Healthy Refreshing Tuna Salad

Here's another healthy recipe, full of protein, fiber, and flavor. I'm trying to take my fitness and weight loss goals seriously - I have about ten pounds to lose and I'm watching my calories. However, don't think that just because I'm trying to eat healthy and post healthy recipes, I'm going to stop posting deliciously decadent foods. I promise that I will splurge every now and then. That being said, this recipe for tuna salad that I just threw together for lunch today tastes great, especially for something so good-for-you. I call it refreshing because it has a wonderfully crisp flavor and texture from the chopped apple.


Refreshing Tuna Salad
1 can tuna, drained
3/4 to 1 small granny smith apple, chopped
1/4 cup cooked wheat berries
1 tbsp. dry minced onion
3 tbsp. chopped pickle, or relish
3 tbsp. mayonnaise or dressing

Combine all ingredients and serve on bread or rolls.

3 servings
Calories per serving (without bread): 194

Hot Tuna Salad

I think we need to go shopping for some fridge-and-pantry basics. I just have an aversion to spending money sometimes, so when we run out of something I decide that we'll just do without it for as long as possible. So we don't have much in the way of meats lately - we "ran out" of ground beef and ground turkey long ago; right now we have some chicken leg quarters in the freezer, and a small variety of canned meats in the cabinet. Kinda limits our meal choices, I think. But it does make a fun challenge when deciding what to make for dinner!

This recipe is adapted from the Southern Plate cookbook. The original recipe was for Hot Chicken Salad, but I didn't want to go through the trouble of cooking up several thighs and drumsticks just to make a chicken salad. So I substituted tuna for the chicken, and made a couple other substitutions and omissions, and here's what we came up with for dinner last night. I have to say, I think this turned out absolutely fabulous! This was the best tuna salad I've ever made.


Hot Tuna Salad
4 cans chunk light tuna, drained
1/3 to 1 tsp. salt
3/4 cup mayonnaise
2 large stalks celery, chopped
2 T minced onion
2-3 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1-3 cups crushed chips (potato, or we used tortilla)

Combine all except cheese and chips in a 3-quart casserole (I used my Pyrex pie dish). Top with cheese and chips. Bake at 350 for 15-25 minutes, or until cheese is melted and celery is tender.

Since this was tuna salad, we had to have a bread to go with it. I pulled out my recipe for quick and easy pizza dough and made a simple flat bread.

Flat Bread
2 1/4 tsp. yeast
1 1/4 cups warm water
2 tbsp. oil
1 tsp. salt
3 1/2 to 4 cups flour

Combine all ingredients. Let rise 15-30 minutes (I started this just after putting the salad in the oven, so it was rising while the salad was baking). Spread onto greased and cornmealed 9x13 pan. Brush lightly with oil, and sprinkle with garlic powder, onion powder, and Italian seasoning. Bake at 425 (I turned up the oven after taking out the tuna salad) for 12-20 minutes, until lightly browned.


The combination of the Hot Tuna Salad with the Flat Bread ended up tasting very similar to a simple tuna melt, but just a bit fancier. We all thoroughly enjoyed this delicious meal. I would love to try the hot salad with chicken, like in the original recipe. Oh, I bet that would be so good!

Surprise Tuna Salad on Gannat (French Cheese Bread)

I started making this bread this afternoon, just for the sake of baking something. I had been looking through old posts on our family blog, and came across one where I said how excited I was to have purchased a bread machine recipe book at a yard sale. I was like, "Huh? I don't remember that!" I had to go check my cookbooks, and sure enough, there it was. So I flipped through and found this yummy looking recipe for Gannat, or French Cheese Bread. We had all the ingredients, so I started it up.

Later this evening, Jeff took the kids to the library so I could have some "me time." As he was leaving, I said I'd try to figure something out for dinner, and he suggested "something with tuna." We have a huge pile of tuna in the pantry, and try to prepare meals with it frequently. I immediately thought of making a tuna salad to go on the fresh loaf of bread.


I came across this great recipe at allrecipes.com. I changed it around a bit, as I am prone to do, based on the ingredients I had and what I was in the mood for. And here's what I came up with.

