Spinach Tuna Noodle Casserole

I LOVE this casserole. Of course, I love tuna and spinach - so I'm a little biased. But... Sweet Boy and S.D. loved this casserole and they're not biased at all! :) It's quick, it's creamy, it's easy - absolutely everything a casserole should be. And I like switching out different kinds of noodles. Sweet Boy likes these wagon wheels. I've also done elbow macaroni and those were great in this casserole as well.

I've been super busy this past week (hence the reason my posts have slowed down), and I didn't plan out our meals as well as I normally do. So it was nice to have something I could make with ingredients that I already had in the pantry.

One thing I always have is frozen spinach. I must have watched Pop-eye too much when I was little, because I LOVE spinach. I think it's one of my favorite vegetables. And the frozen brick is so convenient! Just pop it in the microwave and...


TaDahh... the spinach is all chopped and ready to go.


I know it looks a little radioactive here, but that is just because of the camera flash.

After stirring together the flour, vegan butter, and soy milk to make the sauce, throw in the spinach with some onions, garlic and tuna.


Mix with 8 oz of noodles, add some cheese and bread crumbs to the top and there you have it! A delicious and MEP free casserole.


Of course, you have to dot the top with vegan butter. That's what all the Food Network people do right? Well, minus the vegan part anyways.


Now, I accidentally layered it wrong. The original recipe calls for it to be like this - bread crumbs then cheese. But I think it should be cheese then bread crumbs. The bread crumbs don't have a chance to get crispy when layered like this. So next time hopefully I'll be paying more attention and do it so that the bread crumbs are on top.


I don't think I could survive without casseroles. They are one of those simple things that just make life easier. Meat and potatoes are easy to adapt to Sweet Boy's allergies. But casseroles have been challenging. I think that's why I love this casserole so much. We don't have casseroles too often anymore, and it's really been heart-breaking. They have such nostalgic value. It's interesting how something can be taken for granted for so long without noticing how truly special it is, until it's gone. I know you all probably think I've gone crazy talking about casseroles being heart-breaking and special. But hey, I'm a mom, and if I want to kiss those vegan chocolate chips, hug that box of Ener-G, or think this casserole is special, then by golly I will! :)

Enjoy!

Spinach Tuna Noodle Casserole

1/4 c. vegan butter

8 oz noodles of your choice

1/2 onion, chopped (I actually only had dried onion flakes on hand - used 1 T.)

1/2 t. celery seed

2 cloves garlic

1/4 c. all-purpose flour

2 c. soy milk

salt and pepper to taste

2 (6 oz) cans tuna

1 box frozen chopped spinach, thawed

3 T. bread crumbs

2 T. vegan butter

1 c. vegan cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375 F. Cook noodles al dente according to package directions. Melt 1 T. butter in skillet over med heat. Add onion and garlic and cook for about 3 minutes. Take off heat and add celery seed, salt and pepper - set aside. Melt 3 T. butter in sauce pan and whisk in flour. Stir in milk slowly and heat until thickened and smooth (about 5 minutes). Add onion mixture, tuna, and noodles to sauce. Pour into greased casserole dish. Sprinkle with cheese, then bread crumbs. Dot with butter. Put into preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes.

Rhubarb Apple Crumble

Rhubarb makes me laugh. Not only is it a weird thing in general, but every time I say it - "rhubarb" - it comes out so country. Not just country, but deep south Paula Deen country! I love it. It's a vegetable used in dessert, it's bright pink, it's SOUR, and it has a funny name. What's not to love?

We went to Whole Foods the other day and S.D. had his heart set on Rhubarb Crumble. After a long search for rhubarb, we found out it wasn't in season. I've never seen him broken hearted over food, but he was. Lucky for him I happened to stumble upon some frozen rhubarb a few days later in the grocery store. Yay!

So here it is... Rhubarb Crumble! Actually, I'm not sure if it's a crumble or a crisp. I looked up online the deference between a crumble and a crisp. They seem quite similar, except a crumble is a British dessert and may not be as sweet. And since this didn't seem extremely sweet (unless of course you count all the ice cream we piled on top) I am going to call it a crumble.


The first time I made this I used only rhubarb. This time I decided to add some apples to it. One Granny Smith and one Gala. I'm not sure which I liked better. They were both delicious of course, but the plain rhubarb was slightly more sour.

The original recipe had a lot less fruit and more butter in the topping. I definitely like more fruit, and the reviews said all the butter made the topping too hard. So here is the adapted recipe:

Rhubarb Apple Crumble

16 oz. frozen rhubarb, defrosted

2 apples, peeled and chopped into 1 inch cubes

1/2 c. white sugar

1 1/2 T. flour

1/2 c. light brown sugar

1/2 c. quick cooking oats

3/4 c. flour

5 T. vegan butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Stir together first four ingredients and place in small casserole dish (mine was about 11"x7"x2.5"). Stir together brown sugar, oats, and remaining flour. Cut in butter to resemble coarse crumbs and sprinkle over top of rhubarb mixture. Bake in preheated oven 40 minutes or until browned on top and bubbly.

