Thanksgiving

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011 by Rachel

Our First Married Thanksgiving Menu

 

• Tuna Steaks

 

• Cathy’s Noodles (noodles made from scratch and cooked in vegetable broth)

 

• Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

 

• Corn on the Cob

 

• Lima Beans (lightly sprinkled with kosher salt)

 

Courson’s Blackberry Wine Spritzers

 

• Blondie Brownies (mix made by Katie)

My First Tuna Melt

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 by Rachel

This will be a short entry, as I have a migraine and need to get my head/shaky hands taken care of before I can grade (hopefully soon!) But I wanted to type this up while my tuna melt eating experience was fresh.

 

I don’t particularly like tuna. I can’t really pinpoint my canned tuna eating experiences. I’ve wanted to like it for a long time, but it never seems to work out. Last year, a “tuna helper” fettuccini alfredo mix was so fishy and funky that it made me sick. But I had a coupon for a can of the Starkist Autentico series, and I decided that I would eat tuna this week. I picked out the “Chunk Light Tuna in Oil and Vegetables”, thinking it seemed pretty safe and neutral, then Emily posted this entry over at The Sexy Divorcee Cooks For One. It was magically perfect timing! I followed Emily’s cooking instructions exactly, so I won’t copy those again here.

 

Though it says the tuna can has three servings, I felt like I needed to use half the can to cover the sandwich. Because the tuna was already oily and vegetabley, I didn’t feel like I needed to add much mayo (Smart Balance) and mustard (Dijon). I went pretty light on both, actually. The mixture didn’t become overly white with mayonnaise overload (like my first salmon salad I made on Monday) and stayed pretty pink. I used Smart Balance butter to coat the pan. I used sharp cheddar cheese on honey wheat bread. It took about 20 minutes to make.

 

I thought that the tuna melt would be….well, meltier, but the cheese seems to lock everything together so the sandwich doesn’t explode while eating it. I kept a fork on hand to scoop up two bites which squirted out the side. The tuna flavor was much more mild than any of the other times I’ve tried eating it. I don’t know if this is because of the bread, cheese, vegetables or something about the Autentico sub-brand compared to regular StarKist I’ve tried.

 

This seems like a pretty cost-efficient meal, especially with the built in vegetables. Since I saved the other half in the fridge, I’ll get a second tuna melt out of it to eat for lunch tomorrow or Friday!

Pescetarian Rachel

Sunday, October 2nd, 2011 by Rachel

I eliminated beef from my diet about two years ago, as an easy diet modification to eliminate a possible contributor to my cholesterol levels and weight gain. I switched to turkey or sausage for these kinds of recipes which normally rely on beef. In the past two years, I also began to increase my fish consumption, which I’d never eaten in college or Flagstaff (where there just wasn’t any fish around except for at Red Lobster).

 

A couple weeks ago, I made some chicken fingers just because we happened to have some in the freezer. It’s an old favorite recipe for the “Ultimate Chicken Fingers”, which uses a batter of Bisquik and Parmasan to add flavor to the chicken. This used to be a staple in our cooking. But once the chicken fingers made their way onto my plate, I just couldn’t stomach it, and I realized that I don’t even like chicken anymore. Chicken has gradually made its way out of my diet over the last few years, and I hadn’t even noticed.

 

So I got to thinking, what meat am I really eating? I don’t eat beef. I don’t eat chicken. We’ve only bought ground turkey once in the past month for a spaghetti meat sauce, but I ate many of my spaghetti bowls without the meat sauce, simply with butter and parmesan. I enjoy pork, bratwursts and ribs, but I haven’t opted for these meals as regularly now as I used to either. My taste buds and stomach have changed. What does this leave me with? Fish and veggies.

 

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