Something healthy, easy and delicious…

I’ve been meaning to post this recipe for a while as it is one of my favorites and is really healthy.  When we lived with the 93-year-old woman who’s son and DIL were on their mission, part of the deal was that we have Sunday dinner together every week and then have the same thing for Monday night and then have a weekly game of scrabble.  She made the salads which was really great because I honestly hate to chop.  It has something to do with being a klutz and needing my fingers intact to play the violin…  So anyway, she introduced us to some very interesting, some very boring and some delicious recipes in the 18 months we lived there.  This recipe is by far my favorite one that she shared (I honestly am addicted).   I changed it around a little (as I do almost everything I cook).  What I really like to do with this is double it and have it for dinner and then for lunch the next day.  For those of you on diets, this is full of protein, fiber and good oils.  Bon appétit. 

 

White Bean Tuna Salad

2-3 Servings

-1 can white beans rinsed and drained well (or you can use dried that you’ve soaked overnight and boiled for at least an hour though I usually do two).

-1 can tuna  (Preferably Italian in Olive oil)

-1 cup of parsley, fresh, chopped (or to taste I usually only do about 1/4 cup)

-1/4 cup finely diced red onion (green onions are good too and then you only need 1-2 chopped)

Dressing:

-3 Tbs olive oil

-2 Tbs lemon juice

-salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Rinse beans in colander until no foam appears.  Let drain, pat dry  with paper towels.

2. Drain oil from tuna and discard; put tuna in mixing bowl.

3. Add beans chopped parsley, onion, and gently combine.

4. In small bowl, whisk olive oil and lemon juice.  Gently mix dressing into salad.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

5.  Will stay good in refrigerator for a day or two.

Valentines Dinner

I decided to start a new tradition of making a Valentines dinner for our family.  I had some incredibly (corny) funny ideas of what to serve.  First we had a salad with hearts of Romaine, then I had two Cornish game hens with rice stuffing with sautéed mushrooms and car(e)rots  with dill and to give a nod to cupid asparagus spears.  I know terrible huh?  It was great fun. 

   

9th Day of Christmas

This 12 days of Christmas gift was the most surprising:   

“On the ninth day of Christmas my true love sent to me Nine ladies dancing…”

Pop yourself so corn, sit by the fire.  Watch ladies snowman dancing!  You’ll never tire!

 

I had never seen this show before but it was one of Jared’s childhood favorites.  We watched it as a family for family time.  The only thing was that Christian cried at the end.  I guess all good things have to come to an end.

5th Day of Christmas

“on the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me Five golden rings…”

 

Here are five rings—they taste rather good. They’re not very healthy, but enjoy them.  You should!

 

The 5th day of Christmas we got five golden…

 

 

 

Doughnuts!

 

I am so amazed by their creativity!  Who would have thought up that?

3rd Day of Christmas

So we got visited again by our “Secret Friend” who is giving us the twelve days of Christmas.  This one made me even more suspicious as to who it might be.  You see, in October we had a Pumpkin Recipe Night for Relief Society and half of the treats had walnuts and/or milk (at least that saved my ever-widening figure from even further girth) so I kept turning down offers of delicious pumpkin offerings because of the ill effects both ingredients cause me and when I cheat I’m so so so sorry for it sooner and later.  Anyway, so I can have pecans which seems weird when they look so similar to walnuts but they really don’t bother me.  Remember those pecan turtles we got on the second day of Christmas?

Well, for the third day this is the note we received,

"On the third day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

Three French hens"

 

"There is no "French" in this Little Red Hen,

Just enjoy this book and bread with your friends."

 

There was the book “The Little Red Hen” and since you can’t tell from the picture, a darling bread pan with banana bread mix attached to the bottom.  There also was a bowl of warm totally melt-in-your-mouth rolls that Jared and Christian consumed before I could take a picture (I was lucky to get one roll).  It’s amazing to me that a 29-year-old guy and a 3-year-old boy can be such coconspirators when it comes to finishing good food quickly!

The banana bread makes me wonder if it is a certain darling single girl in my ward who I was telling this story to about how Jared and Christian think they are chefs because they love to add “secret ingredients” to whatever they bake when I’m gone.  I was saying how they recently made banana bread that after they put half the batter in the pan, they filled the whole thing up with chocolate chips and then put more batter on top…let’s just say that part one of the batter didn’t adhere really well to part two of the batter and so when you sliced the bread it broke in half width-wise so the presentation wasn’t gorgeous though they both went crazy over it and ate most of it up fast. I personally think banana bread is sweet enough and I like it unadulterated from chocolate chips… at least they’ll cook!  It’s really funny what they make sometimes.

So anyway, having a box of banana bread is really making me suspicious that it’s her.  She is super creative and  teaches early morning seminary so she really likes to have fun so doing something like this seems up her ally…

The figurine included was of the donkey.  The picture’s a little blurry…blame the camera because I retook this shot a few times.

    

This speculation thing is just way too much fun and I am so touched!

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Santa Lucia Day

On Sunday we celebrated Santa Lucia Day.  It is a Swedish Holiday that celebrates St. Lucy who helped hide early Christian’s in the catacombs of Rome and was eventually burned at the stake for her convictions.  It is said that while she was hiding people in the catacombs that when she would bring them food she made a wreath of candles to put on top of her head to see so that she could have her hands free to carry trays of food for the people.

 

 

 

The Swedish tradition is to have the oldest daughter have a wreath of candles on her head and serve breakfast to the family.  Because we don’t have an oldest daughter capable of such things (yet) we just stayed up Saturday night and made Swedish saffron buns.  They were really delicious, but I can’t believe how much saffron costs!

 

To me this holiday symbolizes the need to keep your testimony burning bright so that you are able to serve others who made need your help—even if it is not the popular thing to do and you may be ridiculed for your convictions it will truly make a difference to others and it is when we are serving others that we are really serving God.

The 1st Day of Christmas

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As we were trying to put Christian down for a nap after Church, we found a note on our porch that reads:

“The Twelve Days of Christmas are coming to you!  Each day on your porch there will be something new.  A gift that relates to the song of “Twelve Days,” And a part of the Christmas story—of Christ whom we praise.  To serve you it gives us such joyous delight, Please enjoy this Christmas spirit each night!”

“On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me A partridge in a pear tree.”

“Relax, have some fun, let go of your cares.  Snack on these pears while you try to find “pairs”.

There was a basket full of pears with a book of The Twelve Days of Christmas,

and a game of Old Maid.

There also was a figurine from a nativity included

I am so shocked that someone has been so sweet and decided to bring us the Twelve Days of Christmas this year!  I have never been the recipient of the Twelve days of Christmas and I am really surprised that someone would choose to be so generous to us and do such a thing for our family.  We really hardly know anyone in our ward so I’m really wondering who in the world/ward it could be!  Jared and I keep speculating on who it can be…  Whoever it is, they’ve really touched my heart.