My Mom's Tuna Casserole That I've Made Even Better

The awesome thing about tuna casserole is that everything is basically measured out for you by the manufacturers, so there's no messing around with measuring cups (unless you're the kind who actually measures the four quarts of water for boiling the noodles)! I was a lousy cook until recent years (you could ask my cousin Kyle about our 4am muffin-baking disaster) but even I could throw together a tuna casserole when the prospect of another meal of coffee and ramen became too much to bear. AND SO CAN YOU.

I was going to take pictures of the steps like all the fancier cooking bloggers do but my friend Alicia stopped in and I forgot. But I did get one of the ingredients:

So here's my recipe. Bear in mind I'm one of those people who adds things until it seems like enough.

Ingredients:

1 bag of egg noodles (you can use whatever kind of noodles you want, but I like the squishiness of egg noodles in tuna casserole and just can't get that with other noodles.)
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
2 cans chunk light tuna in water
Butter (enough to grease your casserole dish)
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional (but only if you want non-awesome tuna casserole):
1/4 bag of frozen peas (give or take)
1 sleeve of saltine crackers
Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Cook your noodles according to the package (for real, I'm not your mother. I'm not going to tell you how to cook noodles. Just follow the directions, or don't. I don't). Strain them; don't rinse. Put them back in the pan unless you want to wash more dishes, in which case you should put them in a mixing bowl. But that would be ridiculous, so just put them back in the pan. Stir in the mushroom soup and peas. Add some salt and pepper if you want to.

Open the tuna but READ THIS PART CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING BECAUSE IT IS IMPORTANT: drain tuna juice into a container and give the juice and a couple scraps of tuna to your cat. Unless you don't have one. But if you have one and you skip this step, you are the worst kind of human. And I know you're not, so share with your kitty. This is only the second time I've made tuna casserole since I got my cat Avery, and she already knows this crucial step.

Ok, NOW you can stir in the remainder of the tuna.

(Alicia chimed in at this point to say that her mom would put cheddar cheese in the mix. That's probably good, but this is MY recipe, and cheddar cheese has no part in it. But you can use it if you want to.)

Grease a casserole dish (9x12 or something? I don't know. Casserole-sized). Pour in your mixture and spread it out evenly. Next is the saltine step and you have several options: you can crush them in the sleeve or in a baggy before you put them on the casserole if you want a finer crust, or you can just crumble them in your hands as you go if you want cracker chunks in your crust. I like chunks. (For the record, I use nearly a full sleeve-- I usually end up with about 6-8 crackers leftover.) Coat your whole casserole with these, then with some Parmesan cheese. Cover in foil and bake for 30 minutes (I take the foil off partway to let the crust brown a little. You can also broil if you really want to toast the crust).


Now enjoy it because it is awesome.

Reheating: You can toss your leftovers in the microwave for a couple minutes, but they're going to be dry and gross. The best way to re-heat your tuna casserole is on the stove, and you can do it one of two ways--

1. Double-boil it. I don't have an actual double-boiler; I have pans of different sizes. So I put a small pan in a large pan with enough water in the large pan that the smaller one is slightly in the water, but not so much that it will all boil over. Put your tuna casserole in the smaller pan, cover, and heat. Takes about 10-15 minutes if it's not frozen.

2. Steam it in a baggy. It's got to be one of the zipper kind unless you have some ingenious way of sealing plastic baggies that don't have zippers. Get the air out as best you can, seal it, and put it in a pot of boiling water. It's usually hot enough for my liking in under ten minutes. I portion it into bags when I'm done eating so I don't have to find room in the fridge for the dish, and so it's soft enough that I can do this:

If you can't tell (my skills are not in photography), I've got the baggy in a glass so it will stand up while I scoop my leftovers into it.

With both of the above methods, I like to add a touch of butter before I heat my leftovers. I actually sort of think that leftover tuna casserole is better than freshly-made tuna casserole.

Oh, and I mentioned in my last post that I get all the leftovers now, but I promised some to Alicia. She's lucky I like her so much.

And here's photographic proof that my kitchen is super-small:

That's the whole thing. I'm standing in the bedroom to take this picture.

Taking stock

I just did what I should have done months ago when I moved in and barely had room for all my stuff-- I threw out a bunch of expired cans of soup and boxes of tea. I checked dates on the things in my fridge. I organized my fruits and veggies. I actually looked at what I have in my kitchen. I listened to 90's music. (I do that last one a lot.)

