Frugal Food-Part Two: Tuna

Welcome to the Frugal Food Series! With prices of everything soaring, most of us are finding we need to tighten the budgetary belts a little. One of the easiest places to trim costs without sacrificing on your lifestyle is usually your grocery budget. Join us as we spend several weeks exploring frugal foods.

The intent is that this series be a collaborative effort. I start the ball rolling by discussing the weekly food and outlining a few uses-then the rest is up to you! Post a recipe on your own site (or dig one up from your archives), mention and link to the series to let other folks know, and then post your link (with the title of the recipe in parenthesis) in the Mr. Linky below*. Don’t have a blog but have a wonderful idea or recipe to share? Not a problem. Just email me the recipe (see the email me link on the left sidebar) and I’ll post it for you.

Last week we started with “Frugal Food-Eggs” and got a wonderful 40 recipes/responses**. Personally I think that eggs were one of the more difficult items to come up with recipes for-I’m excited to see what you all have in mind for TUNA!

And now on to the main event!

Canned Tuna Fish*** is so cheap that it has become sort of an icon of middle to “lower” class American life (sorry-can’t comment on other places-feel free to comment my international friends). Many of us grew up with tangy, mayonaisy tuna sandwiches on soft squishy processed white bread. The kind that get soggy and disguisting if not eaten right away.

Additionally there is the old standby of “tuna casserole” which was immortalized in the Saturday Night Live skit on “White Trash History Minute”. Personally I have scars from the experience of being served “tuna surprise” in elementary school-I still have visions of a gray green soupy sauce of tuna and peas served over (Surprise!) 4 saltine crackers. Ick.

Despite those early experiences, as an adult, I have come to realize that tunafish can be down right delicious both on it’s own and in cooked dishes. And it is still an economical (dare I say cheap) protien-I can purchase a 6oz can of chunk light tuna (in water) at my local Aldi’s for about $.65, and I frequently see cans the same size on sale at other grocery stores for less than a dollar a can.

Of course if you get all white albacore, or the fancy stuff in those vaccuum sealed packages instead your prices go up. Although Yankee Bill prefers the latter two if eaten in sandwiches etc, if you are mixing it up and cooking it, in my opinion there really does not seem to be a lack of quality if you buy the lower priced “chunk light”.

There are several ways we typically use tuna in the Frugal Upstate household.

#1-Tuna Salad. I like to mix in mayo, yellow mustard (or Dijon depending on my mood), some onion and celery (or Lovage) if I have it, lemon pepper, seasoned salt, and maybe a pinch of dill. Tuna Salad can be used in a sandwich (make at the last minute to avoid soggy factor-or if packing a lunch pack bread and salad separately) or placed on or alongside a green salad.

#2-Tuna Melts. Make Tuna Salad, place on a piece of toast, place a piece of cheese on top, then broil in the oven until the cheese is melted. Yum.

#3-Creamed Tuna. This is simply making a homemade white sauce, then adding a can of Tuna. If I have some on hand I’ll toss in a handful of shredded cheese. Creamed Tuna can be served over toast, biscuits, noodles, rice etc. This is a pretty quick and easy dish to whip up when you want a hot lunch or a fast dinner.

#4-Tuna Patties. This recipe actually started out as Salmon Patties (when I bought a bunch of canned salmon at a great deal) but then I realized I could make the exact same thing with Tuna. Basically you add some breadcrumbs, egg, seasonings, form into patties and fry. I personally like to serve with hollandaise sauce (from a package) that I’ve added cajun spice to. Homemade Tartar would be lovely too. YB and family love this meal, but I serve infrequently due to the frying. I try not to fry often, it makes a mess and it’s so full of calories-yet it tastes soooo gooood. Honestly, I’ve tried baking or broiling these things, and although edible it just isn’t the same.

I could go on with even more ideas, but I want to give you all a chance to weigh in. And these really are the 4 most frequent applications of Tuna at my house.

Don’t forget to check out Frugal Food Part One: Eggs if you haven’t already!

For additional totally unrelated Tuna fun check out this silly kids song about Tuna: Petra Puppets, The Tuna Fish Song.

*Note: Please, please, please make sure you link to the specific post, and not just to your main site. If you’ve only linked to your main site, then eventually the pertinent post will be buried. To link to that specific article, usually you need to click on the article’s header (or “headline”), or sometimes to the little link at the bottom of the article that says the date/time it was published. That should pop the article up by itself. THEN copy the link. Questions or problems? Feel free to email me.

**Note: I’ll be leaving the Mr. Linky at the Egg post open for a bit longer, in case you’ve come late to the party and have a wonderful recipe to share.

***Note: I adore Tuna Steak, seared, maybe with some wasabi dressing. YUMMY! But let’s face it folks, the price is prohibitive. So here we are sticking with the redheaded stepchild of cheap canned tuna (no offense meant to redheads-my mom wants to come back in her next life as a redhead).

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