Homemade Tuna Noodle Casserole

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Chris and I arrived in Minnesota at the beginning of November for a visit with his family. True to its Minnesota fame, it immediately started snowing.

In Connecticut, the winter sky likes to eject freezing rain more often than fluffly little snowflakes, so I did the usual Connecticut thing and put my windshield wipers up to keep them from freezing to the windshield. I guess no one does that here, at least not anyone in my husband’s family.

“Your car give up already?” Chris’ Dad teased when he got home from work, holding his hands in the air like mock windshield wipers and saying in a wimpy-esque voice, “No no I can’t take it anymore”.

“Nope” I said. “My car is tough. It’s the boy-scout of cars. You know, Be prepared.”

He laughed, and I left my windshield wipers up.

With the situation handled (the snow, not my father-in-law) I decided that the first thing to make in Minnesota just had to be a creamy, comforting casserole. Or hot dish. Whatever name you call it, it is delicious!

This yummy tuna noodle casserole was originally created by Pinch My Salt. Nicole adapted the traditional version she loved as a kid to better suit her adult taste buds.  Instead of using the canned cream of mushroom soup, this recipe uses simple ingredients that have a surprisingly fantastic effect in the casserole.  You can taste the individual flavors of each ingredient, while still getting that creamy, comforty, combined texture of the traditional version. Delicious!!!!

I used cremini mushrooms (aka baby bellas) for this casserole, which gave a great mushroomy flavor to the dish.  I know that white mushrooms and cremini are often used interchangeably in recipes, but have always had a preference for the slightly stronger tasting cremini.  I wondered what made these two mushroom types so similar yet still different enough to justify my preference.  So I investigated!

My effort paid off when I found out that white, cremini, and even portabella mushrooms are actually all the same type of mushroom! They are just grown to different ages. The white mushrooms are the youngest, while the portabella mushrooms are the oldest. This makes the cremini mushrooms the middle child and explains why they are also called “baby bellas”, which is just short for “baby portabellas”!

Definitely make this yummy dish for yourself, or your in-laws.

Even Chris’ Dad was impressed.