It turns out I have a lot of tomato and cream of mushroom soup, and some unopened Saltines. I have a ton of spices. I have a lot of chocolate and I'm not even all that obsessed with chocolate. My refrigerator looks like a scaled-down produce stand. I've got one piece of frozen salmon and no other meat. I have a couple baggies of frozen berries in the freezer, and some frozen veggies. I don't have much to snack on except some baby carrots. My breakfast options consist of two flavors of yogurt, or oatmeal that I keep forgetting I have.

My mind went somewhere familiar after my inventory, to a couple old favorites that remind me of home and either re-heat well or make a single meal. And I either don't have to buy much to make them happen, or only need some cheap, long-lasting ingredients. Neither are super-healthy, but I want to use what I have so I can start anew next time I re-stock. Also, I'm fairly sure they're better than Taco Bell, which I had last night after a really long day at work*. Healthy is relative**.

First idea- tuna casserole. I've got cream of mushroom soup, peas, and saltines. I need egg noodles and tuna. I have an unreasonable love for tuna casserole. When my mom would make it for our family of four, leftovers were rare. My dad taught me to slap a bunch on a slice of buttered bread (we still dream of opening a restaurant that serves tuna casserole sandwiches, or their cousin, spaghetti sandwiches). My tuna casserole is even better (sorry, Mom) because I make it with peas and I get all the leftovers.
Second idea- grilled cheese and tomato soup. I need bread. Ok, this takes no stretch of the imagination, but my Grandma Sargent made this for me all the time when I was little. She wasn't that kind of grandma whose recipes you want to pass on to your kids, because her recipes essentially involved opening a can or a bag and turning on the stove. I blame Grandma Sargent for my life-long affinity for ramen noodles. Another Grandma Sargent classic is Cream of Chicken Soup on Bread. Seriously, grilled cheese and red soup (my brother's name for it) was one of the more complicated things that Grandma fed us.

I'm also going to get some buttermilk. I've got mayonnaise and the aforementioned spices, so I'm going to make some ranch dressing to dip my baby carrots in. I'll probably also get some fruit for breakfast or snacks. And now I shop.


*Cooking is also my job, so sometimes I really, really don't want to cook when I get home, especially after a long day of cooking for hundreds of other people. Fast food and frozen pizza totally have a place in my diet. DON'T JUDGE ME.

**Anecdote- At work, we were getting a new menu item that involved zucchini. Restaurant people tend to take ingredients found in the restaurant kitchen and make them into non-menu items, which is why my manager cut up, battered, and fried a bunch of zucchini to dip in marinara sauce. Most of us were very, very excited to get fried zucchini, but one guy, when offered some, turned it down, saying, "No thanks, I don't really like health food."

And so it begins

I recently moved into my very own place for the first time. I've always lived with my parents, roommates, or a boyfriend until four months ago. Living alone presents challenges-- the dirty towels always smell musty before I have enough for a full load, it's easy to put off cleaning until things have gotten out of control, no one but me is going to grab me a drink on their way back from the bathroom, and cooking and shopping for one is an art form.

I'm going to focus on the latter. I spend a lot of time thinking about how I can eat a variety of healthy and tasty foods without regularly trashing old produce and spoiled meat. I try to come up with combinations of ingredients that will save me trips to the store, because while there are lots of places nearby for me to buy groceries, the more trips I make, the more unnecessary junk I bring home and throw away later.

People often tell me, "It's easy to cook for one. Make big batches of things and freeze them for later." Ok, this isn't a bad idea, honestly. And I do this on occasion-- there is nothing like knowing you've got a bowl of chili just chilling out, practically ready to eat without all the prep work and cooking time. It's an excellent concept, truly. But even pre-cooked, frozen meals present me with problems. One, I invariably end up eating chili for nearly every meal until it's all gone. Two, I have no microwave.

Notice the title of this blog-- The Cramped Cook. My kitchen is tiny. Cooking, for me, involves extra advanced planning. For example, the dishes have to be done and put away because I only have enough open counter space for my dish strainer OR for prep work. If I'm making anything that needs to be strained, the single-compartment sink has got to be clean and empty. If I had a microwave, I wouldn't have a place for a bottle of wine (and that is UNACCEPTABLE, for the record). Anything I re-heat goes in the oven or on the stove. I'll explain my different methods as they become relevant.

This blog is mostly going to be for me to keep track of things that work for me and things that don't, recipes I've tried or want to try, and some brain-storming. Maybe someone will read it and get some ideas, or maybe someone will comment and this will be way more awesome than just a sounding-board for me.