Sesame Tuna Salad

As I've said before, I never resolute to eat better or lose weight. That's just been the goal for the last few years of my life. However, I will admit the new year always bring me back to a sense of dedication. I joined up with Weight Watchers (again) last week and just as I imagined, it's working out quite well. I am slowly going to get back into exercising, but this time I am focusing on strength training. If I never had to step foot on elliptical again, it would be fine with me!

Eating right with winter vegetables is proving to be a challenge. Traditionally, starchy root vegetables are what most dieters try to stay away from. I have noticed this year that more companies are pushing seasonal recipes (including Weight Watchers) and that makes me happy! EatingWell On a Budget is a great cookbook! They claim that every recipes is $3 or less a serving. This book is awesome because it has a lot of seasonal recipes (because eating in season IS cheaper, people). So that brings us to today's little salad.

This is a very simple no cook recipe that uses cabbage (the heart of winter produce) and canned tuna. If you have a well stocked pantry, then this should be easy peasy. I used red onions instead of scallions, carrots instead of snow peas, and dried ginger instead of fresh. I had no cilantro, but it really would have added something nice to the recipe. Of course I halved the recipe. I got two servings out of it which I ate on two different days. I am not opposed to leftovers, I just don't want gobs of them. If I had planned a little further ahead, I would have served this with my Thai butternut squash soup I had in the freezer.

Sesame Tuna Salad
(Serves 4)

1/4 cup rice vinegar or lemon juice

3 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
2 5- to 6-ounce cans water-packed chunk light tuna, drained
1 cup sliced sugar snap peas or snow peas
2 scallions, sliced
6 cups thinly sliced napa cabbage
4 radishes, julienne-cut or sliced
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
Freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Whisk vinegar (or lemon juice), canola oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar and ginger in a small bowl.


2. Combine 3 tablespoons of the dressing with tuna, peas and scallions in a medium bowl.

3. Divide cabbage among 4 plates. Mound one-fourth of the tuna mixture (about 1/2 cup) in the center of each plate and garnish with radishes, cilantro and sesame seeds. Drizzle with the remaining dressing (about 2 tablespoons per salad) and season with pepper.

Per serving: 228 calories; 16 g fat (2 g sat, 9 g mono); 12 mg cholesterol; 9 g carbohydrates; 2 g added sugars; 14 g protein; 3 g fiber; 353 mg sodium; 200 mg potassium.


Can also be found here.

Carrots in Citrus Vinaigrette

Short post today! Third recipe from Recipes from the Root Cellar. Super easy to cut in half. I cut mine into matchsticks which took way too long. Next time I might just cut into kind of thin slices. Great way to perk up carrots! Enjoy!

P.S. I used red onions instead of shallots.

 

Carrots in Citrus Vinaigrette
(Serves 4-6)

1 shallot, chopped
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
3 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons orange juice
1/4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Salt and freshly ground pepper
6 carrots, peeled and cut into match  sticks

1. Combine the shallot, lemon zest, lemon juice, orange juice, mustard, and gingner in a blender and process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into a bowl.

2. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the carrots and blanch until tender crisp, about 3 minutes. Drain.

3. Transfer the carrots to the bowl with the dressing. Toss to coat. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

4. Let stand for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Carrot Salad

It's party season. Amazingly, this puts me in an awkward position. My collection of recipes is growing quickly, but I don't have many recipes that I can throw together quickly for a holiday party. Enter carrot salad debate.

So... I had never eaten carrot salad in my life. It was something you'd see on salad bars or on the plates of the old church ladies. It looked weird and gross. It usually has raisins in it and a creamy dressing which gives it this weird glossy look that says "this is disgusting". But... I found myself with some carrots in my fridge that desperately needed to be used up. I debated on just cooking them and tossing them with butter and brown sugar, but for whatever reason - carrot salad was calling to me.

So I did it. I freaking made carrot salad. And you know what... it's not that bad! Yes, it wasn't gobbled up completely - but I would say that everyone gave it a fair shot and I even witnessed someone going back for more. So that was good enough for me! This is a Barefoot Contessa recipe that I pulled off the Food Network's website. I think what stood out to me in this recipe was the pineapple and lack of Indian spices. Apparently the rage of carrot salad is "Indian spiced". I will say that this would taste pretty good wrapped up in a tortilla with some turkey. This recipe also claims it serves two or three, but that's only if you are going to be eating a large amount. I thought it would be perfect for a dinner party because everyone would just want a spoon full so they could leave room for the other goodies. In fact, I calculated nutrition info as 6 servings. Because honestly, who is going to eat half a pound of carrot salad?

This was also super easy to make. No cooking required! Every home cook has a bag of carrots sitting in the fridge, so this is perfect when you realize at 6:15 you didn't prepare anything for your 7:00 party. I used yogurt instead of mayo for my mayo hating friends and I used regular raisins instead of golden because they were in my pantry. I used fresh pineapple because I have a good enough knife to cut it and it's in season right now. You could buy the pre-cut fresh or canned pineapple and it should be just fine. I shredded carrots in my (very) old Salad Shooter, plumped up the raisins, and dumped all of it with the dressing mix in a bowl and mixed it together. I added a lot more pineapple than was called for in the recipe, because I figured if anything people could pretend to like it by eating the pineapple. Ta da! And I was ready to go out the door.

Have you found yourself making or eating something you relegated to retro recipes? The kinds of things you always saw grandma loving, but swore you'd never eat. Did you realize that they aren't that bad? Share your retro food finds in the comments section!





