Cooking to Heal

My Broccoli and Cheese Casserole

1 lb of chicken

1 bunch of broccoli
2 boxes of Betty Crocker 3-Cheese scalloped potatoes

Milk

Olive Oil

Butter

Directions:

Cut chicken into bite sized pieces. Saute them in olive oil. Cut broccoli into bite sized pieces also. Put them and the contents of the scalloped potatoes box into a casserole dish and follow the directions on the box.

The recipe for the vegetables is here.

These pictures show a culinary event that was very healing for me, although stressful. On my family's vacation, there was a day when my brother wanted a big dinner in order for everyone to meet his girlfriend and I volunteered to make the dinner. This was a dinner of about seventeen people! We had the broccoli, potato and cheese casserole, a fruit salad, rolls, shrimp, and squash and zucchini with cheese. I felt very grown up as I ordered people to chop vegetables, fruit, and chicken and as I correctly timed how long it would take for everything to cook. Everyone loved the end result. I made three casseroles - one with chicken, one with bacon, and one with both. This casserole is one that I have made often and I love making it, because it's really quick-cooks in twenty minutes, but my favorite dish was the vegetables-I just love feta cheese!

It was very healing to make this meal for everyone, because I know that there was a time when there would have been no way for me to handle the stress of making a large meal or of eating it. It was a large step in my fight against ED. I must confess that after desert-provided by others-I felt really full and I started to feel very out of control and I wanted to purge in a way that I haven't in a long time. I started to be jealous of all the thin people there, thinking that they were better than me. Fortunately, I did not hinder my progress and instead stayed among people and the moment passed. Everyone praised my cooking, but my cooking for everyone was a greater gift unto myself.