Lannister Reuben Sandwich

'You alarm me!' said the King. 'I feel faint—Give me a ham sandwich!'

-Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There

Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you this is a low-calorie rueben sandwich, but we at least played around with the thousand island recipe to cut down a few calories.  We were so excited to try out the sauerkraut we made back in october, and it didn't disappoint!  All in all, this ended up being a delicious sandwich (despite not being able to find rye bread... stupid snow!)

What you need for the Thousand Island Dressing:

• 3/4 cup Plain, nonfat greek yogurt
• 3 tbsp Ketchup (we used some great gourmet ketchup we purchased at the farmer's market from Further Farms of Nashville)
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp minced onion
• 1 hard boiled egg
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 2 tsp sweet relish
• 1/4 tsp salt

What you need for the Reuben:

• Rye bread (preferably)
• Corned Beef (we cooked this in the slow-cooker)
• Swiss Cheese
• Sauerkraut
• Thousand Island

To make the thousand island dressing, just mix everything together really well.  To get the hard-boiled egg to the right consistency, I would recommend pressing it through a strainer.

The sandwich is just as easy.  Take two slices of bread.  Place corned beef on one slice, and top the corned beef with sauerkraut.  Spread the dressing on the other slice of bread, and then place a piece of swiss cheese over the sauce.  

Toast the sandwich in a sandwich press (or on the stove) and voila!  Delicious sandwich!  One of these days, Stoney and I will make a post on making sauerkraut.  We jarred over a gallon of it 2 weeks ago, documenting our methods.  This kraut was just a spur-of-the-moment decision and we didn't even measure how much salt or pickling spice we used.  Verdict?  Tasty.  

Summer Isles: Mango and Peach Tilapia Zoodles

Sorry doesn't make the noodles!

Mr. Ping, Kung Fu Panda

Noodles are great.  Noodles made of zucchini (and other squash)?  Even better, because you get to eat a ton of them and not feel bad!  I recently got a vegetable spiralizer and discovered zoodles, so I decided to take advantage of my new toy and make a really good, summer-inspired dinner.  If you don't have a spiralizer, you can either julienne the squash, or peel them into ribbons.

What you need:

• 3 large yellow squash spiralized
• 2 large zucchini spiralized
• 1 lb tilapia filets
• 4 tbsp peach hot sauce
• 1 cup frozen mango slices
• 1 cup frozen peach slices
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 6 tbsp vegetable broth
• 2 tbsp fresh cilantro

Be sure to let your frozen fruit thaw (at least mostly). Obviously you can just bypass this step by using fresh fruit.

Heat the spiraled vegetables in a skillet, just to get them warm.  Drain and place in a bowl.

Brush the tops of your tilapia filets with 1 tbsp of the peach hot sauce, place the filets on a greased baking sheet, and broil on high for 6 minutes on each side (12 minutes total), or until fish is cooked through and flaky.

While the fish cooks, combine broth, fruit, lime juice, and the remaining 3 tbsp of hot sauce in a blender and blend until you have a smooth and creamy sauce.

When fish is done, use a fork to flake the fish, and combine the zoodles, flaked fish, cilantro and sauce in a large bowl.  Stir well so the zoodles and fish are coated in the sauce and cilantro, and serve!

The recipe makes about 4 dinner servings or more appetizer servings. 

Martell Gazpacho

It's not blood, it's tomato juice!

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!

When I was in Spain, my favorite thing to eat was gazpacho.  Even the grocery store gazpacho was delicious.  It is the perfect summer dish, in my mind.  After getting the vitamix, I vowed to make a delicious gazpacho once the weather turned nice, and I am happy to say I succeeded in my goal.  It's an incredibly simple recipe, and took all of 20 minutes to make (and that includes the time spent rough-chopping the vegetables).  And the best part?  The only clean-up required involved wiping down the cutting board and the vitamix.  Couldn't be simpler.  The recipe makes about 8 cups, so serve it as an appetizer for a summer dinner party, have it for lunch during the week, or let it be dinner for a couple of nights!

What you need:

• 2 lbs Tomatoes, stems removed and quartered
• 4 inch slice of French Baguette (and then you can eat the rest of the baguette with the soup!)
• 1 large cucumber, peeled and sliced
• 1 small-medium yellow onion, quartered
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 poblano pepper, seeded and roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• Salt & Pepper to taste. 

