All Talk... Cheesy Tuna Casserole

I believe I have found a winner when it comes to a meal that my entire family likes! This is cause for much excitement and rejoicing.

Yesterday, after a failed attempt at grilled cheese rolls (I'll try it again and post the results), I announced to my children that today we would be having cheesy tuna casserole. The response I received from my food critic youngest son was "No not a casserole!".  No complaints about the casserole containing tuna (which is what I thought he would complain about). For some reason the idea that the food was called a casserole terrified him.

Today I created the cheesy tuna casserole. I didn't go to the store, so I kind of made due with what I had. It came out pretty well. I was happy with my improvisation creativity. It looked a little funny because I used rainbow pasta, but it was enjoyable.

(The affect of the rainbow pasta gave the casserole a nice green color)

 

This was a pretty simple recipe. It was also a very quick meal to make; which is important since today was my first teacher work day of the year and I was kind of tired.

 

Anyway my youngest son complained like crazy before eating the casserole, but then devoured it with great speed. I asked him if he liked it and I think that took him off guard. He looked at me with a  pained expression, told me "No", and continued to devour the casserole. Anyway, I'll be sharing the recipe below.

 

The recipe involved the following:

 

Ingredients:

• 3 cans of tuna
• 1 bag of pasta (it does not have to be rainbow unless you want your casserole to have a green ting)
• 1 cup of milk (hey look an actual measurement!)
• 1 can of cheese soup (cream of mushroom would also work and might give it a smoother consistency)
• 2 cups of medium cheddar cheese
• 1 bag of mixed cheese
• 1Tbsp. of garlic salt
• 1 Tbsp. of Onion powder

 

Steps:

1. Cook the pasta (if you don't know how to do this then follow the steps on the pasta bag, I am not going to explain it to you)
2. Strain the pasta
3. Mix the 2 cups of cheddar, 3 cans of tuna (drained), 1 cup of milk, the 1 can of soup, the garlic salt, the onion powder, and the pasta
4. Pour it into your casserole/bake dish
5. Top it with the 1 bag of mixed cheese
6. Cook at 400 F for 20 minutes
7. Let it cool and serve

 

I really enjoyed making this casserole and I'm glad my family enjoyed eating it. Tomorrow, I will most likely talk about my "worry-free" dog shampoo or my classroom. Not sure yet... hmmmm

Once you get to know me...

Enchilada Casserole... or is it Mexican Lasagna???

So, I made a relatively decent attempt at cooking today and I am completely proud of it! It received 3 out of 4 thumbs up (the thumbs down was from my youngest who dislikes all food that is not pizza without sauce). I consider that a success!

It took me a while longer than it should have since I forgot to defrost the meat earlier on in the day. Other than that little problem, I found it relatively easy to create and definitely easy to eat! Is this the beginning of me actually cooking full meals? I'm not getting my hopes up.

(The Enchilada Casserole: I think I need to figure out how to send better pictures from my phone)

 

So, I'm going to describe the process. I made my casserole on the cheesy side because my boys LOVE cheese and I thought it might convince my youngest that it was worth eating. The recipe I'm posting has less cheese (although you could double the cheese and turn it into my creation).

 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb ground beef
• A large can of enchilada red sauce (or 2 small cans)
• A package of corn tortillas
• 1 package of Mexican cheese mixture (or two if you want it SUPER CHEESY)
• 1 Package of taco seasoning
• 1 can of diced olives (olives scare my children so I only put them on the top

Steps:

1. Brown the meat. I added the taco seasoning in at this time. This is a pretty simple step since you just dump the beef into a skillet and move it around till its brown.
2. Pour a thin layer of enchilada sauce on the bottom of your casserole dish.
3. Place a layer corn tortillas on top of the enchilada sauce
4. Put a layer of beef on top of the tortillas
5. Add a layer of cheese
6. Add a layer of tortillas (I now poured the enchilada sauce on top of the tortillas in a thin layer)
7. Repeat with the meat/cheese/tortilla/sauce layers till you run low at room on the top.
8. You top your casserole with the rest of your cheese and add olives (you could probably mix olives or veggies in as a layer if you don't have anyone opposed to those items).
9. Place the Enchilada Casserole in the oven at 400 F for 20 minutes.
10. Let it cool on the counter for about 5-10 minutes and serve

Again, I'm new at cooking real meals (as opposed to boiling pasta and adding cheese to the top, or microwaving hotdogs). Please forgive me if I'm not using the right jargon.