Surprise Tuna Salad
1 (6 oz) can tuna, drained and flaked
1/2 medium apple, peeled and chopped (I used red delicious)
1/4 cup raisins (the recipe calls for golden, but I used regular)
2 tbsp. mayonnaise
2 tbsp. Italian dressing
1 1/2 tsp. sweet relish
3 slices bread
6 slices mozzarella cheese

Combine first six ingredients. Chill until serving. Spread 1/3 of mixture on each slice of bread; top each with 2 slices cheese.


Gannat (French Cheese Bread)
3 tbsp. water
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup butter, cut up, softened
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. sugar (I realized later that I forgot the sugar. It still worked fine)
1 cup (4 oz) shredded cheddar or Swiss cheese
2 tsp. active dry yeast

Measuring carefully, place all ingredients in bread machine pan in order specified by owner's manual.

Here you have two options:
1. Program basic or white cycle and desired crust setting; press start. When bread is baked, remove from pan; cool on wire rack.
OR
2. Program dough setting; press start. When dough is completed remove from pan and let rest covered for five minutes (if your machine does not have a dough setting, remove after first rise). Shape into round loaf and place in greased 8-inch pan. Cover and let rise until doubled. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Remove from pan; cool on wire rack.

NOT Your Mom's Tuna Salad

We decided we needed something quick, simple, and light for lunch. And it had to involve tuna. We have lots of tuna, because I get 4 cans per month from WIC and we don't eat that much. So I got online and searched for tuna recipes. And I found this. (Yes, it's from allrecipes.com. What can I say? They've got some great recipes!)

Cinnamon-Curry Tuna Salad
2 (6 ounce) cans water packed tuna, drained and flaked
2 teaspoons mayonnaise (I used 3 tsp)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon sweet pickle relish
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon ground black pepper (I reduced this to 1/2 tsp)
salt to taste

Combine all ingredients. Chill until ready to serve.
This is not a typical tuna salad. It has a very strong flavor. The reviews for this recipe were mixed - some loved it, some were very less than enthusiastic. When I first tasted it, I was of the less-than-enthusiastic variety. But the more I ate, the more I loved it! I served this over saltine crackers and cheese, and sprinkled it with coconut and raisins. The coconut and raisins really made it ultra special.Serves 4
126 calories per serving

Tuna Pot Pie

We have a very large amount of tuna. I get four cans every month from WIC, but we don't use tuna quite that often. I've been trying to use tuna more often, because we have, like, 15 cans of the stuff. Tonight's dinner was inspired by my quest to use the tuna. I looked up "tuna" in my Betty Crocker cookbook and was led to a recipe for Chicken Pot Pie, with a tuna variation. Score! I love pot pie! I was additionally motivated to make this because I was running low on my calories for the day, and could definitely fit in something as calorie-rich as a pot pie. This ended up being about 380 calories per 1/8 slice. I had two.

I adjusted all the ingredient amounts because the original recipe called for a 9-inch square pan and I wanted to use my 9-inch round pie dish, which of course has a different volume.


Tuna Pot Pie
5 oz. frozen peas
1/2 can sliced carrots, drained (the recipe originally called for a bag of frozen peas and carrots, but I believe in the philosophy that you should just use what you've got)
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 tsp. salt
Dash pepper
1 1/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup milk
1 can (6 oz.) tuna, drained
Pastry for 9-inch double-crust pie

Rinse frozen peas in cold water to separate; drain.

Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Stir in flour, onion, salt, and pepper. cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in broth and milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in tuna, peas, and carrots; remove from heat (During the steps in this paragraph I really appreciated the wisdom of pre-measuring your ingredients. There's so many things to add all at the same time, and it really helps to have it all ready to go beforehand).

Heat oven to 425 degrees.

Make pastry. Roll half of the pastry into a 12-inch circle; ease into ungreased 9-inch pie dish. Pour tuna mixture into pastry-lined pan.

Roll out remaining pastry. Cut designs or slits into crust (I chose to do a fish, because I like the design to match what's inside the crust. Isn't it cute?). Place crust over tuna mixture; trim, seal, and flute edges.


Bake about 35 minutes or until golden brown. I had to cover the edges with foil after about 25 minutes because they were browning too quickly. You could cover them before baking, and uncover them about halfway through the baking time. It works either way.

To make this into a chicken pie, substitute 2 cups cut-up cooked chicken for the canned tuna.

