Tuna casserole on fire!

Just kidding. I needed to get your attention, lol. 

Seriously, when you live with chronic illness, it usually includes horrible fatigue and/or pain and/or brain fog. I love to cook, and I'm good at it. I can cook anything with a little research and the right ingredients. Playing leftover surprise is a favorite of mine. I look at a mostly empty fridge and cupboard to see what would work well together. Nine out of ten times it is fabulous. That tenth time it is usually meh, but occasionally it's thrown in the trash before grabbing a bowl of cereal or something. 

I hate recipe blogs. I'm sorry, I do. Even though I guiltily use them for ideas sometimes. Energy is at a premium and, although I'm sure it's interesting and well written, I don't have extra to read the history of every recipe. 

This isn't a recipe blog. This is tips and tricks for eating, and other necessary things that we have to do to take care of ourselves. Unless we can afford a chef and a cleaner. Lol. You probably wouldn't be reading this if you had those.

One of the comfort foods from childhood that is easy to make is tuna casserole. I have been putting off making it for almost a week since I got some egg noodles. (More on food delivery later.) Even though I have a family member who willingly does the dishes and lots of appreciative mouths around, it felt daunting. Plus, I thought I used up all my spunk today running (not literally) to the library and making my easy banana bread (brown bananas are too much pressure).

I was looking at another night of baked potatoes or cheese and crackers, my resent go-to easy meals. I unreasonably felt guilty because I knew my mom would probably want to get fast food if I didn't cook (I know, my problem, not hers). I thought I might throw up if subjected to fast food, again. There's a food triangle that the FDA hasn't approved - (cheap, fast, healthy). 

The silly thing was that I just didn't want to boil the noodles. "Wait - maybe I don't have to. Quick, Google, tuna casserole without cooking noodles"! Then I felt empowered. It sounds simple, but brain fog and exhaustion make life more confusing for me. Here's the original recipe if you're interested. It's okay to do it whatever works for you.

The point of this post is that sometimes it's not something huge that I have to overcome, sometimes it's something relatively minor, like an attitude or the thought of doing more dishes (which is what the boiling noodles was about). 

Here are the changes I made (if you're curious). It wasn't perfect, I'll improve it next time. But the point is that I made it, and I have leftovers (made a double recipe) so that's a little more homemade food in the house:

I used mushroom soup instead of the cream cheese; I added water to make up the difference in liquid (20 oz of liquid per batch, including water and soup). I warmed up the soup in a large glass measuring cup. I also used an electric kettle (a lifesaver appliance) to heat up the water to boiling. I used a metal pan.

Pretzel chips (not small pretzels) and have fried onions.  (I only used a cup per batch, and I'm good with that.)

Half the cheddar.

Added garlic and onion powder, along with a pinch of cayenne powder (1/8th teaspoon or less is good).

The Parmesan and spices were added to noodles and tuna and mixed together before adding other ingredients.

I left out peas because my mom doesn't like them. Next time, I'll cook some frozen peas separately to eat with it. 

Stirring a couple of times during cooking helped the noodles cook in liquid better.

I cooked it for longer - 25 minutes with foil, 10 without. (If I had a glass pan I could have cooked it less and cooked in the microwave for a few minutes.)

What I'd do different: 

I actually wish I would have added some sautéed mushrooms to it. 

A tablespoon of butter melted with the crumbs would have made it crunchier. 

Using milk instead of water for liquid would probably be better.

I might still use less cheese. With the soup it's not as necessary, depending on taste.

If my mom wasn't eating it, I would have added some onions and garlic (chopped) as well.

The point is that whatever you want to do is okay. Whatever is easiest and tastes good to you is perfect. Living with a disability is challenging enough. You don't have to make it harder.