What's For Dinner?--- Easy Tuna Casserole

What's for Dinner is a new category for this Cook Book Site.  These recipes will be old time favorites with fewer calories and a little twist on taste.
This one is a Tuna Casserole, takes about 45 minutes to make and some of can be made ahead. Making it an easy dinner for the busy person. The cook time is only 25 minutes.  So, you can come home, turn the oven on preheat to 375 Fahrenheit and pop in the oven. Each serving is about 200 calories, you can eat more and still be under the 500  calorie per meal.

I made it very easy so and prep area is almost no clean up. All the ingredients can be purchased at the supermarket easily. The Brands I use are in parenthesis.

Auntie E's Easy Tuna Bake.

2 Cups Mini Penne uncooked pasta ( Berilla brand)
A 15oz jar of  Light Alfredo Sauce (Bertolli)
Creole seasoning ( Zatarains)
An 11 oz Chunk Light Tuna  packed in water ( Starkist)
Salt and pepper
Panko Bread Crumbs ( Progresso)
1 Tablespoon cold Goat Butter, you can use unsalted regular cold butter.

A lightly buttered  8 x 11 x 2 baking pan ( about a 2.5 quart casserole dish)

1. Cook noodles in Salted boiling water for 5 minutes { i use about 1 Tablespoon salt per 8 cups water)
2. Pour  the jar of Alfredo sauce in a  small sauce pan, add 3/4 teaspoon of the Creole Seasoning. Stir well, heat over medium low heat. heat for about 3 minutes until just warm. Add the tuna and stir well, remove for heat.
3. drain noodles and add the sauce to the noddles. add 1/2 teaspoon Creole seasoning and some cracked pepper to taste.   should not need salt, but you can add a little at this point if your taste buds need more. the salt in the pasta and the Creole seasoning is really enough.
Place mixture into baking dish.

**If you want to make this ahead then; put the pasta mixture in the butter dish cover with plastic wrap, make sure the plastic wrap is on top of the noddles. This keeps the pasta from drying out on top. Put in the Refrigerator.


4. Put 1/2 cup of Panko crumbs in a large bowl, with a pastry cutter, cut in 1 tablespoon of Goat butter. Sprinkle  evenly on top of the noddles

Bake in preheated oven (375 F) for 25 minutes

**if you are taking it from the refrigerator; take out and leave on counter while oven is preheating,  remove plastic wrap and discard.  Sprinkle the Panko mixture on top and cook for 25 minutes.

serves 6 people a generous serving ( see photo )

copyright 2014 by "Auntie E Cookbook/M Dubros"