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With this year’s hurricane season coming to an end, you may be wondering what you’re going to do with all your leftover supplies. Floridians are all too familiar with the routine preparation associated with hurricane season. We stock up on the recommended necessities at the beginning of hurricane season such as canned food, water, and other supplies. If we are lucky, come November, we haven’t even made a dent in our stock. You may find yourself returning items, throwing away unused food, or finding expired cans in your pantry years later. What if we told you there were several ways you could repurpose your goods? From helping your local community to delicious recipes, Florida Peninsula has got you covered!
Community Involvement: Generally, grocery stores do not re-stock returned food items, even if they’re unopened. This means most returned and perfectly good food items end up in dumpsters and landfills across the State. If you have an excess of food supply and are planning to return your items to the grocery store, please consider donating the unused supplies to a local food pantry instead. Florida Peninsula volunteers actively donate their time and resources to local food banks and highly recommend this option for your excess canned goods and non-perishable items. We suggest you check with each center in your community for a full list of accepted items.
Below you will find several centers throughout the state which accept nonperishable food items such as canned meats, canned soups, canned fruit, beans and more.
Feeding America (9 locations across the state of Florida)
The Salvation Army (over a dozen locations across the state of Florida)
You “Can” do it: If instead, you would like to dive into your food supply to make a quick lunch or delicious dinner, look no further! It may seem impossible to turn one canned good into a meal, but with a few extra items, you can turn a simple item into a family favorite. It may seem silly to google “canned food recipes”, but the results will shock you, and leave you to wish you searched for it sooner. The number of recipes is endless. To make it even easier on you, below there are three quick and easy recipes made with a simple can of tuna. Start with the staple tuna pasta, and you’ll be running to make the cheesy tuna melt and low carb tuna wraps in no time.
3 Quick & Easy Tuna Can Recipes
Staple Tuna Pasta
Pasta but with a twist!
- Ingredients:
- 15 ounces of tuna drained (approx. 3 cans)
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 16 ounce box of garden rotini pasta
- Ground Pepper
- 4 hard boiled eggs
Directions:
- Bring water to a boil in a large cooking pot. Cook noodles according to package instructions, until al dente. Add four eggs into water. Allow eggs to cook with the noodles. Drain noodles. Peel eggs.
- Add the tuna and mayonnaise into a large bowl. Mix well before adding in the ground pepper. Once the ground pepper is added, mix well again. (Add more mayonnaise to your liking)
- Mix the noodles and tuna together. Add more mayonnaise as needed.
- Chop the four eggs and mix into the pasta.
- Serve warm or refrigerate and eat cold. Enjoy!
Cheesy Tuna Melt
The perfect way to elevate boring tuna sandwich.
- Ingredients:
- 15 ounces of tuna drained (approx. 3 cans)
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup red onion (diced)
- 1/3 cup celery minced
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper
- ½ cup mozzarella shredded
- Slices bread
- Softened butter
- Directions:
- Add the tuna, mayonnaise, red onion, and celery into a large bowl. Mix well before adding in the ground pepper. Once the ground pepper is added, mix well again. (For smoother consistency, add more mayonnaise)
- Add the shredded mozzarella and stir to combine.
- Place a nonstick skillet on the stock and add a tablespoon of softened butter to the pan. Heat over medium heat.
- Using the softened butter, butter one side of a piece of bread and place the slice (butter side down) into the heated skillet.
- Add 3-4 tablespoons of tuna salad mix onto the slice of bread in the skillet.
- Take another slice of bread and butter one side. Place that slice on top of the filling (butter side up).
- Grill each side until a golden brown. Flip the sandwich only once. Enjoy!
Low Carb Tuna Wraps
This recipe is as easy as it comes! There are only two main ingredients: 1) Your favorite tuna salad recipe and 2) 1-2 heads of romaine lettuce.
Ingredients:
- 15 ounces of tuna drained (approx. 3 cans)
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup red onion (diced)
- 1/3 cup celery minced
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper
- 2-3 Romaine Lettuce Heads
Directions:
- Add the tuna, mayonnaise, red onion, and celery into a large bowl. Mix well before adding in the ground pepper. Once the
- ground pepper is added, mix well again. (For smoother consistency, add more mayonnaise)
- Separate the leaves on the head of Romaine lettuce. Wash the lettuce leaves. Pat dry with a paper towel to remove excess water.
- Spoon the tuna salad into the lettuce leaves. That’s it! Enjoy!
- It has been an active hurricane season, however, for the majority of residents in the State of Florida, we managed to “weather” the lack of storms this year. Having extra canned goods and non-perishable items in our pantry is a good problem to have and we should be thankful. As we enter the season of giving, consider donating some of the excess food items to a local charity or be creative this Thanksgiving and put them to good use for your family dinner this holiday.
For more recipes recommended by the Florida Peninsula family, visit our Pinterest board.
