Tuna and Noodles Revisited

When I was in college and sometimes hung out with graduate student history majors, some weekends we would get together, chip in 60 cents each, and someone would make tuna and noodle casserole.  I wasn't into cooking then, but I always enjoyed the cheap dinner.  Guess what?

It's still cheap. I use good quality Italian tuna in olive oil ($1.99 each) and good quality egg noodles, from Ocean State Job lot, so they're really cheap.  I make my own white sauce, and always saute a bit of onion and (green, red,  yellow, whatever) pepper first.  Put in a dab of cayenne powder.  Use part of the oil drained from the tuna as "shortening."  Use whatever dairy product (milk, cream, half and half) is available.  I use 2 6.5 oz. cans of tuna.   We like it with crushed potato chips on top.  Breadcrumbs would be good, too, but not as good as potato chips.

A casserole from these ingredients made 3 weekdays dinners for two.  Can't get much cheaper than that.  It tasted great, too.  I dumped in about 3/4 finely chopped broccoli that was leftover from something.  Frozen peas will also work.  Some color, don'tcha know.

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo, and we're celebrating in the kitchen, which is the best place.  I'm splurging for some Chicken Tostadas.  See the next post.

Ole! 

Remembrance of Things Past

Washing out bread bags! That was one of my jobs as a kid, because I had frugal family who had experienced the depression. How I hated it. Hated margarine, too. Still do. My grandparents raised a big garden and kept chickens. As a kid I wore pajamas made out of muslin feed sacks. Soft fabric and pretty patterns. My grandma and I used to giggle about our "feed sack pajamas." Can you beat that? Comments to this blog are always welcome, if clean.

We had a cheeseparing dinner (without cheese) last night. Tuna and noodle casserole. The tuna was on sale. Confession: I hate tuna in water. Doesn't taste right. Doesn't even taste good. So I suck it up and buy the fancy Italian kind packed in olive oil. Of course I drain the oil out, and last night I used the oil to make the sauce, a white sauce with bits of scallion and red bell pepper. Salt and pepper. Sometimes a sprinkle of cayenne for complexity. 2 cans of tuna. 3/4 lb. noodles (on sale at Ocean State Job Lot). Nice thick sauce. Crushed potato chips on top. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. Served with a green salad. A bit of ice cream (on sale, natch) later on.

This will yield two evening dinners and at least one lunch. How frugal is that?

Here is the link for savings hints from the Grandma. Mine was the same way. Loved the photos and the commentary. Love the web for finding such treaures. Frugal Tips from the Past.

http://untraditionalhome.com/?p=309