Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Cheesy Tuna Mac (Frugal and Fast)

We had an extra week in the pay period this month, but I only got enough grocery money for 4 weeks and had to make that feed us for 5 weeks! Today was busy and I needed something to throw together quickly. Milk was gone (except for about an ounce) and I just couldn't seem to find something to make without thawing our food from storage or cooking beans for 3 hours.

Luckily, I had remembered a recipe from a book I got for my birthday yesterday: "The Duggars: 20 and Counting". I quickly searched for it and upon finding it found that I did not have all the ingredients and she called for very large amounts of things (10 boxes of mac/cheese, etc) and I only had 2. So I took ideas from her recipe and without some of the ingredients, made my own version:

  • 2 boxes of Mac 'n Cheese (the ones you get for a quarter or sometimes 30 cents each)
  • 3/4 cup evaporated milk
  • 1/4 cup Smart Balance spread (or whatever you use for 'butter')
  • 2 cans of tuna in water; drained
  • 2 cups frozen peas; thawed and steamed

Cook the macaroni in 12 cups of hot water; drain. While cooking the macaroni, steam your peas and mix the cheese sauce packets with the evaporated milk. Melt the butter in a saucepan on low, then stir in the milk/cheese mixture till warm throughout, and remove from heat. Pour the cheese sauce over the drained macaroni and then add 2 cans of drained tuna and the peas and mix and enjoy!

It took me about 10 minutes to make this and that is about all the time I had lol. I had run errands and forgot that today's meal was beans and I couldn't be home to watch and cook them for 3 hours. Luckily, I got the idea above and saved dinner!

It was good! I will use in the future for those busy days! Also, the Duggars recipe of course used more quantities and then she added cream of mushroom soup, I'm sure that would taste even better!

Also, the recipe could be made several ways. You could add chicken, beef, etc instead of tuna and then change up the vegetable too! I could really see the recipe tasting good with chicken and broccoli!


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