The Laziest Tuna Casserole Ever

When I was growing up, one of my favorite meals my mom made was tuna noodle casserole. She used a recipe from a big Betty Crocker cookbook and you had to boil egg noodles, mix two or three soups, shred cheese, and bake it all. It was a big to-do but it was delicious. I don't have time for all that, but I do have time for the laziest tuna casserole ever. A friend of mine told me about this a few years ago and I've been making it since. I usually have this stuff in the cupboard so it makes a good go-to quick dinner.

You'll need a box of mac and cheese, a can of cream of mushroom soup, and a can of tuna. I had an onion and some frozen peas so I decided to fancy it up. I don't usually do this and it's just as good without. I think some bell pepper or celery would go well in this, if you have it on hand. You'll also need the butter and milk to make the mac and cheese, but if you have the one with the bag of cheese sauce already made, omit this.

Time for a crash course in the quickest way to make pasta: Forget about gallons of salty as seawater at a rolling boil. Put your pasta in a pot and add just enough cold water to cover. Dash of salt, and put it over high heat. The pasta will absorb the water and cook up very quickly. Keep an eye on it, because there is definitely a fine line between cooked and burned and the closer it gets to done the faster things move.

If you're adding onion, now would be a good time to do it to get rid of the raw onion flavor. Instead, you get a nice boiled onion flavor. I don't know if that's a selling point or not, but there it is. 

Might be hard to tell from this picture, but when the pasta is done most of the water will have absorbed and you'll be left with a little starchy, filmy residue. No draining necessary!

If you're using frozen peas, now's a good time for those. Mix them around and let the residual heat thaw them for you. 

Add the butter, milk, and cheese packet and get things mixed around until the sauce is smooth.

Add a can of mushroom soup, and mix well.

Add a canned of drained tuna, and mix well. Give it a taste to check for temperature. Adding frozen peas and room temperature soup will cause things to cool off quite a bit. This was the perfect temperature for my son, so I scooped out his serving right away. I wanted mine a little warmer, so I put it over medium heat and stirred until it was warm.

Finish with your favorite crunchy topping. I prefer kettle cooked salt and vinegar chips. The crunch is a nice contrast, and the tang of the vinegar compliments the fish well. I should have taken a picture before covering the top in chips, but live and learn. Imagine the previous picture, but with the tuna stirred in.

Notes:

• This recipe is extremely customizable. Add or subtract anything you like. 
• If you want to feed more people, this is easy to double. 
• To make this more like a traditional casserole, you could put this in a dish, top with breadcrumbs or cornflakes, and bake until the top is browned. 
• I do have a recipe for a more traditional tuna casserole that's still pretty easy that I'll share at some point. 
• You wanna really get crazy? Throw some of this in a tortilla, wrap like a burrito, and grill until crisp and brown. I don't know why, but it works really well. Then you end up with portable tuna noodle casserole.

Enjoy!