kids Connor and I made a craft project in the “Kids Crafts” section HERE

We chose to do the fun floral pinwheels found HERE.

1.  We used construction paper, a wooden pick, marker, Elmer’s glue, and some sparkly stars

2.  We addressed our teachers

3.  Cut out paper into an equal sided square using Fiskars Safety-Edge scissors.

4.  Fold paper in half and half it again until you end up with 4 squares with a line in the middle of each one.  Cut the middle section of each corner.

5.  Fold over every other corner creating a pinwheel

6.  Glue each inside corner with glue.  Decorate your flower/pinwheel with Crayola markers, sparkles, or whatever you desire!

Connor loves doing crafts.  He decorated his own flower.

Thank you for our teachers for helping us GROW!

We thought the flower would be fun to stick in our donated supplies bucket as a symbol of growth.  We hope it will inspire others to donate to education programs and students in need who are eager to learn!

Next, we visited our school!  So excited to drop this off this AMAZING surprise 🙂

Connor’s teacher was so SO excited and so were all the students.  It was such a wonderful feeling to be able to give back to those who give so much to us.  We hope our story inspires you to give back to your community and be a part of the Fiskars Champions for Kids Project.  

Become a part of Fiskars Shape Their Future by Collecting school and crafting supplies for children in your community!

1. GATHER your friends, family, co-workers, and community organizations to host a Fiskars Shape Their Future Project.

2. COUNT the number of supplies you collected and take photos!

3. DONATE the supplies you collect to a local teacher, social worker, community center, or youth organization to help children in your community enjoy their first days back to school.

4. SHARE your story with us at championsforkids.org/share so that we can celebrate your participation!

Find out more by following Champions for Kids on Facebook and @Champions4Kids on Twitter or check out all of the fun projects going on at the Fiskars SIMPLE Service Pinterest page.