Tuna School Lunch - fish week continued

This is a really simple tuna and white bean lunch, that i'm sure i've made before for this blog, but you're getting it again. I like it because its cheap and i usually have the ingredients in the pantry. As for the veggies- that really depends on what i have on hand. This time it was carrots, onions and peppers.


For the dressing i usually mix mayo and mustard and if i have any add a little kick of ranch dressing since it compliments everything really well.

The only issue you i have with this meal is that it makes pretty much a week's worth of lunches and by the fourth day you are really sick of eating it. I served it this time on spinach, but its actually better on arugula or that spinach arugula mix.

lunch

Some school lunches

So, after a few years i am back at school and this has made my lunches a little more challenging. I can't do what i used to- bring a few days of lunches and assembling them at work. I also have to carry them on the TTC, which makes me want smaller easier ones, as i have to take the containers back.

here is my version of greek salad

lunch ingredients

white bean and tuna salad ingredients

ready for school

Tuna and White Bean Lunch

Tuna and white bean is actually a pretty common combination, there is a certain richness to white beans that makes this dish seem decadent, when its really quite simple yet elegant. I often mix my tuna with chickpeas, but i was in the grocery store and spotted some white kidney beans, which i think area also called butter beans, and thought i would add them as they have a creamier texture.

Usually things that are all white sort of turn me off - i know that sounds weird, but something about hippie parents and always eating whole grains/brown bread makes me mildly suspicious of white meals. To offset this strange idea, i made sure to add some more colourful items to the meal to help its visual appearance, along with taste! This was sort of a whatever i had in the fridge kinda lunch, so i used some oil cured black olives, sundried tomatoes (also in oil), carrots and green onions.

To make the dressing i combined some mayo (just a little), mustard, lemon juice, a little oil from the sundried tomatoes, pepper and red chili flakes. Once that was mixed i added a 1/3 of a cup of the beans and mashed them in to make the dressing creamier without more mayo. I ended up adding a little extra oil and lemon juice to make the dressing thinner. Then i mixed in the tuna, making sure to break it up well, and finally adding the rest of the beans, and mixing it until it was well combined.

For lunch i put this on top of some mixed spinach and arugula. The nuttiness of the arugula worked really well with this. I didn't need to add any more dressing, and i got two hearty and healthy lunches out of it. The greens also helped offset the white factor.

Above:

The ingredients (all on hand)

Packed lunch

Mixed beans

Additional ingredients