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You know how scary movies often have those scenes where the lights go out and you can faintly see a shadowy figure standing there? I recently watched one of those and the scene was actually done really well. So well in fact that I spent the remainder of the movie with anxiety that they would do it again! I think it must have gotten to me because later that night, something creepy happened.
Allen and I were up late by ourselves and he just would not go to bed. I turned off the lights to make him sleepy and was carrying him around while he rested his head on my shoulder. Just when I thought we were getting close to sleepy time, he sits up real quick, looks at something behind me, and starts waving at it. I kept walking and told him he was just being creepy but apparently whatever he was waving at was following us because he would not stop waving! It was seriously scary! I'm guessing it was probably his shadow or something and he could see it waving back.
Now, you're probably thinking I watch too many scary movies but let me stop you right there - I actually need to watch more scary movies to desensitize myself so this type of stuff doesn't happen again. Like it did the following night.
I was taking him to bed again and I noticed how quiet it was in his bedroom with his music off. I could hear him breathing, I could hear myself breathing, but then I realized I was hearing a third person in the room breathing. Which isn't possible. It must have been me or Allen. So I listened carefully. I heard Allen take a breath, I held my breath, then I definitely heard someone else breathing behind me! It took a lot of courage to turn around and look but there was no one there. I started walking around to try to locate the sound and figured out Nutella was sleeping on her dog bed in the living room and the sound of her unnecessarily loud breathing/snoring was bouncing off the door or walls in the room making it sound like it was coming from behind me, even though it was coming from in front of me. So long story short, I almost got eaten by two ghosts this week but lived to tell about it.
In other, happier news, since I've been ahead on my recipes, I've done some fun work on the blog this week. First, I changed my header (look up!) I wanted to make the logo more visible by getting rid of the transparency and bringing it out from behind the text. I also thought my old header font was a little fancy and overdone so I chose one that matched my blog's style a little better. I've been wanting to do this for a long time and finally started playing with it until I found something I liked. Here's what the previous header looked like:
The other thing I did was get my email list going again! You may remember all the GDPR madness last year. Well, I had to unsubscribe almost everyone from my list and update my forms to be compliant. Since the GDPR compliant embedded signup form was excessively long, I made a clickable image to take people to the regular signup form.
I'm not very artistic so hopefully people can tell what it is! I'm excited for people to start signing up again because I have a document with tons of things I'd like to send out!
In case you were wondering, there actually is a recipe buried at the end of this long post. This tastes just like tuna noodle casserole even though I couldn't remember how it was traditionally made. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure it involved purchasing a box of noodles with powdered sauce mix then adding tuna, milk, and butter so I probably have no idea how to make it from scratch. What can I say, the boxed stuff was good and got the job done quick!
Just because this casserole is gluten free, dairy free, and not from a box doesn't mean it can't be quick and convenient too. It really only takes about 10 minutes to get it in the oven. Once it's ready to bake, the noodles and tuna area already cooked so you really just have to bake it long enough to warm up the dish and melt the dairy free cheese on top.
I don't ever remember having cheese in my tuna casserole but it works! I needed something to make the casserole creamy so I borrowed the sauce from my grilled pizzas and Instant Pot carbonara. It's a simple three ingredient sauce that combines coconut milk with dairy free mozzarella and black pepper. Since I only used half the bag of cheese, I decided to just sprinkle more over the dish. I used all mozzarella style but you could try the cheddar style on top too!
I know bread crumbs are a popular topping on this dish so you could add some gluten free bread crumbs. I prefer it without but I was wondering how crumbled bacon would taste on this. Maybe too much effort for such a simple dish but it does sound good! I think I'd like to try other veggies in here next time too. Definitely zucchini but maybe some sautéed red bell pepper or carrots too.
Recipe
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PinDescription
"Cheesy" tuna noodle casserole without the dairy or gluten. This classic comfort food is ready to go in the oven in just 10 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 can full fat coconut milk
- ¼ tsp pepper
- ½ bag + ¼ C Daiya mozzarella style shreds (just eyeball the amounts and feel free to blend in some cheddar style shreds too!)
- 4 C of your choice of gluten free noodles, prepared al dente according to package directions
- 2 cans tuna, drained and flaked
- ½ C peas, canned or pre-cooked
- salt to taste, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400ºF
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, whisk together the coconut milk and pepper. Once heated, whisk in the half bag of dairy free cheese until melted then remove from heat.
- Combine cooked noodles, tuna, and peas in a 7x11 (2 quart) casserole dish. Pour the sauce over the noodle mixture and add salt to taste, if needed. Give everything a good stir and top with an additional quarter cup or so of shredded dairy free cheese.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until everything is heated thoroughly and the cheese is melted then serve.
Notes
For variations of this recipe, you could add other soft vegetables like cooked zucchini or red bell pepper. Bread crumbs are a popular topping on the classic dish so you could try some gluten free bread crumbs or even sprinkle some bacon crumbles on top for added flavor and texture.
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