Sausage and Rice Casserole

1 cup raw rice
2 cups chopped carrots–or shredded
1 large chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1 can (14oz) chicken broth or boullion dissolved to make 2 cups
1/2 cup water
1 lb. pork sausage
a can chopped mushrooms –opt.
Spread rice evenly in lightly greased baking dish-3 qt–and spoon veg.
over rice. Pour chicken broth and water over the vegetables. Cook sausage
until browned’ drain well. Spoon sausage over veg. Cover and bake at 350
for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and stir well; Cover and bake an
additional 30 min. 10 servings If you would like to cut the baking time
down, the rice could be cooked separately a day or so ahead and
refrigerated. Then put the veg. in a microwave dish with a little water and
precook them about 5 min. Then assemble and bake. There might be too much
liquid, so omit the 1/2 cup of water. Halfway into baking time stir veg.
and rice.In this case the baking time could likely be only 30 min. It
should be moist, but not runny.