Other than chopping your veggies, the only other prep you need to do is to soak the piece of bread in water, and once it is saturated, squeeze the water out as best you an and throw it in the blender with everything else.  Start by putting the tomatoes, poblano, and cucumber in the vitamix, and let it run just long enough to liquefy everything and give you some more room in the blender (assuming the veggies have filled it up!).  Then add the rest of the ingredients and blend on high until it is smooth.  Don't let the soup get hot!  Pour the soup into a large serving bowl or pitcher and refrigerate for at least an hour, to be sure it is nicely chilled upon serving.

The Quill and Tankard's Quinoa Tuna Cakes

Shrek: Example... uh... ogres are like onions!
Donkey: They stink?
Shrek: Yes... No!

Donkey: Oh, they make you cry?

Shrek: No!

Donkey: Oh, you leave ‘em out in the sun, they get all brown, start sproutin’ little white hairs…

Shrek: [peels an onion] NO! Layers. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. Onions have layers. You get it? We both have layers.

Donkey: Oh, you both have LAYERS. Oh. You know, not everybody like onions. What about cake? Everybody loves cake!

Shrek: I don’t care what everyone else likes! Ogres are not like cakes.

Shrek

On a bed of spinach with a Blueberry Balsamic Vinegar 

A simple recipe with many uses.  Throw on some spinach for lunch.  If you are in need of a fancy appatizer try replacing the bread with these in a bruschetta recipe.  The best part is that each cake is around 75 calories.  

• 3 cups cooked Quinoa (3/4 cups uncooked)
• 2 Packages of Tuna (I used Starkist Hickory Smoked Tuna Creations for flavor)
• 3/4 cup Stuffing Mix
• 1/4 cup Flax Seed Mill
• 1 medium carrot
• 1/2 small onion 
• 1 stalk of celery
• 1 Tbls Minced garlic
• Olive Oil
• salt optional

First in large mixing bowl add Flax Seed Mill and 3/4 cups water.   At this point cook the Quinoa and dice the onion carrot and celery.  The vegetables need to be finely diced, probably best to use a food processor.

 

When the quinoa is done cooking add all ingredients to the bowl with the flax seed mill and mix well.   Let the mixture sit for 5 minuets to set up.  

Forum into about 20 small patty's around 2 inches in diameter.

   

Generously coat  a frying pan with oil and heat to medium low, and add patties (you will have to cook in batches).  Use spatula to press patties flat.  Cover and cook for 10 to 12 minutes.  Then flip and cook for 5 more minutes.

 

Remove patties from pan and place on paper towels to soak up excess oil. 

Now it's up to you what to do with them from here.    Here are some suggestions add to salad, make a sandwich, make a pita, serve with tomato sauce or garlic Aioli, or you can just them freeze for later. 

The Kingsroad: Avocado Tuna Salad

"I'm a Timelord, you're a big fish... Think of the children!"

Doctor Who, The Vampires of Venice

For our second installment, we decided to take on the low-cal lunch with an Avocado Tuna Salad.

Final product.  It tastes WAY better than it looks here.

Now, I am generally not much of a cook when it comes to lunch, because it always seems like too much of a hassle.  Oftentimes, I will just heat up some veggies or have some tuna mixed with red wine vinegar, but this was so simple, I may be persuaded to make lunch for Stoney and I more often.

I don't know about you, but I love tuna, and I love avocado.  Combined?  Sounded like heaven.  And guess what?  It tastes like heaven, too!  Combine that with the fact that it is only around 145 calories per 1/2 cup serving and I'd say we have a winner.

So what do you need?

Your ingredients

• 1/2 red onion
• 2 celery stalks
• 1 red delicious apple
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 3 2 oz. packets of tuna (I used this )
• 1 TBSP pickle juice
• 1 TBSP spicy brown mustard
• 1 pinch of coriander*
• 1 pinch of chili powder*
• 1 pinch of salt and pepper
• 1 avocado

*Alternatively, use one big pinch of cumin.

I ended up prepping most of this the day before, but I waited until the morning I was planning to eat it to put in the avocado, so that it didn't turn brown overnight.  

So to start, dump the tuna into a mixing bowl and chop up the apple, onion, and celery.  Once they are diced, throw them in the mixing bowl.  Add the other ingredients, minus the avocado, and stir until the mustard and other seasoning is mixed in thoroughly.  

Like so

Next, peel and core the avocado, and mash it into a paste with a fork.  Add said paste to the mixing bowl, and stir until the avocado paste has combined with all of the tuna mix.

And voila!  You are done.  It took me about 30 minutes to make.  I did the tuna mix during my lunch break and the avocado-mashing before work.  At Stoney's suggestion, I also cooked up some Pillsbury Crescent Rolls to use as bread to put them on.  Those crescents are tiny, though, and only fit about 1/4 cup of tuna salad on them, so eater beware!