I’m sharing this recipe with you because my children enjoyed it so much that they began singing about how awesome I am and what a great chef I am.

Although it is not original by any stretch of the imagination, and it is neither complicated nor time-consuming, it is a good hearty meal that children love.

Without the Esse running, I have been using electrical appliances for cooking. I don’t like it. I miss my stove and my beautiful gentle oven. With the totally cool summer we are having at the moment, I could get away with running the fire, but it seems the wrong thing to do for high summer, and our house would actually get too warm. I have had to learn how to cook using a microwave! I have learned that it takes ten minutes to cook potatoes until tender, and fifteen minutes to cook pasta. The convection oven is so useful because I can microwave a meal for the first part and then bake it in the oven for the final part. The downside is that it is so small compared to our big oven. The convection oven we own is this one. The other appliances I use are our slow cooker, electric pressure cooker, electric grill press and the electric three tiered steamer. Sometimes I use the electric fry pan and often we BBQ food too.

Anyway, this really simple kiddie friendly meal uses ingredients you already have on hand and it does not take long to prepare. My children asked for pasta for dinner, which is something we rarely have, especially with our stove top out of action during the summer. I could have made a bolognese sauce in the slow cooker or the electric pressure cooker, but I didn’t. I settled for this creamy tuna pasta bake.

You could cook the pasta well in advance or you could use up leftover pasta. Instead of tuna you could use leftover cooked chicken, cubed or shredded or minced. You might prefer a vegetable only option, and use an assortment of cheeses and some spinach. I love those easy meals at the end of a long day at work or after an afternoon of swimming, like we had!

Creamy tuna and vegetable pasta bake
Serves 4 hungry kids
Ingredients
2 cups pasta of preference (our children prefer spiral pasta)
200g tuna in olive oil
1-2 cups mixed vegables (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup cream
1 cup grated cheese

Method
:: cook pasta
:: place cooked pasta in a casserole dish
:: add tuna and vegetables and stir through the pasta
:: add cream and stir through
:: sprinkle grated cheese atop the pasta
:: bake (uncovered) at 170 for fifteen minutes