Nutritious, Calorie Conscious, and Delicious!

Tired of the same old same old tuna fish sandwiches? If so, you’ve got to give this recipe for Tuna with White Beans a try! You can dispense with the mayonnaise and boost the fiber and nutrients with white beans. Add some garlic, fresh lemon juice, olive oil, fresh herbs, and olives to make a new-fashioned tuna fish sandwich you’ll want to enjoy time and time again!

The original recipe evidently was published in Gourmet Magazine. I found a version of the original recipe on the The Calgary Herald website: New-School Tuna Sandwich.  I’ve made a few changes to reduce the calorie count and adjust the taste to suit me better.

When buying canned tuna, I recommend you look for chunk light tuna canned in water. If you prefer white tuna you will also want to select Albacore tuna.

I like including olives, especially Kalamata olives in the mix. But I would think any olives would be good. If you are not a fan of olives you could omit them altogether.

The tuna and white beans sandwich mix makes enough for 4 sandwiches with a little more than 1/4 cup per sandwich. To give each sandwich a little extra flavor and added fullness without adding many calories I top the mix with 2 tbsp. of freshly grated parmesan cheese and leafy greens.

Serve the sandwich in a whole wheat pita pocket (1/2 whole pita) or on chewy, flavorful, sliced whole grain bread. Simple, delicious, and nutritious!

Tuna and White Beans Sandwich

(makes four 1/4 cup+ servings)

Ingredients

1/2 cup+ canned white beans, rinsed and drained (about 1/2 of a 16 oz. can)
5 oz canned Chunk Light Tuna, drained
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 stalk of celery, diced
10 Olives (Kalamata or other), sliced or chopped
2 Tbsp. fresh Basil (or parsley), minced
.1 tsp salt
.1 tsp black pepper

1. In a medium-sized bowl, roughly mash the beans, garlic, 1 tsp. olive oil, and 1 tsp. lemon juice with a fork.

2. Flake in the tuna, then stir in the celery, olives, basil or parsley, salt and pepper. Taste. If needed add the remaining olive oil and lemon juice and season to taste.

3. Serve sandwich in a pita pocket or on whole grain bread. Top mix with 2 tbsp. of freshly grated parmesan cheese plus leafy greens of your choice for added flavor, crunch, and nutrients!

Depending on the bread you use, the entire sandwich will have about 200 calories for a pita pocket or 300 calories with two slices of whole grain bread.

Hope you like the tuna and white bean sandwich. Enjoy!

Scrambled eggs with spinach makes a quick and healthy breakfast dish. Breakfast could very well be the most important meal of the day yet it is often treated like it doesn’t matter. Big mistake! Having a nutritious and balanced meal can rev up your metabolism, get you started and keep you on track with healthy eating for the rest of the day, and keep cravings for less healthy foods under control.

You can choose to make the scrambled eggs with whole eggs, egg whites, or a combination of both. The whole egg will provide you with a great source of protein along with lots of vitamins and minerals. Large eggs are naturally low in saturated fats but the yolk contains about 213 mg of cholesterol or more. If you need to limit your cholesterol intake you can make the scrambled eggs with only egg whites or egg substitutes (made from egg whites). Either way the meal will be tasty.

I like the inclusion of spinach with the eggs. What a great way to include one or more servings of vegetable with breakfast! Unlike canned spinach, the spinach prepared from either fresh or frozen leaves can be very tasty as well as nutritious. Spinach is a good source of dietary fiber and it is packed with vitamins and minerals, many of which come up short in the diet of Americans.

Dani Spies will show to how to get your egg dish prepared quickly. This meal should take only a little time to prepare. But if it seems like it will create too many dishes to clean up for the middle of the week then by all means save this recipe for the weekend. But do try it. Season it appropriately to suite your taste and you will have a winner!

Enjoy!