Oh Tuna Noodle Casserole!

Oh tuna noodle casserole. I’ve despised the thought of you for so long. I’m actually a big casserole maker. I love that you can have food for days on end when you make a casserole. It’s the tuna part to the noodle casserole that I’m not so fond of. Canned tuna is not good, in my opinion. I’ve never liked it. Tuna is a lost cause for me since it’s always (in my experience) paired with mayonnaise, which I find even grosser then tuna. Plus canned fish hasn’t worked out so well for me (see this post). Being the type of person that loves a challenge though I felt I needed to take tuna noodle casserole on. The one plus being it was easy to make. At least I wouldn’t be wasting tons of valuable time on something that I wasn’t going to like anyway.

The day of this challenge I was super nervous. I really try to like most foods and have a rule about trying something 3 times and 3 different ways before you decide to not like it. (The possible exception to that rule might be snails. I’m not sure how else to try them other than the traditional way and it was really hard for me to swallow them. I feel like they are going to crawl right back up my throat!) Anyway I was worried because I was positive I was not going to like this casserole.

I found a recipe online at eHow. It was a little different than some of the other recipes online. You make your own sauce, instead of using a can of Cream of Mushroom soup and there wasn’t any cheese in this recipe. First you cook the pasta; I used elbow macaroni (egg noodles seemed like an odd choice to me although a lot of recipes say to use those). Then mix ¼ cup of bread crumbs and a tablespoon of melted butter for the topping. You cook celery and onion in a skillet with some butter until the vegetables are tender. Next add a cup of milk and a cup of chicken broth and stir until slightly thickened and bubbling. You then combine everything in the casserole dish the (I did not use pimientos as the recipe did, but added frozen peas instead!) tuna, noodles and sauce and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Bake it at 375 for about 20 minutes. Viola! Tuna Noodle Casserole!

Final Product:

Not pretty, but it so comforting!

Anthony’s biggest complaint was that I didn’t break up the tuna enough it was too chucky for him. How was I to know? I don’t eat the stuff! Also it was a bit unhealthy with all the butter. If I do it again I think I will use olive oil for the veggies. Overall I actually didn’t mind it at all. The tuna was pretty well hidden with all the other stuff in it. And considering how cheap this recipe is, we will be eating much more of this meal. Tuna noodle casserole isn’t as scary as you might think! Was anyone else scared of it besides me?!

I have a post that I’m excited about coming up soon. I made meatless sloppy joe’s last night and have decided to make meatfull sloppy joe’s next week and do a comparison. I’m pretty sure I know who the winner is going to be.