What's Cookin' -- Tuna Noodle Casserole

This is a tuna noodle casserole recipe that I saw in Everyday Food (a Martha Stewart magazine). It's really easy to make and the substitutions I used do not compromise the taste.

Tuna Noodle casserole

I halved the recipe and it made two large servings.

salt and pepper

10 oz green beans

1 cup macaroni (or other pasta)

Bechemel sauce

2 cans tuna

4 slices of bread, cut off crusts (or use pre-made bread crumbs, I often used crushed saltines)

2 Tbsp melted butter

1. Boil green beans for 5 minutes. Drain and reserve water.

2. Boil pasta in green bean water for 6 minutes. Drain.

3. Preheat oven to 35o degrees.

4. In bowl combine pasta, green beans and bechamel sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Gently fold in tuna.

5. Put bread in food processor or blender until crumbs form. (skip this part if using pre-made bread crumbs or crushed saltines). Mix with butter.

6. Pour tuna mixture in casserole dish and top with bread crumbs.

7. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Bechamel sauce (white sauce)

3 Tbsp butter

1/4 cup onion, chopped

1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

4 cups whole milk (I used skim milk)

1. Melt butter with onions for 6 minutes in saucepan on medium-low.

2. Add flour and salt. Stir for about 5 minutes.

3. Whisk and pour in milk. Bring to boil.

4. Whisk constantly for 7 minutes

5. Reduce heat to low stirring until sauce is thickened for about 10 minutes.

**Can be stored for 5 days. **

Check out my other tuna recipes here and here!

For more great recipes check out the Grocery Cart Challenge!

Here are many fall activities that I posted last year!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Calm before the storm

I've been taking a small break from blogging this week. Not that I don't have anything it to post -- I'll get a recipe up later.

We are moving again this month and it will be the fourth time in two years. We are purging again and have already sent two fully loaded cars to Goodwill. My daughter has been sleeping much better. She's going down pretty easily (a couple reminders, but no screaming or crying), and she is sleeping through the night. The only real change to the way it was before the transitions is that she is waking up really early around 6:30 a.m. Well, that's really early for me and my sleep deprived body (not to mention this allergy season has been a doosey making me extra worn out).

So, I'm taking the opportunity for a little down time between packing and all the day-to-day stuff. I know the intense packing and unpacking will be very tiring with a 2-year-old. But knowing that I will be in my own home soon is such a great feeling.

Whatever Martha

If you haven't seen this show, you have to check it out. It has Martha Stewart's daughter, Alexis, and her friend Jennifer commenting on Martha Stewart segments. I try to watch Martha Stewart every now and then, but I often get bored watching. I mean if it's going to take me a week to make my own journal, I'll go buy one at the store for a couple bucks. I do subscribe to her Everyday Food magazine and make many of the recipes -- I just substitute her fancy pasta for macaroni and call it white sauce if it's white. Whatever Martha! if absolutely hilarious and they say what were all are thinking. My favorite episode so far was watching Conan O'brien vacuuming a horse. Here's link to an episode where Martha makes sticks for roasting marshmallows. So funny!

Great savings

Sometimes it can be really hard to get the products we like for a reasonable cost. We are a pretty brand-specific family. We'll compromise with some things that we bake or cook with, but for the most part we like what we like and don't change much after we find something we like. I'm not really one to rush out to the store to get 6 boxes of pop tarts beccause they are cheap or free because we won't eat them. So I usually watch for sales for food we eat. This week our grocery store had a great sale on Quaker products, so I matched the sale up with some coupons on double coupon day.

My husband loves the Oatmeal Squares cereal and eats it every morning. A 24 oz box at Walmart costs $2.98 (13 cents an ounce). I eat Chewy bars every day -- they somehow became my go-to snack. And peanut butter chocolate chip are my preferred choice. They normally go for $2.25 on average (about 23 cents a bar). My daughter eat the Quaker oatmeal packets and loves apple cinnamon as well as maple and brown sugar. On average a box of goes for $2.50 (average 25 cents a packet).

Now, I can usually get a $1/2 coupon for chewy bars every once in a while. I also can find a $1/2 for the oatmeal, too. Matched up with double coupon day and a sale I can get a pretty good deal. Oatmeal Squares cereal hardly ever goes on sale or has coupons.

The sale was buy 5 Quaker products for $10. This makes each box worth $2 before

coupons. Here's what I purchased today:

• 2 boxes oatmeal (each had 2 extra packets -- making that 24 packets of oatmeal)
• 4 boxes of chewy bars
• 4 boxes of Oatmeal Squares cereal (16 oz)
• 1 box of Life cereal

Total before coupons = $22 (with the sale)

Coupons used:

1 $1/2 for oatmeal (doubled to $2)

2 $1/2 for chewy bars (doubled to $4)

1 $3/1 for purchasing 5 Quaker products (not doubled, but used for the cereal)

With the coupons I saved another $9, making the total $13 for 11 boxes of Quaker products. That is $1.18 a box. That just slashes the average prices that I normally find. We should be stocked up for a little, too.

Whatever Martha

If you haven't seen this show, you have to check it out. It has Martha Stewart's daughter, Alexix, and her friend Jennifer commenting on Martha Stewart segments. I try to watch Martha Stewart every now and then, but I often get bored watching. I mean if it's going to take me a week to make my own journal, I'll go buy one at the store for a couple bucks. I do subscribe to her Everyday Food magazine and make many of the recipes -- I just substitute her fancy pasta for macaroni and call it white sauce if it's white. Whatever Martha! if absolutely hilarious and they say what were all are thinking. My favorite episode so far was watching Conan O'brien vacuuming a horse. Here's link to an episode where Martha makes sticks for roasting marshmallows. So funny!

What's Cookin' -- Oven Fries

I have been trying to perfect this one for a long time. Either the fries burn or take forever to bake. Either way they just never really taste that great. Here's what I did that made them taste good and actually like french fries. Recipe is adapted from here. I also took the idea from my baked potatoes to microwave the potatoes first in order to cut down on time and burning. And it seemed to work pretty well!

Oven Fries

3 Baking potatoes

1/2 TbspVegetable oil

Salt

Pepper

Onion powder

Garlic Powder

Spices are to taste, I probably used about 1/8 tsp to 1/4 tsp of each.

1. Don't peel potatoes. Cut in 1/2 inch length-wise pieces. Try to cut them all around the same size.

2. Place fries on microwave safe plate and lay flat on plate. Microwave for 5 - 6 minutes.

3. Mix oil, salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder together in baking dish (I use a white Corelle casserole dish).

4. After fries are softened in microwave, mix with oil and spices.

5. Put in 425 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes. They will be soft fries, not very crispy.

For more great recipes, check out the Grocery Cart Challenge!