Crunchy Tuna Noodle Casserole

"This is my sis-in-law's Linda's recipe. It's quick, easy, and real good. This recipe is easily made lowfat by using tuna packed in water, light cream cheese and Campbell's lowfat soup. My familie's preferences/changes on this recipe are listed after the baking time on the instructions, as I didn't want to change my sis-in-laws orginal recipe."
 
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photo by Billy Green photo by Billy Green
photo by Billy Green
photo by Billy Green photo by Billy Green
photo by Billy Green photo by Billy Green
photo by PalatablePastime photo by PalatablePastime
photo by eatrealfood photo by eatrealfood
Ready In:
55mins
Ingredients:
9
Serves:
8-10
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ingredients

  • 2 cups uncooked macaroni
  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 2 (6 ounce) cans tuna in vegetable oil, drained
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 2 -3 stalks celery, finely chopped
  • 1 (10 3/4 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup, celery or (10 3/4 ounce) can chicken soup
  • 12 cup milk
  • Topping

  • 5 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 2 cups breadcrumbs
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directions

  • Cook macaroni until el dente' and drain.
  • Edited instruction, courtesy of Charlotte M., I think you Have to saute' the onions and celery first if you don't want a crunchy casserole, so much better sautee'd in butter, canola or olive oil.
  • Combine all ingredients.
  • Pour into baking dish.
  • Mix topping and put on casserole.
  • Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
  • Please feel free to change this recipe to suit your familie's tastes. Personally I like Charlotte's idea with the celery and onions and now saute the onions in butter, along with about an equal amount of chopped celery until tender. That way you never have to worry about the onions getting done enough.
  • As for the pasta, we personally prefer egg noodles over macaroni in this. Sometimes I just use whatever I have, sometimes a mix of several different pastas.
  • If you don't like cooking with the cream of mushroom soup, of course you can substitute cream of chicken or celery soup, and if you don't want soup in it at all, you can substitute sour cream or cream cheese and it's also good, but if you don't use the cream of soup I would suggest adding as much of the tuna water as possible to keep that great tuna flavor.
  • I prefer the tuna in water, and use as much of the tuna water as I can because I think it has a good flavor. Just use your own best judgement as to a good consistency, as this recipe is hard to mess up. Sometimes we don't always eat when I plan to and it stays in the oven a little longer than I'd like, so if yours seems too dry to you just add a little milk. You also can omit the bread crumbs/butter on top if you prefer, I usually do.
  • And I almost always double the tuna (or even add more), just because tuna is good for you and we love tuna casserole.

Questions & Replies

  1. I made this casserole tonight for supper. I added peas and a cracker and butter topping. It was super delicious!
     
  2. is this 2 cups uncooked macaroni, or cooked? thank you
     
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Reviews

  1. I loved the cream cheese in this easy recipe. I used 2 cups of dried breadcrumbs in a round casserole dish, I should have used just 1 cup. Maybe if I put this in a 9x13" pan the 2 cups would of worked better. Next time I make this I will saute the onions with 1/2 cup of celery for more flavor. Thank you for another keeper!!
     
  2. Excellent. My DH doesn't even like Tuna Casserole but we've had this one twice now and he really doesn't mind it. Never changed a thing and it tastes great!
     
  3. I am a huge tuna casserole fan (call me crazy)! I made this the other night for my family and I am an even bigger tuna casserole fan now. Everyone in my family loved this - ages 1, 3, 10, 32, and 35. What a hit!
     
  4. I'm always looking for new Tuna Noodle recipes and I'll be keeping this one! I did tweak it a little - sauteed green pepper, onion and garlic in a little butter, used only one can of tuna (in water) and substituted cream of celery soup for the mushroom since I don't care for cream of mushroom soup. Only other thing I did was use cornflake crumbs (I wanted to finish off the box) instead of breadcrumbs. Very moist, creamy and tasty. Thanks!
     
  5. Charlotte... I use a 9 x 13 pan, for a smaller pan 1 cup of breadcrumbs would be plenty. Good idea to sauté the onions with celery, I’ll have to try that next time!
     
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Tweaks

  1. This was so easy to put together after a busy day, thanks so much! I used 8 oz of rotini, and instead of water used 1 cup 2% evporated milk, and tuna in water. I also added 1/2 c celery, that I softend with the onion and a couple of tablespoons of sour cream. I sprinkled it with some parmesan and popped it in the oven.
     
  2. Good and creamy but a little on the bland side. My daughter gobbled it up so we'll make it up again and add in some more tastebud kickers. I made half a recipe but used a whole can of soup. I made this with leftover roasted chicken instead of the tune and added 1/2 bag of frozen spinach. It's a gread way to use up left over chicken.
     
  3. Cream cheese makes this dish good. I hate cooked tuna though, so I don't use it. But the base recipe is good for any type of casserole... chicken, turkey, vegetarian. Rice krispies as a topping instead of breadcrumbs works well too! Booyah! Thanks for the recipe!
     
  4. This was nice and creamy. I did as Teresa suggested and changed it around to suit us. I sauteed the onions with celery and garlic in some butter, I used egg noodles in place of macaroni, used 2 cans tuna in water and used the tuna water AND the 1/2 cup water called for in which I dissolved 1 small chicken boullion cube. I added about 1/4-1/3 cup real mayo to help with the creaminess and flavor (yeah, and calories!). Put it all in a greased semi-shallow oval baking dish. For the topping I used 1 roll of Ritz crackers, semi-crushed and mixed with about 6-8 TBL melted butter.(I know, more calories!). We like lots of crunchy topping so using the shallow dish gives us topping with each scoop! Yum! Thanks!
     
  5. Definitely Outstanding! My dh is GF, so I used rice instead of noodles, since we didn't have GF noodles on hand. I also sauteed the onion with 1 TBS of garlic. I did not add water, because I used a non-condensed cream of mushroom. 1/2 cup of liquid would not have made it runny though. I also left off the topping. This was so creamy and flavorful! YUM-O!
     

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Thanks for checking out my about me page. Jeff is my husband of 8 years. We have 1 dog that someone dropped off at the side of the road and I brought home, and she rules the house. I love dogs, and hate to see a dog tied up and forgotten. I love to grow different kinds of tomatoes from seed to can, and give the "extras" away (when I'm working and don't have time to can).
 
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