As parents, our job is to parent, and one of those jobs is to teach our kids life skills. When my wife returned to the paid workfoce I resumed the task of making meals. However, I didn’t do it solo; I involved my kids, and meal-making time became a fun and educational experience in Kunaland. Teaching your kids how to cook is vital, especially amid today’s inflation and the Trump tariff taxes. Yes, buying groceries has become ridiculously expensive, but going out to eat is even more costly.

I like making simple meals on weekdays. I’m a competent cook, but I’m not a hobby chef. Casseroles and hot dishes are perfect as they are often one-pot meals with plenty of leftovers. This recipe makes a 9 x 13 casserole, but it could be halved. It fed three of us for dinner. My son will take a large leftover portion for his school lunch, and there will be a couple of extra portions beyond that.

I was going to make a more upscale tuna noodle casserole, which I may do in a future post. However, I decided on this one as it is as easy as “dump and go.” It is a perfect recipe to teach your kids very basic cooking skills. No kids, or are they already grown? Tuna noodle casserole is still a perfect comfort food. There are many variations on this recipe, so don’t fret if you need to substitute or even omit an ingredient. A person who will remain nameless in my house hates peas. I love peas, but out of deference to her, I substituted a can of corn. Ops, did I just reveal the pea hater?

This recipe is from “All Recipes.” There are many variations on this theme.

Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the package.

These are the other ingredients. I drained the vegetables and tuna. Not shown is the onion. I didn’t have an onion, so I chopped up a small shallot. I’m using canned corn, but peas would be better. Don’t forget, I have a pea hater.

Put all of the ingredients in a big bowl. If you have kids, they will love dumping everything into the bowl and mixing it up. If you like a creamier casserole, add about 1/2 C of milk. I’m only adding 1/2 of the cheese and reserving the rest for the topping. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175 °C).

Add the cooked and drained noodles and mix.

Place it evenly in a 9 x 13 pan. I sprayed some cooking spray on the dish to make clean-up a bit easier, but that isn’t totally necessary.

Top with crushed potato chips. You could use other toppings such as bread crumbs/melted butter or crackers/melted butter. Don’t have any of that? You could also forgo the topping, but it does add something.

Top with half of the cheese. You could also add all of the cheese to the casserole mix and forgo the cheese topping.

Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 15-20 minutes. Let it stand for around 10 minutes before serving.

I also made a small loaf of my bran and flaxseed bread in my bread maker to go along with the casserole.

Served up. A simple meal, but very comforting on a wintery day. Yes, I know… I like my butter.

Peace

Mike