Lunchbox Meals – Tuna Bake

Okay, so, I have a bit of a confession for you. Yes, I am calling this a lunchbox meal. It has everything it needs to be called a 'meal' in its own right, and it always goes down a treat in my boy's lunchbox. (That's not the confession. Keep reading.) Make a big batch of this on a Sunday and you are fully stocked for lunches the following week. SO simple. SO easy. I'm a really big fan of weekend batch cooking for lunchboxes, for several reasons. 1) You find creative ways to use the bits at the bottom of the vegetable crisper on the weekend before restocking. 2) It makes the coming week a bajillion (real scientific number, you guys) times easier. Particularly the most horrendously torturous part of the day the mornings; it becomes much less of an effort and more of a grab'n'go kind of scenario. 3) It makes the evenings easier and less stressful - you have it all under control, tomorrow's lunch is already taken care of. 4) If you're clever enough in your weekend batch cooking, you'll also batch cook some breakfasts too, making your mornings even easier still. 5) Did I mention it makes the morning routine easier? This Tuna Bake is your ticket to lunchbox success, and your liberation from lunchbox stress. But... (spoiler alert: here's where the confession happens) I love this meal. In fact, it's one of my favourite dinners. Because it's simple and easy, yes. Because it's one of those everything-but-the-kitchen-sink, use-all-the-veggies kind of recipes, yes. But mostly because, as much as tuna bake has the reputation of being a 'kids meal' and just so-not-fancy-at-all, there's something about it that just hits all the right spots for me. It's probably the delicious layer of golden, oozy, melty, crunchy-around-the-edges cheese on top. Serious soul food. You keep your 8 billion fancy chef techniques dinner, and I'll take a good old tuna bake, thanks. Bonus confession: When Tyler was younger (before my discovery of all the junk that went into the food we were eating real food), I used to boil up some pasta and mix it with some veggies and tuna and a jar of pre-made tuna bake sauce, top it with cheese and bake it, thinking I was doing all the right things. This is really not very different. I'm steaming rice instead of boiling pasta. Still adding veggies, tuna and cheese - but the only difference is I'm making the sauce myself using a béchamel base (thank YOU, Thermomix!). It's still a super easy and delicious dinner. But now it's MUCH more nutritious than our old way of doing things.  

And I'm not ashamed to admit that I still love it. I think you will too.

  Notes: I use this sustainably-fished tuna, and I love it! I like to use a cheap Organic 'tasty cheddar' from Harris Farm to keep costs down, and add a little bit of nice organic gouda for extra flavour. 🙂
 

Enjoy!!

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