Eggplant & Tomato Pasta

Look at that cute little mint sprig. It's my first try at a garnish, and I must say... I think it's Food Network worthy. In fact, the whole dish is - especially since that's where I got it. I was watching Giada the other day and she made this eggplant puree. I had never eaten eggplant before making this dish. I was always tempted to try Eggplant Parmesan at a restaurant, but could never bring myself to do it. After making this though, I'm going to hunt down some more eggplant recipes. It was so good!

And look how pretty it starts out! I love it when the ingredients have such beautiful rich colors.


This is what it looked like before it was cooked.

This is how it looked after. Roasting is by far my favorite way to make vegetables. It will make anything taste good!

The best part was that this meal was so easy! Just throw those veggies in the food processor and toss it with the noodles and a little pasta water. It calls for parmesan cheese, but of course I left that out for Sweet Boy. I also cut the red pepper flakes in half, and I thought it was the perfect spiciness. Next time though, I will leave them out completely. Sweet Boy kept doing random screams each time he got a taste of the red pepper flakes. Poor little guy finally decided to stick with the french bread for dinner.

Here's the link to the recipe again. Just remember to cut down on the red pepper flakes if you don't like it really spicy!

Yay for eggplant!

Shrimp Linguine, Spinach Salad, and PlayDough

I was pretty skeptical about this dish, but the ratings and reviews were so good that I couldn't pass it by. Good thing I didn't! It is a definite keeper. We never buy shrimp - mostly because I'm not sure what to do with it besides open a bottle of cocktail sauce. However, I was feeling adventurous this week, so those little crustaceans were mine! Ok, so maybe shrimp aren't that adventurous... but at least they seem more exciting than chicken.

I mean... look at that... if peeled shrimp skins aren't exotic and thrilling then I don't know what is.

(Haha... I had to throw that picture in here somewhere. Bleh...!)

My favorite meals these days are quick, easy, and delicious. This was all three, which is hard to come by. The best part was that S.D. and Sweet Boy loved it too! Like I said, definitely a keeper. I served it with a spinach salad and Italian bread.


I had to substitute some ingredients for what I had on hand, but I think the original recipes would be just as good if not better than what I made tonight. Originals: Shrimp Lemon Pepper Linguini, Jamie's Cranberry Spinach Salad.

Shrimp Linguine

8 oz. linguine noodles
1 T. olive oil
6 cloves garlic minced
1 1/4 c. chicken broth
1 lime, juiced
1/2 t. lime zest
1/4 t. salt
1 t. pepper

1 1/2 T. dried parsley

1/2 T. dried basil

1/4 c. vegan butter

1 lb. deveined, peeled shrimp

Cook linguine noodles according to package directions. Meanwhile, heat olive oil over med heat and saute garlic for 1 minute. Add chicken broth, lemon juice, zest, salt, pepper, parsley, and basil. Reduce heat and simmer until sauce is reduced by about half. Add butter and stir until melted. Add shrimp and heat until warm (about 1 minute). Add linguine and toss together.

Spinach Salad Dressing

1/4 c. rice vinegar
1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
1/2 c. canola oil
1 t. dried chopped onion
1/4 t. paprika
1/2 c. sugar (I ended up adding a T. or so more because I liked it a little sweeter)

Combine all ingredients and whisk together. Pour over a mix of spinach, dried cranberries, and almonds.

After dinner, we decided to play with a little play dough. I noticed most recipes for edible play dough are made with peanut butter, but I found this one online. It's so easy and works really well. Next time I will add some food coloring to it too. All you do is mix 1 part flour, 2 parts oatmeal, and 1 part water. If it's too sticky add a little flour to get the right consistency. As you can see, Sweet Boy likes it when we make balls with the play dough. Then he gets to toss them around, and eat them too! Yuck... he gets that from his dad.

Zucchini Bread

I first saw zucchini bread when I was a sophomore in college. I remember thinking "What?!? Zucchini in bread?!? You've gone mad!" I have grown up eating pumpkin bread, cranberry bread, banana bread, poppy seed bread, etc., but never, ever zucchini bread. Well, here I am now, a mom trying to sneak vegetables into pretty much anything. So thank goodness for zucchini bread! It's healthy and delicious! Really though... it was DE-LICIOUS. I will probably have to retire the veggie muffins and stick with this zucchini bread. Sweet Boy ate 2 whole muffins... all at once! That's big for him.

I was able to get one loaf and 9 muffins out of this recipe. I changed it slightly from the original to make it a bit healthier. What's the point of putting zucchini in bread if it's still unhealthy right?

Zucchini Bread

1 1/2 c. all purpose flour

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour

1 t. salt

1 t. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

3 t. ground cinnamon

3 eggs equivalent of Ener-G egg replacer

1/2 c. canola oil

1/2 c. apple sauce

1 c. white sugar

1/4 c. brown sugar

3 t. vanilla (I ran out of vanilla, so I used cream of coconut... quite good actually)

3 c. grated zucchini

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 bread loaf pans (or 1 loaf pan and 9 muffin tins). Whisk together first 6 ingredients. Blend Ener-G in food processor until thick (about 1 minute). Beat together Ener-G, oil, apple sauce, sugars, and vanilla. Add flour mixture and stir until combined. Fold in zucchini. Pour into loaf pans and bake for 40-60 minutes. If making muffins, bake for 20-23 minutes, or until tops spring back when lightly touched.