The goal: to make a tuna salad filling enough to be served without bread.
The solution: Cannellini beans!
(Optional substitution of Great Northern and Navy - all white beans.)
So delicious and good for you, too! My favorite combination.
Tuna is very nutrient dense food.
It contains:
Tryptophan - a happy making amino acid that can perk your mood, restoring a sense of well-being and behavioral self-control. Pretty awesome, huh?
Selenium - could be your most potent ally against cancer, inflammatory diseases, cardiovascular disease, neurological diseases, aging, and infections.
Protein - high quality proteins, such as the protein in tuna, can be used to maintain an active metabolism.
Vitamin B3 - which is essential in converting the food or supplements into energy. It aids the digestive system, skin, and nerves so that they will function normally.
Vitamin B6 - essential for the body to release energy from proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. It also plays an important role in developing the central nervous system and cell building.
Vitamin B1 - helps with digestion, growth, and it keeps the nerves healthy.
All B Vitamins help our bodies cope with stress as well.
Phosphorous - required by the body to help calcium with bone and teeth formation.
Potassium - this mineral helps regulate blood pressure and heart function. Research shows that increasing your potassium intake can lower your blood pressure.
Magnesium - Reversing osteoporosis, slowing down and even reversing bone loss, Preventing heart attacks, because it keeps calcium from building up in your arteries and it helps maintain a regular heartbeat, and aid in relieving migraines, insomnia and depression. Health benefits of magnesium also include relief of PMS, high blood pressure, backache, constipation, kidney stones and chronic fatigue. (Side note: It even fights some food cravings, such as the PMS symptom of chocolate craving. Seems PMS is caused by low levels of magnesium, and cocoa is rich in magnesium.)
Omega-3 - relieves pain and inflammation, better brain function and higher intelligence, less depression, superior cardio health including protection from heart attack and stroke, less incident of breast, colon, and prostate cancer.
...and it has just 157 calories per 4oz.
GO TUNA!!!
Tremendous Tuna CannelliniIngredients:
2 - 5oz cans of light tuna in water, drained
2 stalks of green onion
3 T. reduced calorie mayo (try olive oil mayo - it's amazing!)
salt and pepper to taste
1 can Cannellini beans (Great Northern and Navy are acceptable substitutes, but I don't like then quite as well.)
Mix drained tuna and mayo. Slice or cut (with kitchen scissors) just the green portions green onion into 1/8 - 1/4 inch pieces and dis-guard the white base. Add salt and pepper.
Heat beans, undrained, in a sauce pan until boiling. Drain liquid. Add tuna mix to beans. If tuna needs to be hotter, heat in saucepan with beans on low heat stirring frequently.
Serves 2. (Or 1 if you are hungry - go for it!)
So amazing! You have to try it to believe how wonderfully and filling this salad is! The beans provide fiber that slow the digestive process and keeps your blood sugar from spiking like a slice of bread would. All this keeps you feeling fuller longer.
Serve with fruit, veg or both. I chose baby carrots and grapes. An unexpectedly marvelous combination.
Bon appetite!
Tonight's Musical selection:
The Muppet Show - Three Little Fishies
NOTE ON WARNINGS ABOUT TUNA AND MERCURY LEVELS:
What is a tuna-lover to do? Should we stop eating tuna?
"No. Eat more tuna! Overall, the dangers of not eating fish [including tuna] outweigh the small possible dangers from mercury. The recommended amount for adults is to eat one or two servings of fish per week — but probably only 10% to 20% of the population in the U.S. eats sufficient fish. The real danger in this country, the real concern, is that we're not eating enough fish. That is very likely increasing our rates of death from heart disease."- quote from Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, and co-author of one of the most comprehensive studies to date on the impact of fish consumption on human health.
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