What's for lunch Honey?

Today, I just wanted to make a quick and healthy lunch. Lately, I've been craving Tuna. Weird, huh? (Mom, if you're reading this, no, I'm NOT pregnant!). I remember a time when I used to detest Tuna. I hated the taste of it and thought it smelled so strange. As I got older, my taste started to change. Does that happen to any of you?

Anyways, yesterday, I went to Costco and got some Tuna. I personally love Costco's Kirkland Solid White Albacore Tuna. Starkist is my favorite brand of Tuna but Kirkland comes a close second. Plus, our Costco doesn't carry the Starkist cans...only Chicken of the Sea. I was searching the web for a good Tuna salad sandwich recipe but the ones I liked involved copious amounts of mayonnaise. We've been trying to eat as healthy as possible around here so I just came up with my own recipe.

It uses sun-dried tomatoes (also bought at Costco for a ridiculously low price..less than $8 for 2 pounds!), celery, parsley, mustard, and a few other ingredients. I also used Kirkland multigrain, 100% whole grain bread. The result was a delicious, delectable, healthy sandwich. The best part? When my husband bit into it, the first thing he said was...honey, how much mayonnaise did you put into it? I was happy to tell him that I only used 1 tbsp. of light mayonnaise! See for yourself. ;)





Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

One 7 oz. can of Solid White Albacore Tuna
1/4 stalk of celery, cut
1 tbsp. lemon juice
4 sun-dried tomatoes
1 1/2 tsp. mustard (I used dark brown mustard)
2 tbsp. fresh parsley
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 tsp. pickle relish (dill or sweet)
1 tbsp. light mayonnaise


Cheese to taste
Broccoli Sprouts (optional)
4 slices of bread (for 2 sandwiches)
1 tbsp. Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil (for browning the bread)

Method:

Combine the first 9 ingredients together using a food processor. If you don't like your Tuna salad smooth, just chop the celery, sun-dried tomatoes and parsley and mix it with all the ingredients.

Heat a skillet and melt 1 tbsp. of coconut oil. Once the oil is hot, lay 1 piece of bread on the skillet, sprinkle with some cheese, top it with the Tuna salad and broccoli sprouts. Then, place 1 slice of bread on the sprouts then flip the sandwich to brown the other side.

My favorite part about this sandwich was the coconut oil and sun-dried tomatoes. The coconut oil gave the bread such a wonderfully sweet, distinct flavor while the sun-dried tomatoes added a zip. Trust me..you won't miss the mayo!

Stuffed Chilli Bhajjis

I can't believe it has been 3 weeks since I last posted! I am so sorry. November rolls around and we get crazy busy every year. So much has happened these past 3 weeks. We celebrated 2 birthdays (my mom's and mine), while I finished physical therapy (yay!), and today, my sweet sister-in-law Deepa, is coming for a visit. I am so excited!

I have so much to tell you I can't contain it! Wait until you hear about the lovely present I got for my birthday from my sweet husband! I can't stop looking at it, talking about it, talking to it and using it. First things first though.

A few weeks ago, I promised to post about the banana peppers from the Farmer's Market. Please forgive me for the delay. Here's what I made....Stuffed Bhajjis! Bhajjis are Indian snacks. They're basically vegetables which are deep fried in a spicy batter. I deseeded the peppers and stuffed them with a spicy potato and onion mixture. I completely underestimated the spiciness of these suckers! I couldn't get to the seeds with a knife so I used my hands...and my hands were on fire for a whole stinkin' day!

They were definitely worth it though. One of my Indian friends (ah-hem, Joseph), had one bite and couldn't handle it. He kept saying that his tongue was on fire. I admit, these things had a ton of heat! The funny thing is though, our dear Minnesotan friend Jake, whose idea of spicy is garlic powder, ate a whole pepper! Without flinching!

Anyways, here are some pictures of these wonderful peppers.

Cleaned Peppers


Potato Stuffing


Ay Caramba! These look hot!


They WERE hot!!


Oh, but they were so good!


Pepto, anyone?

Cactus Poriyal

As you know, I bought some Cactus (or is it Cacti?) from the farmer's market on Saturday. I was amused by the prickly little thing and decided....hey, why not try cooking it? Needless to say, I got quite a few thorns stuck on my fingers. I had no idea how to clean or cut it. Thankfully, I had the Internet to show me how! Thanks Internet!

Growing up, I never understood why my mom and aunts would "Indianize" everything. Let me explain. For Thanksgiving, they would make 'masala turkey'..enough said. Well, it looks like I'm following in their footsteps because I Indianized the cactus. ;) I made Cactus Poriyal. For those of you not familiar with this, poriyal is a South Indian vegetable side dish. We cook veggies using mustard seeds, onion, cumin, coconut, turmeric powder, red chili, etc.

So, here it is people...Cactus Poriyal. :)


Thorny Cactus


The Cactus after it was cleaned..it looks like it was cleaned by a 5 year old. I had to wear gloves and use a paring knife.

Cut cactus

Cooking the cactus

Tada!!

The Cactus was quite slimy, like Okra. The more it cooked, the less slimy it became. I was surprised by the taste. It tasted sour and lemony, which I happen to like. My husband on the other hand, didn't care for it too much. He doesn't fancy sour things too much.

Will I make this again? Probably not. Only because my husband didn't care for it and I'd rather save all this work for making something he loved. I am happy to try something new, fun and different though. :)

p.s. Later on this week, I will show you what I made with the Banana Peppers from the farmer's market.