Food for Thought - Tuna Casserole

I loved my mother dearly, but I have to tell you that she made the worst tuna casserole on the planet! First of all, she used Cream of Mushroom soup. I’m ok with creamed soups, in fact my recipe uses one, but I can not tolerate the tiny mushroom cubes that used to come in the mushroom variety. I’m sure they have improved it over the last 30 years…but I haven't tried it again in my adult life.

The other thing Mom did was bake it in the oven with uncooked noodles. In her defense, when I was a kid the only person in town with a microwave was Grandma and that’s because she worked at an appliance store and she really was one of the first people to get one. I know she paid over $800.00 for it (with her store discount!) and that was back in the late 70s, early 80s, but she always said it was well worth the money because it made food prep so much easier.

Anyway, back to Mom’s casserole, the noodles never seemed to get all the way cooked so half of them ended up hard and crunchy. Those were the nights I arranged to have dinner at Grandma’s house. When my sweetie and I got married, tuna took a tremendous price increase for several years. I’m not sure why, but for a little while the asking price was over a dollar a can! Then the prices slowly inched down to something more reasonable. That’s when I developed my own recipe for Tuna Casserole. The kids love it! Yesterday was Sport’s 8th birthday and he chose it as his birthday meal. Please give it a try, leave me a comment, and let me know what you think!

Tuna Casserole


1 ½ lbs macaroni (you can use different pasta)
3 small cans cream of chicken soup
milk to fill the soup cans
2 cans tuna (drained REALLY well)
1 cup of cheese
another ½ cup of cheese for topping
crushed potato chips

Cook pasta according to package directions.  In a casserole dish, stir soup, milk, tuna, and 1 cup of cheese until mostly smooth.

When pasta is done, drain it well and add it to the casserole dish.  Stir well, cover with plastic wrap and put it in the microwave for 10 minutes.

Remove plastic wrap.  Stir really well, especially the corners.  Cover with remaining cheese and the crushed potato chips.  Microwave again for about 3 minutes uncovered. And you might want to serve it with something that's not yellow...but Sport's favorite veggie is corn and it was his birthday, so what could I do?