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.

Chicken Tikka Masala and Minestrone Soup...Not on the Same Day!

I'm positive I've mentioned my love of Indian food numerous times now. Nothing I make at home ever tastes as good as what I get here. Of course I can't always afford to eat out every time I'm craving some Indian flavors. Chicken Tikka Masala is one of the ways that I appease my craving. It's a simple dish to make and if you are not sure about Indian food this is probably one of the more tame dishes to try.

I'm getting much better when prepping my food. I've found a comfortable way to chop onions and you will need one onion chopped for this recipe. For the rest of the prep you will need to crush 1 clove of garlic, grate 2 teaspoons of ginger, and cut 1 1/4 lbs of chicken breast into 1 inch chunks. Nothing too difficult or time consuming.

Your first cooking step is to get your basmati rice started. You have to use basmati rice when making Indian food it's so much better then the normal white rice. If you don't have a cinnamon stick to add to the water, you can add some ground cinnamon like we did this night. Heat oil in a skillet and add the onion and cook for about 6 minutes. Next add the ginger, garlic, and curry paste (I also added a little Tikka Masala Paste too; not necessary I just wanted to finish the jar), cook for 3 minutes. Add the chicken, some salt, and black pepper and cook until chicken in not pink on the outside. Then add 1 can of crushed tomatoes, cover the skillet and cook for 5-6 minutes more. Once the chicken is cooked uncover the skillet and stir in 1/2 cup of half-and-half and the cilantro if you can eat it. That's it. Simple, easy, tasty and cheaper then take out!

Tasty, tasty!! We enjoy this dish a lot. I recommend it to any of you!

On to the Minestrone Soup. I'm constantly looking for ways to exclude meat from our diet. It much healthier to eat meatless a few times a week. I'm not saying you should cut out meat from your diet every day, but a couple times a week is definitely heart healthy! Soup is also something I'm a big believer in making because it's normally quite easy to make and you usually have leftovers for lunch the next day.

This soup was great. I'm really glad I found this recipe in Food Network Magazine. So as not to bore you with all the details of how to make this recipe I'll just let you know what's in it. The main ingredients are onion, garlic, celery, carrot, green beans, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, kidney beans, elbow pasta, and parmesan cheese. There are a few other basic ingredients, but if you like all of the items I just listed you will like this soup. Now start cooking! This will be great leftover! Next time I make it I'm going to double the recipe and freeze what we don't eat. Super yummy and basically healthy. I love soup! Have I told you guys that yet! Delicious!

Final Product:

My next two posts will be the beer brewing process and the results of the tuna noodle casserole. Let's just say I didn't hate it.

Tuna Noodle Casserole...REALLY?!

I have to catch up on some blog posts, it's been super busy so I haven't had time to do anything!! This weekend I'm sitting down and telling you about my beer making, Tika Masala, and Minestrone Soup.

The big story is tonight I am making Tuna Noodle Casserole. I'm taking my own advice and trying tuna again. Tuna = horrible nasty gross to me. Thinking back to one of my first blog posts, I told all of you to give something 3 tries and if you still don't like it then don't eat it. So I'm trying tuna again tonight. I figure with the sauce and the cheese I should be able to choke it down if nothing else.

I'll keep you updated.

Christmas Lasagna and Homemade Sauce

I cooked once or twice over the holidays and nothing turned out horrible. In fact Anthony told me that the lasagna I made Christmas was my best one ever. The sauce came out wonderfully. It had the perfect amount of spice to it. Yum! I tried to replicate the sauce for New Year's Eve and it didn’t come out the same. Guess I should have paid more attention to how I made it Christmas. I’m a reformed sauce in a jar user. It was just so simple and cheap to buy a premade sauce. The only time I ever made sauce from scratch was when making lasagna; a recipe that I got from Rocco Dispirito and have been using for years now. It’s just a simple cheese lasagna. I’m not even sure if there is anything unique about it.

I decided not to boil the noodles this time around. If you’ve ever made lasagna and boiled noodles you know that it’s not fun. The noodles typically will start breaking once they are cooked and you just have a mess you didn’t really need in the first place. I soaked the noodles in a casserole dish of hot water until I was ready to use them. The rest is a cinch to make, you can either used jar or homemade sauce and you have to make up an egg and ricotta mix. You spread a good bit of sauce in the bottom of a casserole dish (so the noodles have liquid to cook in), add a layer of noodles, then spread on the ricotta-egg mixture, top with shredded mozzarella and grated parmesan (I grated my own parmesan, but I didn’t shred the mozzarella. I got to take some shortcuts somewhere!), top with sauce and repeat the process until you have a good solid lasagna. Stick it in the oven at 350 degrees and bake for an hour. You can cover it for 40 minutes with foil and take the foil off for the last 10 minutes if you want to. I didn’t cover mine, I don’t remember if it’s because I forgot or if it was a conscience decision.

I started making homemade sauce and used Rocco’s Mama’s Marinara recipe. Since I first started making this sauce I’ve added things to it to make it my own. The key for my sauce is chili powder, red pepper flakes, sometimes I add some Frank’s Red Hot or Sriracha, and a lot of fresh basil. The dried stuff just isn’t as good for sauce. I like sauce with a little heat behind it! Once you try making your own sauce and see how easy it is you will be a convert. Just make sure to make big batches on the weekend (it needs to simmer for an hour) and freeze for the coming week or whenever!

Some other stuff I cooked over the holidays was chicken wing dip, artichoke dip, and chili cheese dip. I also made cookies, but ran into some problems making them. Never substitute Splenda for real sugar, it just doesn’t work out well. Lesson learned.

My next post will be about my beer brewing experience. Yes, I am going to try to brew my very own Nut Brown Ale (with Anthony’s help) tomorrow. This should be an interesting event and who knows, maybe I will pick up a new hobby.

Also I’m very close to making a decision on writing a book. Do I think it will be a best seller? No, but it’s something I’ve started and stopped numerous times and I just feel like now might be the right time to dig in and start writing. More details to follow.