[Project Lunch] Tuna Pasta Salad

The beauty of pasta salads is that they can be made ahead of time and pulled out later to be enjoyed, which makes it the ideal dish to bring into work. Since I had a bunch of leftover ingredients waiting in my fridge to be used, the timing was perfect to make one of these for Project Lunch. The ingredients are relatively inter-changeable, but I always like adding celery, since it gives the pasta salad another texture dimension: crunch.



Tuna Pasta Salad
* 1 lb pasta shells, medium
* 2 cans (5 oz) solid albacore tuna, drained & flaked
* 4 oz black olives, sliced
* 1 1/2 onions, medium, cubed
* 8 oz grape tomatoes, halved
* 3 ribs (1 cup) celery, cubed
* 3/4 cup mayonnaise
* chives, chopped
* kosher salt + pepper
* oregano
* olive oil

01. Bring large, heavy-bottom pan of water to a boil.
02. Add pasta and return to a boil; cook for 8-10 minutes until al dente.
03. In a separate bowl, combine mayonnaise and flaked tuna, until properly coated. Add olive oil as necessary to thin the mayonnaise down.
04. Add celery, onions and olives to tuna mixture. Add mayonnaise and olive oil as needed.
05. Add s+p, oregano to taste.
06. Add pasta into the mixture and toss until all ingredients are evenly incorporated.
07. Add chopped chives and cherry tomatoes; toss ingredients again.

Price Check
$ 0.89, Pasta (@ 0.89 for 1 lb)
$ 1.30, Albacore Solid Tuna (@ 0.65 for 5 oz)
$ 1.00, Onions
$ 0.30, Celery (@ 2.27 for 32 oz)
$ 0.55, Black Olives (@ 1.10 for 6 oz)
$ 1.25, Cherry Tomatoes (@ 4.98 for 32 oz)
$ 0.50, Mayonaise
$ 1.33, Chives (@ 1.99 for 10 oz)

Total: $ 7.12

Tips & Tricks:
* If the pasta salad is dry, just add a 1 tbsp water to revive the salad.
* Any pasta shapes (e.g., spirals, penne) will substitute well for this salad.
* Left-over rotisserie chicken is a good substitute for tuna.
* Half the cherry tomatoes & pre-chop the chives, but pack them separately. Add to the pasta salad right before serving.

Verdict & Lesson's Learned:

:) Both boys liked it and it makes it a perfect dish to tag along to work.

:( One boy could pass on the celery, since he isn't a fan of celery-tasting things. Maybe carrots could be a celery substitute and still add the crunchy dimension.

:) I like how fast this dish is to make and how portable this lunch project was.

[Project Lunch] Smoked Salmon & Roasted Pepper Wrap with Tomato Salad

I had some brilliant inspiration from the pesto and mayo I saw sitting near each other in my fridge. I wanted to make a wrap with pesto mayo, and before you know it I dug out all the ingredients to make a great Smoked Salmon & Roasted Red Pepper Wrap. It's a fast and yummy, since the pesto mayo balances the smokey but sweet red peppers. In addition, the red peppers adds a nice complimentary sweet flavor to the salty, smoked salmon. To round of the lunch (and make the boys eat more veggies) I added a Tomato, Onion & Feta salad.



Smoked Salmon & Roasted Pepper Wrap

* 1 1/2 tbsp pesto
* 1 1/2 tbsp mayo
* 3 spinach & garlic wraps
* 9 oz smoked salmon
* 8 oz roasted red & yellow peppers, drained & pat-dried
* onions
* spring mix
* fresh ground pepper

01. Mix mayo & pesto; add freshly ground pepper to taste.
02. Spread mayo pesto on wrap.
03. Layer smoked salmon, onions, roasted peppers & spring mix.
04. Tightly roll & fold wrap; fasten with toothpicks.



Tomato & Feta Salad

* 1/2 lb campari tomatoes, quartered
* 1 sweet onion, sliced
* 3 oz feta cheese
* olive oil
* salt & pepper

01. Mix tomatoes, feta cheese, onions.
02. Add drizzle of olive oil, to lightly coat.
03. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Price Check
$ 1.35, Spinach Wrap (@ 2.69 for 6 wraps)
$ 8.03, Smoked Salmon (@ 14.27 for 1 lb)
$ 2.79, Roasted Peppers
$ 0.25, Mayo
$ 0.50, Pesto (@ 3.89 for 10 oz)
$ 0.96, Spring Mix (@ 3.87 for 1 lb)
$ 1.06, Tomatoes (@ 4.24 for 2 lbs)
$ 1.00, Onions
$ 0.74, Feta Cheese (@ 5.96 for 24 oz)

Total: $ 16.68

Verdict & Lesson's Learned:
:) Both boys said it was ok. They enjoyed the flavor experience.

:| Both boys sheepishly noticed that it wasn't really cooking -- more like throw together ;)

:( The feta cheese already is seasoned with salt, so pre-mixing the tomato and feta resulted in a lot of tomato juice extracted. Best to bring in separate containers.