My pie didn't really hold together well. The crust was great, but the filling was just very wet. Next time, we'll let the pie set for about 20-30 minutes to allow the sauce to solidify a bit. Or I'll just reduce the milk and chicken broth. Anyway, despite being all fall-apart-y, this pie tasted fabulous!

Tuna Turnovers

This was so delicious you'd never guess that it's cheap, easy, and fast! I think it took me less than 45 minutes start to finish, and it was made of simple, everyday ingredients. The ideal meal for busy nights!


Tuna Turnovers
2 cans (6 oz each) tuna, drained
1 cup (4 oz) cheese, shredded (I used cheddar, others would work too)
1/4 cup chopped celery
1 tsp. dried minced onions
Mayonnaise and/or Ranch dressing to moisten (I used a little of both. It took about 2 tbsp. total stuff to moisten this to my tastes. Others may prefer a moister or dryer filling)
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine all ingredients. Prepare 1 batch biscuit dough (this link is to a previous post, ham a la king, which also includes the recipe I used for the biscuit dough). Roll or pat out the dough 1/8-1/4 inch thick. Cut into 4-inch circles or squares. I ended up with 8 squares of dough, which made really large turnovers.

In each square of dough, spoon about 2 1/2 tbsp. filling, then fold over the dough and seal. I didn't end up using all the filling. The leftover filling can be used to make sandwiches later. Place the filled turnovers on an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes.

As we ate these tonight we discussed several variations that could be done here. Wrapping biscuit dough around a delicious filling can really go anywhere - the imagination is the limit! Use chicken instead of tuna, try crabmeat and cream cheese, go for pizza filling, or taco meat! We talked about doing dessert turnovers - using fruit fillings similar to pie filling, and brush the top with milk and sugar. I definitely hope to do a variety of turnovers in the future.

Creole Tuna

This is a quick, simple dish that we've made several times. It tastes great, and is on the table in no time!

Creole Tuna
1/4 cup chopped green pepper (we rarely have green pepper, though we love it. I often substitute chopped onion, or tonight, chopped celery)
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1/3 cup milk
1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes
1 can (6 oz.) tuna, drained and flaked
1 tsp. Creole seasoning (I always use Cajun seasoning, because that's what we have. After the recipe I'll give a substitute if you don't have or can't find either)
Hot cooked rice, optional

If you're going to serve this with rice, get the rice going before starting the tuna stuff, because the tuna gets done really quick, and you want your rice to be done too. I just put one part rice and two parts water (usually 1 cup and 2 cups, respectively) in a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Once the water boils down to about the level of the rice, turn off the heat, cover the rice, and let it sit until the rest of the dinner is ready. The rice should be done by then, so fluff it and you're good to go.

For the Creole Tuna: In a saucepan, saute green pepper (or celery, or onion, or whatever) in butter until tender. Stir in the flour, sugar, salt, and pepper until blended. Here I finally got smart, measured all of that into a bowl, and dumped it in together. It helps at this point to be quick, so the flour doesn't gunk up. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly. Stir in tomatoes.

Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes. Add tuna and Creole seasoning; heat through. Serve over rice if desired.

If you don't have either Creole seasoning or Cajun seasoning, substitute: 1/2 tsp. paprika, 1/2 tsp. garlic powder, a pinch of cayenne pepper, a pinch of dried thyme, and yet another pinch of ground cumin. Try this seasoning combination in other dishes for a fun Creole kick!Yield: 4 servings
160 calories per serving (not counting rice)

Tuna Chili Mac

I made this up tonight for dinner. I started with a basic tuna noodle, then added tomatoes and seasonings. It turned out really yummy.

8 oz. elbow macaroni
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can tuna, undrained
1 can diced tomatoes, partially drained (leave some of the juice with the tomatoes)
1/2 cup cooked lentils (or canned corn, drained)
1 tsp. each chili powder, cumin
1/2 tsp. each garlic powder, onion powder
1/4 cup french fried onions
2-3 oz. shredded cheese

Cook macaroni according to package directions. Drain, then return to pan. Add soup, tuna, tomatoes, lentils, and seasonings. Heat through. Sprinkle with french fried onions and shredded cheese. Cover and heat until cheese melts. Great served with tortilla chips (or crackers).