Carrot Salad
(Serves Six)

1/3 cup golden raisins
1 pound carrots
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup diced fresh pineapple

1. Place the raisins in a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow to sit for 5 minutes and then drain.

2. Fit a food processor with the grating blade. Cut the carrots in half and place in the feed tube so they are lying on their sides. Process in batches. Place the grated carrots in a medium bowl, add the lemon juice and toss.

3. For the dressing, whisk together the sour cream, mayonnaise, sugar and salt. Pour the dressing over the carrots and add the pineapple and raisins. Toss together and serve

Nutrition Info:
Calories - 167
Fat - 9g
Fiber - 3g

Cilantro Slaw

As promised the other day.... the yummy slaw recipe!

It's cabbage season guys! That's right, get excited. And cabbage will be here until spring so you best be getting used to it. So sit back and let me share with you how to make cabbage fit into your regular diet.

And F*** everything you've ever heard about cabbage, because it's wrong. Cabbage is an under loved and under-appreciated vegetable. I find that a lot of cookbooks try to make it something that it's not. Cabbage... and least the mainstream green variety... isn't a mover or shaker of the vegetable world. Nope, we'll leave that to Arugula and other micro greens that chefs love to talk about. Cabbage is what we commoners cook with. It's cheap and will last FOREVER in the back of your fridge. Qualities us lazy Americans love in our produce.

Firstly, let me tell you I have been around the block with cabbage. Just ask Dennis. I think we tried two different kinds of cabbage rolls, one even had feta in it and they weren't good. I tried some kind of stir fry, but I bought the wrong kind of meat and the sauce wasn't great. So it was stir fried cow chew in brown mystery sauce.

Secondly, I have never liked the traditional creamy slaw most people love. I cringe whenever I see KFC slaw (I must know how you dice cabbage up that small!). It was just an excuse for people to copious amount of mayonnaise and still say "But there are vegetables in it!" It wasn't until I was introduced to Zoe's Marinated Slaw that I realized that I could give this slaw thing a whirl again. Furthermore, It wasn't until I had pineapple slaw on some fish tacos that I became a slaw convert.

So I actually found this recipe on Epicurious when I was thinking about making my own fish tacos. In fact, if you have any slaw leftover from this recipe it would be perfect on top of some grilled fish tacos!

The recipe calls for pre-cut cabbage mix. And if you are really that lazy and would like to pay more for less cabbage, then by all means go for it. However, I typically just shred all my cabbage in my Salad Shooter or Food Processor and make two or three different slaws out of it to serve as a winter side salad. If you half the recipe, then it is quite perfect for two people. You can use the rest of the cabbage in a soup or a different slaw recipe!

So here it is guys. The first slaw recipe of the season. Enjoy!




Cilantro Slaw
(Makes 5 cups)

12 ounces purchased shredded three-color coleslaw mix (about 7 cups)
1 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
3 tablespoons canola oil
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1. Place coleslaw mix and cilantro in large bowl. Whisk canola oil, lime juice, salt, and pepper in medium bowl to blend. Add to cabbage mixture; toss to coat.

Can I call this post "Salad Saturday" and not sound silly?

Well, I'll just be silly then. Here is a mini post for the weekend to make up for the post I missed last week. Hopefully I'll be at Pepper Place soon hunting for fruit for an ice cream I am going to make this week!

For the longest time, if I purchased salad stuff the list looked something like this...

Bagged Salad
Croutons
Dressing
Tomatoes
Cucumbers

Don't get me wrong, if you are eating any kind of salad, you should feel good about yourself. [Except for those weird people who make ranch dressing soup with a lettuce garnish, in that instance, you should feel nothing but shame and remorse.] But that salad is the same salad that gets served at most mom and pop restaurants across America and it's no wonder so many of us have the shrug the shoulders response about salads.

While I am no Frank Stitt, honey, I have recently started eating and making some very yummy salads. Leaps and bounds beyond my boring bagged salad and crouton concoctions. The ones that have the greatest success with Dennis are the ones with fruit. Combos include....

Strawberries, Feta, Pecans
Shredded Carrots, Raisins, Pecans
Blackberries, Blue Cheese, Pecans
Mandarin Oranges, Red Onion, Blue Cheese, Pecans

I usually either use romaine or something from my Grow Alabama box. I use Pecans cause they are cheap at the grocery store and are easily found in your backyard (but you can easily upgrade to walnuts for a few extra dollars a week). Now what really takes these salads from good to tasty is the dressing recipe I have been using. Maple Mustard Vinaigrette from Eating Well Serves Two. Since I am on a budget I use molasses instead of maple syrup with great success. (If you know where I can find Alabama molasses, please let me know). I've put it on salads, dipped sandwiches in it, and marinated meat in it. It also lead me to use dijon and molasses to stir into some mayo to put on a grilled ham and cheese (yummy). This dressing is good, cheap, and takes like a minute to mix up. Put that ranch away!

Now on to master the warm bacon vinaigrette I had at Zink while in Charlotte.

Note: Spray your measuring cup with oil before you pour the syrup inside. This will let it all slide right out with ease.

Maple Mustard Vinaigrette

Whisk 1/4 cup walnut (or canola) oil, 2 tablespoons each maple syrup and cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon each course-grain mustard and reduced-sodium soy sauce and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and freshly ground pepper in a small bowl.