Zero Cook Time Dinner

Lately I’ve been really excited about trying new foods and new recipes.  We sure love our steak and potatoes or some salmon and veggies, but it doesn’t hurt to throw in some less expensive meals in the mix too.  With our old easy choice of pasta dishes off limits, I’m always on the lookout for new, cheaper meals that are also filling.

I’m not always a huge fan of tuna, but we really liked this one from Taste of Home.  It was quick, easy, and… no cooking.  It’s perfect for summertime when you don’t feel like sitting down to a hot meal.  It was very filling and made for yummy leftovers too.

Mediterranean Tuna Salad

Tuna salad

Serves: 4
Preparation time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:
1 15- to 19-ounce can beans, chickpeas, black-eyed peas or kidney beans, rinsed
2 5- to 6-ounce cans water-packed chunk light tuna, drained and flaked
1 large red bell pepper, finely diced
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley, divided
4 teaspoons capers, rinsed
1-1/2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 cup lemon juice, divided
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 cups mixed salad greens

Preparation:
Combine beans, tuna, bell pepper, onion, parsley, capers, rosemary, 1/4 cup lemon juice and 2 tablespoons oil in a medium bowl. Season with pepper. Combine remaining 1/4 cup lemon juice, 2 tablespoons oil and salt in a large bowl. Add salad greens; toss to coat. Divide greens among 4 plates. Top each with tuna salad.

My changes:
I picked kidney beans, mostly because they were most colorful in contrast to the tuna.  I skipped the capers, I looked for them at the store but I didn’t know what they were or where to find them.  I also added celery, since I had it out for another recipe I was making and it’s fun to use the chopper.  Instead of using the tuna salad on top of salad, we used our new favorite idea of using lettuce wraps.  We rolled the tuna salad inside iceberg lettuce leaves and ate them like a sandwich wrap.

Celery

Try it out, I think you’ll like this one!

Yummy Paleo Pork Chops

When I first started on the paleo diet it was very difficult to find many recipes that would work for me.  This was one I came across early on and has become one of our favorites because it is super easy and super yummy.

Start by juicing one lemon, about 1/4 cup of lemon juice.  I like to zap it in the microwave to soften it up a little.  I read that it makes it easier to get the all the juice out that way.  I’m not sure how much of a difference it really makes, but I do it every time now.

Fresh lemon juice

Then add about 2 tbsp of olive oil.

Next, add 3 garlic cloves, minced.  I cheat here and use a jar of minced garlic, the conversion on my jar says to use 1 1/2 tsp.

Garlic

Finally, add the remaining spices:
1/4 tsp. thyme
1/4 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp. black pepper

Blend all ingredients together and pour into a shallow dish.  Add pork chops to marinade.  Allow to chill for about 12 hours or overnight.  Grill, basting with marinade while grilling.

Pork chops

I like to make this marinade first thing in the morning so that it marinates all day to have for dinner.  I add an extra step and flip them around lunch time so that both sides soak up the marinade.  This helps them caramelize better while grilling too.

Flipped chops

Recommended final step: invite friends/family to share the meal with.  Last night we had my brother, Andrew, and his girlfriend, Nicole, over for dinner.  I was nice to catch up with everything they have going on with all of their schoolwork.  It feels so long ago that I was at that stage of life.  As we were talking about some of the classes they are taking that I also took, I could barely remember learning that stuff… especially my Math classes.  Andrew is a Math NUT!  He had to keep guessing what I was trying to remember as those classes are now so far in the back of my brain.  However, we were lucky enough to sneak in a couple of review lessons after dinner.  I am really glad that he is enjoying his equations, but I’m even more glad that I am no longer worried about what X equals! Notice how fascinated Nicole is about finding what X equals.

NicDew

We ended the night by laughing at the last of the American Idol hopefuls try out, followed by being freaked out about the the Strange Addictions guy who couldn’t stop eating champagne glasses and light bulbs.  Both are shows that we would kinda like to say we have better things to do than waste time watching, but we also can’t help but watch.