:( Similarly, the spring mix wilted over time when I pre-wrapped the sandwiches prior to work. The lettuce lost its crunch and took away from my fresh wrap experience.

:( A bust on my budgeting, but there is probably ways to trim the ingredients justify the cost of the more luxurious, but oh so tasty ingredients.

If I had it my way, I would not try to make this as a packed lunch again. I have to find a way to tweak how this can be brought in, or save it was a luncheon item at my house. The wraps would have tasted exponentially better if rolled on the spot and eaten immediately. Similarly with the salad, it was not a good idea to pre-toss the tomato feta salad without dressing, because the feta cheese had enough salt to make it a very watery experience -- making the olive oil dressing almost unnecessary.

Meat and potatoes..

We had a 5 lb bag of potatoes and of course, while I was gone, the dear hubster didn't know what to do with them... It's not in a box... So when I got home, I had to come up with a fun way to use lots of taters. So Shepard's Pie it was! It's also a tasty way to squeeze in assorted veggies! Win win!

I'm in love love love with 30 minute recipes from America's Test Kitchen - as usual I modify it a little to add more veggies. For this one, I cut the meat in 1/2 and added a load of veggies I found in the fridge.

2 pounds of potatoes
3/4 lb of ground meat - technically you should use lamb but we only had ground beef
1/4 cup flour
2 cups stock
1 t Worcestershire
1 t thyme
1 onion
carrots
peas
peppers
assorted veggies
butter
cream

1. Cook ground meat until done. Drain and save 1T of oil. In the meantime, boil potatoes in water
2. Cook veggies and onion until tender. Add salt and pepper to taste
3. Add flour and stir until coated. Add stock, Worcestershire, thyme and bring to a simmer. Mix in meat until sauce thickens. Add veggies and simmer for a minute
7. Mash potatoes. Add cream and butter. I also used some sour cream as well for a little tang. Also put in some thyme in the taters as well.
8. Place meat and sauce into a baking pan. Dallop the mashed taters on top and spread. Spread a little melted butter on top and pop it into the broiler for a nice browning on top.

Peaches & Cream Cake

Amanda's Birthday was one of the summer birthdays and I wanted to create something light and fruity. Unfortunately I was also crunched for time, so I pulled out a recipe that someone from work recommended to me. It is a cake recipe based on a cake mix, which I am generally against. I am a control freak and like to know of all the ingredients that go into cakes. Additionally, I try to scale back on sugar whenever I can. However, this cake turned out to be moist, delicious and not to sweet. It was such a hit that I made it again for my brother's birthday later that fall. My family really enjoyed it, which says a lot, since they generally do not enjoy very sweet desserts. Also, one last sidenote: This is an easy, introductory cake for someone who wants to try their hand at baking.

Peaches & Cream Cake
adapted from Anne Byrn, "The Cake Mix Doctor"

Ingredients:
* vegetable shortening, for greasing cake pans
* flour, for dusting cake pans
* 1 can (29 oz) peach halves, drained and syrup reserved
* 1 pkg yellow cake mix
* 8 tbsp butter, melted
* 4 eggs
* 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
* Fresh Whipped Cream (recipe to follow)

Directions:
01. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
02. Grease two 9" cake pans with vegetable shortening; dust with flour; shake out excess flour.
03. Place 8 peach halves in a food processor fitted with steel blades; process until smooth.
04. Reserve 3/4 cup peach syrup and the rest of the peach halves.
05. Place cake mix & melted butter in a mixing bowl; mix on low speed, adding one egg at a time.
06. Add peach puree; add vanilla extract; mix on high for 2-3 minutes.
07. Divide batter into both cake pans evenly.
08. Bake for 28-32 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out dry.
09. Remove pans from oven; cool for 10 minutes.
10. Remove cakes from the pan; poke holes with toothpick into cake while warm.
11. Drizzle 1/4 cup of reserved syrup juices on each cake; let cool completely.

Fresh Whipped Cream
Ingredients:
* 1 cup heavy cream
* 1 pkg Dr. Oetke's Vanilla Sugar
* 1/4 cup peach syrup

Directions:
01. Whip heavy cream in chilled bowl & chilled beaters.
02. When soft peaks form, add Dr. Oetke's Vanilla Sugar.
03. Drizzle in peach syrup.

Assembly Directions:
01. Cut remaining peach halves into slices for decorating.
02. Place one cake right side up; spread with whipped cream.
03. Place second cake right side up on first; frost top & sides with remainder of whipped cream.
04. Assemble peach slices on top of the cake.

Tips & Tricks:
* Do not over beat the whipped cream.
* If you do not have Dr. Oetke's Vanilla Sugar at hand, substituting 1 tbsp confectioner's sugar & 1 tsp pure vanilla extract will yield just as tasty a whipped cream.
* Alternative to decorating the cake with peach slices, cubing the peaches and adding them to 1/3 the whipped cream to use as the center filling also works.