That pesky tuna casserole

Inspired to get back into a fitness and health regimen (who isn't?), I turned to Pinterest (who doesn't?).  I approach Pinterest the way I approach Google.  By typing in random stream of consciousness.  Some of the searches I've done it the past week included things like, "ipod commercial song 2013 ring ring" and "preserving pumpkins before carving keep away squirrels."  You would not believe how often these types of searches turn up exactly what I'm looking for.  So why not take the same approach on Pinterest.  I started with "healthy meals lots of veggies" and "healthy one dish meals" - easy enough, right?  

Pinterest is somewhat overwhelming.   My method for coping is I find one photo that piques my interest and then determine whether that pinner is "credible."  Then I'll scan other pins on their boards and repin or follow.  So I found some pins from skinnymom.com.  Sounds like she knows a thing or two about eating healthy.  The initial dish that caught my eye was a feta and spinach stuffed chicken breast.  Yum!  Repin.  And then as I was trolling through her recipes I found the now infamous skinny tuna casserole.  My husband LOVES tuna, and loves tuna casserole so I figured, why not?  It's skinny.  It's made with veggies and whole grain pasta and low fat versions of the regular casserole ingredients.  Repin!

So I made it once and he loved it.  Heck, I loved it!  It was easy and quick to make, one dish, had protein, and was pretty satisfying.  Add it to the rotation, I say.  I was pretty proud of myself. Two weeks later, I made it again.  I should probably start buying and storing cream of mushroom soup in my pantry, I thought to myself.  You know, just in case.

I don't even remember how I started talking about the darn casserole to my friend Karen.  

***Sidebar: Karen was my college roommate from a very Midwestern state.  When we met freshman year at our elite east coast university, she extolled the virtues of Jell-O, had lots of practical and warm North Face gear, and talked about grocery stores I'd never heard of like Hy-Vee.  Now roles are reversed and Karen has been living on the east coast for almost 10 years, about the same amount of time that I've been here in the Middlewest.  I knew Karen had made the transition to fancy east coaster when she mentioned she was looking at Tori Burch shoes.  There were even some times Karen mentioned designers who I hadn't heard of.  Hmmm... note to self, I thought... get more plugged in.

So back to the story - I was on the phone with Karen talking about my casserole in a way that somehow seamlessly fit into our conversation...
Me: I found this recipe for tuna casserole on Pinterest.  It was pretty good.  
Karen: Wait, YOU made a tuna casserole?!
Me: (silence - wondering what I did wrong)
Karen: The kind of tuna casserole that uses cream of mushroom soup?
Me: Uh, yeah.
Karen: (laughing) My friend, you are officially a Midwesterner!

The rest of the conversation is a bit of a blur.  I remember trying to defend myself and try to point to some sign that I still had some "east coast swing" left in me. But my mind was going about a mile a minute.  Was she right?  Had I somehow, without realizing it, become cornfed?  I recalled instances of my brother telling me I had a Chicago accent.  Counted in my head the number of times I'd eaten brats, cheese curds or other tell-tale midwestern foods. Eff!

Anyway, about three days later I started this blog.  Am I overanalyzing this?  Have I stereotyped midwesterners too much?  Who knows, but I definitely sensed a change in myself.  My mom would never have made a dish like this.  Granted, she's Italian and I don't think the word "casserole" exists in Italian.  But who have I become??  What else am I doing that betrays my newly-recognized Midwesterner status?  I better find out... I really thought I was doing a good job of deflecting Midwesternerness... Eff!

Getting started...

Hopefully this blog won't offend midwesterners.  I really don't intend for that to happen.  After all, I'm a midwesterner myself.  I never fancied myself a blogger, so let's keep it that way.  I'm really doing this for myself to get back to writing, sort of organize my thoughts and come to terms with the newly-recognized realization that I am a midwesterner.  Here we go!!