Melty Tuna & Potato Casserole

This is beautiful.  A tuna casserole with an easy hashbrown potato crust.  It’s melty and yummy and filling.

Very little cooking skill required.  You need to be able to put some stuff in a pan and stick it in the oven.

Here’s what you need to make Melty Tuna & Potato Casserole:

• 1/2 green pepper
• 1/2 white onion
• A few button mushrooms (optional)
• A can of flaked light tuna
• 4 delicious hashbrown potato patties
• A few spoonfuls of mayonnaise
• Salt & pepper to taste
• A chunk of cheddar cheese or mozzarella or a combination of your fave cheeses

Here’s how to make it:

1.  Cut up the green pepper and onion into medium-sized dices and put the pieces in a bowl.

Green pepper and onion in a bowl

.2.  Finely slice up the mushrooms and add them to the bowl.

Mushies

3.  Open the can of tuna and drain out the juice.  Then put the tuna in a bigger bowl.

Tuna in a bigger bowl

4.  Add the fresh veggies to the tuna bowl.

Adding the veggies

5.  Add a few spoonfuls of mayonnaise and then add salt and pepper if you want.  I like to add some freshly-cracked black pepper but I don’t add any salt.  The flavours are fantastic without it!  Stir everything up until it’s mixed well.

Delicious!

All mixed up

6.  Pile up the hashbrown patties and cut them up into dices.

A glorious stack of hashbrowns

Cut into glorious pieces

7.  Spray a loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray and then throw the hashbrown pieces in the bottom of the pan.  Spread them around as evenly as you can.

A layer of hashbrowny goodness

8.  Spoon the veggie/mayo mixture on top of the hashbrowns.

A tasty layer

9.  Grate up the cheese and add it to the pan, spreading it out evenly.

A delightful cheese layer

10.  Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about twenty minutes or until the cheese gets splendidly bubbly and golden brown.

Yum!

11.  Let the casserole sit for about five minutes before you dig in.  Leftovers can be kept in the fridge and taken to work for lunch the next day!

A spoonful of awesomeness

Crispy and satisfying

Here’s what it costs to make (about 3 servings):

• Green pepper:  $0.45
• Onion:  $0.30
• Mushrooms:  $0.40
• Tuna:  $1.00
• Potato hashbrowns:  $0.80
• Mayonnaise:  $0.20
• Salt & pepper:  $0.02
• Cheese:  $1.00

Total cost to make:  $4.27

Total cost per serving:  $1.42

That’s a stellar price for a tasty tuna casserole!  This recipe gives you a good portion of protein combined with satisfying homestyle taste.  Woohoo!

Sweeeeeet

If you’re looking for other delicious melty recipes, try one of these:

• Melty Bagel Heaven
• Spicy Tunarachas

Cheesy Creamy Tuna Casserole

It’s creamy tuna casserole with magnificent egg noodles, lots of cheese, and lots of cream.  It’s awesome.  And it’s got crunchy potato chips on top!  Make this casserole on Sunday and enjoy your Sunday dinner, and at least Monday and Tuesday lunches at work!

You can easily make this gluten-free by using your favorite gluten-free noodles instead of the egg noodles!

This recipe is not difficult – You need to be able to cook pasta, grate cheese, and use the oven.

Here’s what you need to make Cheesy Creamy Tuna Casserole:

• A good big chunk of cheddar cheese
• A smaller chunk of mozzarella cheese
• 2 cans of condensed cream of mushroom soup
• A good big handful of button mushrooms
• 2 cans of flaked tuna
• 1 250mL container of heavy cream (35%)
• 1/2 of a white onion
• 1/2 of a fresh jalapeno
• 1 pkg of medium egg noodles
• 1 small bag of plain salted potato chips
• Some good sprinkles of pepper

Here’s how to make it:

1.  Put a pot of water on the stove to cook the pasta, cooking about half of the package (about 2.5 cups of uncooked noodles).  Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package, and once it’s done be sure to drain it and let it cool.  See this link if you want some tips on how to cook pasta!  

