Jim's Omega-3 Supercharged Tuna Salad
I owned a restaurant for several years that was well known for great tuna salad. I'm going to disclose the secrets of making tuna salad, but also add flaxseed to the tuna, which is already a good source of Omega-3's. That makes this salad a real nutritional powerhouse.
Here's what you'll need: 2 standard cans of tuna (packed in water), 2-3 tablespoons mayo (low fat if you prefer), 2 tablespoons bread crumbs (plain or regular Italian seasoned is best), 1 tablespoon milled flaxseed, onion salt, 1/2 packet of artificial sweetener and bottled lemon juice.
Dump the tuna into a colander and rinse it with water. Then sprinkle it with about 2 ounces of lemon juice and let it sit for a minute. This helps draw out the fishy taste. Rinse the tuna again, but only for a few seconds, and let it drain for a couple of minutes to get rid of the excess water.
Mix the tuna, bread crumbs and flaxseed in a mixing bowl or in the container you plan to keep the tuna salad in. Add some onion salt and the sweetener, then mix. Now carefully add the mayo and stir - keep adding mayo until you get the consistency you want, but be careful not to go overboard. If you add too much mayo, throw in some more bread crumbs.
Let the tuna salad sit in the fridge for a few hours, then make yourself a sandwich or a nice salad with lettuce and whatever veggies you like. Top the lettuce salad with a generous scoop of your tuna salad, and use a sweet-tasting but low-cal, low-fat dressing like Kraft Free® Catalina dressing.
Smoothies
Smoothies made with whey protein powder are another good, fairly low calorie source of protein. Below is a basic smoothie recipe along with numerous other stuff you can add. Using the ingredients below, there are over 224,688 combinations of smoothies you can make! (Actually I made that number up but there is a lot of variety that you can create.)
Basic Smoothie includes: 3/4 cup fat-free milk or soy milk, 1/4 cup of water, 5 good sized ice cubes, 1/2 banana, and 1 scoop of vanilla flavored whey protein. To make a really flavorful smoothie, instead of ice use one-half bag of frozen fruit with no sugar added, like cherries, blueberries or strawberries.
Put everything except the ice into a blender and let it rip for about 15 seconds. Then add the ice, cover the top and pulverize the ice with several blasts of a couple of seconds each using the pulsing button on your blender. Serve immediately.
Variations: Use leftover coffee instead of water and a tablespoon of chocolate sauce for a mocha smoothie; add strawberries or blueberries; add one-half packet of hot chocolate powder or cocoa; add one-half packet of any flavor Alba 77 smoothie mix (carried by many grocery stores); add canned or fresh peaches or pineapple; add a teaspoon of smooth peanut butter and a teaspoon of chocolate syrup; use chocolate soy milk instead of chocolate syrup.
Beans & Rice
One of my favorite meals to eat when I'm in weight-loss mode (which is more often than I'd like) is beans with rice and diced chicken breast. It's fast and easy to make, and it has lots of fiber and protein. Here is how to make it.
You'll need: 1 can of diced tomatoes (seasoned or not, that's your call), 1 large boneless, skinless chicken breast per serving, 1 can of black beans, pinto beans or kidney beans (drained) and cooked rice.
Rustle up 3/4-cup to 1 cup of cooked rice per serving. Brown rice is best, wild rice second and white rice is the last resort. To save time, use one of those stand-up, pre-packaged envelopes that cook in 90 seconds.
Cook the chicken breast in the microwave or poach it in water. Cut it up into coarse pieces, mix with the rice, beans and tomatoes and reheat gently in microwave or on stovetop.
If you're in an Italian mood, use tomatoes pre-seasoned with oregano and basil and/or add your own Italian seasonings. For a Mexican flair, buy seasoned Mexican-style diced tomatoes and/or add chili powder, your favorite chopped peppers and a bit of cumin or cilantro.
Non-Fishy Fish Cakes
Do you want to get some Omega-3's but don't like fishy-tasting food? Try these fish cakes. The stuffing flavor blends really well and tones down the fish taste quite a bit.
Here's what you'll need: 1 standard-size can of tuna or salmon, or flaked left over cooked salmon; a half-package of chicken seasoned stuffing mix; an egg; 1/4-cup of water; 1 tablespoon of olive oil; some optional things you can add include 2 tablespoons or so of pickle relish, finely chopped onion, chopped black olives and/or shredded carrots.
Heat a frying pan to medium-high and thoroughly mix the drained, washed tuna with the other ingredients. Spray the pan generously with cooking spray or use just a teaspoon of olive oil.
Form the mixture into tight patties. Add stuffing mix if the mixture is too moist or water if too dry. Cook for about 3 minutes on each side. Patties may be fragile so only flip them once. This makes enough for two people. Serve with a nice salad.
Marinated Chicken Breasts
These are great on the grill and have a lot of low-fat protein. First, get yourself some chicken breasts, preferably the kind that come from boneless/skinless chickens.
Then make a mixture of 1/2-cup of olive oil, 4 Tablespoons of orange juice or lemon juice, a clove or two of garlic, a teaspoon of thyme seasoning (use a bit more it using fresh thyme), and about 1/4-cup of fresh chopped cilantro. Salt and pepper are optional.
Marinate the chicken for at least a few hours, and as long as one day. Then toss it on the grill and cook it up.
Try serving this with rice or couscous and a salad. Couscous is a great side dish because you can buy it already seasoned in boxes, it's as easy as quick rice to make and it doesn't need butter or extra fat on top to taste good. It's also kind of hard to eat so you won't eat too much of it. When you make couscous, use olive oil instead of margarine as called for in the directions.
Quinoa
Eating enough protein is important - we have to feed our muscles so that they heal and strengthen between workouts. But protein tends to be pretty high in calories, which is a bummer.
One way to add protein to your diet is to eat a grain called Quinoa (pronounced "keen-wa"). Quinoa is actually a cereal grass that hasn't quite caught on in popularity for some reasons we'll get to in a moment. But it is quite high in protein - in fact, for the Aztecs (or maybe the Incas, this isn't history class, you know) it was a staple of their diet. Legend has it that when the Spanish colonized Mexico, they banned Quinoa because they knew it made the Aztecs strong.
Quinoa was lost until the 1980s when someone stumbled upon Quinoa seeds. I have no idea how one "stumbles" upon seeds, but apparently it happened. Nowadays you can find Quinoa in the health food section of many grocery stores. But it isn't very popular for two reasons - first, it's kind of a pain to cook, and second, it doesn't taste very good when served like rice or a traditional grain dish.
There are a couple of tips for preparing Quinoa. First, you have to wash it. Get a jar or a plastic container with a lid. Put in the amount of Quinoa you are going to cook and cover it with water plus another inch or so. Then cover the container and shake it gently for 15 seconds. Then dump the Quinoa into a strainer (not a colander with larger holes or you'll be waving bye-bye to your Quinoa as it goes through the holes and down the drain) and rinse gently.
Cover and cook your Quinoa like you would long grain rice, using 2 cups water to 1 cup Quinoa. Cooking takes about 20 minutes - look for little tiny tadpole-like tails sticking out of the round grains. A microscope is helpful to see them.
While you're cooking your Quinoa, don't stand around doing nothing but make something to mix with it. Here's what you'll need: 1/2 cup red onion, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms, 1/2 cup chopped green or red pepper, some garlic and some cilantro.
Sauté onions in oil, with mushrooms, pepper and garlic. When the onions are translucent, add cilantro for the last few seconds of cooking. Remove from heat and mix with your Quinoa. Add a little oil if it's too dry. This is best served as a side dish to give your meal extra protein punch.