Tuna Potato Chip Casserole (Low Carb Options)

In cleaning out my pantries and freezers for my Eight Week Grocery Fast, I went old school to use up some tuna, peas, and cream soup. This was one of my family meals growing up. I don’t remember a lot of what my mom cooked when I was very young. I do remember roast, potatoes, and carrots; cubed steak with brown gravy and mashed potatoes; spaghetti and meat sauce; salmon patties and mac and cheese; hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill; and this tuna casserole. If you’ve been reading the blog for long, you know that I am super picky. (So this is a good place to hang out if you want to cook things in a healthier way that your ten year old will like!) Tuna casserole with canned soup and potato chips might not seem like the healthiest entree’, but let me walk you through some ideas to make it healthier and/or lower in carbs. Or make it as is and be happy that everybody in your family is eating tuna! Sometimes you take whatever you can get. (It really is a tasty casserole!)

I often make cream soups (or use one of the low carb sub ideas given below), but this casserole wouldn’t be the same as Mom’s without the canned mushroom soup and chips, so I used Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup for this–and it tasted just like my mom’s used to taste when I was a little girl! (I did use a combination of baked potato chips and low carb tortilla shells that I had crisped and stored in my freezer.)

Healthier Options

• I had a zipper bag in my freezer where I had been saving little crumbs of low carb tortilla shells that I had crisped and used as chips/crackers and the bottoms of bags of baked potato chips. (I love to save these things for breading {see my Healthy Breading Mix} or toppings.) So….if you would rather not have your kids eat fattening potato chips in your family casserole, baked potato chips will work just as well.
• You could use a bag of frozen mixed vegetables to give it some variety in veggies, but to be honest, I prefer it made without any veggies in it and just serve the veggies on the side.
• I am working on a post about ways to make cream soups healthier/homemade as I have made them off and on for over twenty-five years, but in the meantime, here are some potential substitutions for the canned soup that will be less carby:

1) Whipped cream cheese mixed with a small amount of chicken base/hot water (for cream of chicken sub) or beef base/hot water (for cream of mushroom sub). Obviously, you could also add shredded chicken (cream of chicken), cooked celery (cream of celery), mushroom pieces (cream of mushroom), etc.

2) Sour cream and whipped cream cheese combined with add ins as described in (1) above

3) Alfredo sauce—while thinner than cream soups, I often use a lower carb Alfredo sauce for soup substitute/to make something go further, to add moisture without making something too soupy/broth like, etc. This makes a great low carb soup sub!

4) Half broth/half whipping cream thickened with xantham gum (See 17 Ways to Thicken With Fewer Carbs here.)

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