Stirring the egg noodles

2.  Grate up about half of your cheddar cheese and set it aside on a small plate.  Then cut the other half of your cheddar cheese into small chunks. Put it aside on a different plate.

Grated cheddar and chunky cheddar

3.  Repeat Step Two with the mozzarella cheese, putting the grated and chunked mozzarella in with the same cheddar.

Cheddar and mozzie chunks

Cheddar and mozzie grated

4.  Pour the cans of mushroom soup into a medium-sized pan on the stove on just-under-medium heat.

Cream of mushie soup

5.  Pour a little bit of the heavy cream into the empty soup cans then stir them around to try to pick up some of the leftover soup with the cream.  Then pour both cans of cream in with the mushroom soup in the pot.  Then sprinkle it all with pepper and stir.

Pouring some cream into the soup can

Cream in with the soup, sprinkled with pepper

6.  Open and drain both cans of tuna and then add the tuna into the soup.

Tuna in the soup!

7.  Slice up the mushrooms into quarters and add them into the soup.  Then stir it all up really good.

Mushroom chunks

Mushroom chunks in the soup

8.  Slice up the onion and add it into the soup mix.

Adding some onion

9.  Finely dice up the jalapeno and stir it in.

Spicy!

10.  Put the oven on to 375 degrees.  Take a 9×13 inch pan and spray the bottom and sides with some non-stick spray.

11.  Mix the noodles in with the soup, a few handfuls at a time, stirring after each addition, until there’s a good amount of pasta but the mixture is still on the soupy side.

Creamy!

12.  Pour about half of the mixture into the greased 9×13-inch pan.

A good layer of the mixture in a 9×13 pan

13.  Spread out the little chunks of cheese you cut earlier on top of the pasta.  These chunks of cheese will get all nice and melty when you bake this dish and will create what I call “Cheese Pockets.”

Future cheese pockets. Yum!

14.  Spread the rest of the noodles on top of the cheese pockets.

Now the cheese pockets are hidden

15.  Sprinkle the casserole with the grated cheese in a nice even layer.

A nice even layer of grated mozzie and cheddar cheese on top

16.  Drizzle the remaining heavy cream on top of the casserole in a zig-zag pattern.

Creaminess added in so it’s not all dry

17.  Cover the casserole and bake it for twenty minutes.  Then take it out of the oven, pull off the aluminum foil, and put it back in the oven until the cheese melts and starts to turn deliciously brown.  Then take it out of the oven and let it cool for at least 5 minutes.

Deliciously brown…

So deliciously brown!

18.  Meanwhile, take a nice big piece of aluminum foil and put a handful of potato chips in the middle.  Fold the aluminum up and over the chips on each side, so the chips are in a sort of an aluminum package.  Now use the palm of your hand to smush the whole thing, again and again, until the potato chips are in pieces that are smaller than the size of your pinky fingernail.

Crushing some chips – it’s fun!

Crushed chips

19.  Spoon some of the delicious tuna casserole into your favorite dinner bowl, then divide the rest of it into your reusable lunch containers.  Then sprinkle the potato chips on top of each serving.

Enjoy!!

This is an easy, filling, and delicious meal that you can make on a lazy Sunday afternoon.  It is filling and tasty and nutritious.  Enjoy!

Here is what it costs to make (4-5 servings):

• Cheddar cheese:  $2.00
• Mozzarella cheese:  $1.00
• Mushroom soup:  $2.00
• Button mushrooms:  $1.00
• Tuna: $3.00
• Heavy cream:  $2.50
• Onion:  $0.40
• Jalapeno:  $0.08
• Egg noodles:  $1.00
• Pepper:  $0.01

  Total cost to make:  $13.31

   Total cost per serving:  approx.  $2.96

A tasty price for a tasty meal!  Enjoy the crunch factor that the chips provide!

Here are two more casseroles to try:

• Melty Tuna & Potato Casserole
• Mellow Chicken Casserole