Tuna Salad

I don't know about where you are, but here in Minnesota we've had some pretty nice weather lately. Woohoo for no snow! With the warmer months comes picnics, barbeques, bonfires... you get the drift. I never want to turn the oven on!

A favorite dish for these events is your cold salads - tuna salad, egg salad, pasta salad, potato salad... can we say mayo mayo mayo mayo? I love these just as much as the next person, but it can be not so friendly on the waist line.

I have a single serving recipe I use when I'm craving tuna salad but have no need to make a vat of it. It's full of flavor and very refreshing.



Here's what you'll need (you can even see my messy house in the background!):
1 can tuna in water, drained
1/2 tsp sweet relish
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp Parmesan cheese (I use shredded)
1 tbsp light miracle whip
sea salt
cracked peppercorn pepper

Mix the first 5 ingredients together in a bowl. Season with sea salt and pepper to taste. You don't have to use sea salt, I just prefer it. You can use less and still get great flavor. Same with the cracked peppercorn pepper. I spread it on two slices of double fiber whole grain bread with a slice of baby swiss because I'm a cheese addict.

Calories 241.2; Fat 4.2g; Carbs 5.0g; Protein 44.1; Fiber 0g


Today I ate my sandwich with baked sweet potato fries (yum!) and some snow peas that I sauteed in a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil. These are excellent when you just want something for crunch. Add a little sea salt and they're just delicious. Great replacement for potato chips if you ask me =) Enjoy!

Introducing the chef.. wait what?

Growing up I was terrified to cook, certain that I would burn the house down making macaroni and cheese. Thank goodness for easy mac! Then, at 20 I moved into my first apartment - no parents and no cafeteria. Well, what's a girl to do? I could be like my roommates and eat cereal three times a day, but what's the fun in that? My Grandma bought me my first cookbook that year for my birthday - Betty Crocker. I remember flipping through it and being absolutely mortified. Puree? Tenderize? Sautee? What the heck was all this?!

She spent the summer with me getting me familiar with the terms involved with being a cook and all the nifty little gadgets out there. Quite honestly, if you would've told me at that point I would love to cook, I would've said you were crazy. Now, four years later, I can't get enough of it!

The greatest challenge as a cook for me is finding things that both taste good and are mostly healthy. I'm not that picky of an eater (unless it's chili, yuck!), but my husband and little brother (who lives with us) are. They generally live by the rule of "If it's green, don't eat it." However, I've gradually started making some changes and while they still won't eat their spinach, they're starting to come around a bit.

How many of you have picky eaters at home? It's incredibly frustrating! It is my hope that you can take away modified recipes from this blog (as well as some originals) that are both healthy and taste amazing. So, hello and welcome to Made to Order! Let's get started, shall we?