Recipe: Tuna Mac 'n' Cheese

When deciding upon dinner one night, Tom and I decided to be exceedingly frugal, as well as celebrating having someone to share the 39-cent macaroni and cheese with. I'd mentioned to him once that you could make a mock tuna casserole by tossing peas and tuna into the macaroni; he'd never had that before, usually adding chopped hot dogs to his. So we made the variation for dinner one evening: Tuna Mac 'n' Cheese.

Ingredients

• 1 7.25-ounce box macaroni and cheese
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 5-ounce can tuna, drained
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/3-1/2 cup milk, to taste
• generous sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan; add macaroni and cook for 6 minutes. Add peas and cook for 2 more minutes until macaroni is tender; drain. Return macaroni to the saucepan, and stir in tuna, butter and milk. Empty the cheese packet over the macaroni and add the pepper; stir until combined well.

Serves 2-4.

This recipe was written by Mary Bilyeu and originally posted on AnnArbor.com on Aug. 15, 2011.