Tuna Two Ways

When I moved out East, I bought a Foreman Grill at Target because it was ridiculously cheap and it seemed like a fun way to cook things. It was only $15 but it is also pretty tiny, which works nicely for my lack of counter space.

A while back, I also purchased a nice frozen, air-locked 3- pack of tuna steaks from Trader Joe's. I've bought their fish once before and it was pretty tasty, so I figured it's a good thing to have on hand. I rediscovered the fish in my freezer the other day and decided it was time to get them cooking.

The tuna thawed all day in the fridge, which only left me with the problem of what to do with it. I decided to test out the grill, which so far has been sitting in the box, unopened. I wanted to test out a few methods though, so I decided one for the grill and two for the oven. I have had this packaged thai peanut seasoning that I've been wanting to try out as well so I coated two steaks in the seasoning and let one marinate in a ziplock bag with oil, vinegar, onion powder, garlic salt and a little soy sauce.

The grill was a little scary because it was brand new and smelled weirdly of new material. I decided to test it out on a few carrots that weren't in good shape anyway. You can see them there at the bottom in the drip pan when I took them out.
It seemed safe enough to cook so as my tuna steaks with Thai peanut coating were in the oven I put the marinated one on the grill. It cooked up really fast and came out with those pretty grill marks. I think the grilled one came out just perfectly done.

The others were good but I think they could have come out of the oven sooner. I was afraid of under cooking them so I think I overcooked them a tiny bit. They still tasted good, but the grilled one was the perfect texture.

I really enjoyed the Thai peanut coating though. It had a really nice kick to it. The box comes with two packages and I only needed one for the tuna steaks.


I cooked up some frozen french cut green beans to go with my meal and I was done. They were a little underwhelming, but don't they look pretty?

Food Bonanza day

After lying in bed all day, literally all day until about 5:00pm due to some adventures last night, I decided some cooking was in order. We originally were planning to have a little bbq but no one was really prepared so I decided it was a good day to do some cooking for the week.

On the menu:
Corn muffins
Red Potato Salad
Tuna Casserole

Corn muffins are easy because all they involve are a box, an egg and milk. They went into the oven while I prepared the water for the noodles. Meanwhile we start heating up water for the potatoes and slicing some onions. I knew the general principles behind potato salad and tuna casserole but I didn't have an actual recipe so I did a quick check online and found an easy tuna recipe that I could modify a little. The potato salad I used Paula Dean's recipe to vaguely go off of because all the other recipes involved hard boiled eggs or bacon for some reason. There are no eggs allowed in my potato salad, thanks anyway. The corn muffins come out in 15 minutes and then I can put together the tuna.

While I was waiting for the noodles to cook and the potato water to boil I started putting the "sauce" for the casserole together which is cream of mushroom soup, tuna, milk, onions, a little cheese, salt, pepper and paprika. Since I was still waiting I explored the fridge for some additions and got a tiny bit of frozen peas and carrots, some pickles and a few pieces of a portobello mushroom.

The whole thing wouldn't fit in one pan so I used a second small pan, which I happened to be storing a little bit of leftover tofu in. It seemed silly to toss out the tofu so I crumpled it up and put it on top of the second casserole. I haven't gotten to taste that one yet but it looks pretty good.


Meanwhile, the potatoes that take forever to cook come out and I mix them in with onions, mayo, mustard, a little cider vinegar, salt, pepper and a tiny bit of water. I was pretty proud of it cause it tasted good. Some of the potatoes may still be a tiny bit underdone and the onions are cut in kinda ridiculously huge pieces, but that's ok.

All in all it was successful, although not the best dinner to invite company too cause there's a lot of onions. I did get a thumbs up from my roommates on the tuna casserole. Yay cheap and easy food!!! And the best part is I have tons of leftovers so I can eat for a long time!