Grandma C's Egg Salad.

My Grandma C. was a very special person in my life. Her passing left a big hole in my heart. I do, however, have many wonderful memories of her and our time together.

One thing I can always do that makes me feel closer to her (other than drape myself with her jewels) is to make egg salad. Growing up, the ladies in my world loved egg salad. The men? They hated it. The second those eggs started boiling, you'd hear my dad or my grandpa start griping. "WHAT IS THAT GOD AWFUL SMELL?"

We'd chuckle, and proceed with the peeling, the stirring, the mixing. These days, I've tweaked her recipe slightly (I never admitted to her that I hated green olives) and now have my own version, but it never fails to make me smile and think of our lunches together.

Grandma C's Egg Salad
(serves 6-8, based on size of sandwich)

Ingredients:
-10 hard boiled eggs
-2 celery stalks (or you can make it Grandma C.-style and chop up some green olives)
-5 tablespoons light mayo (or to taste)
-2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

How to:
-Hard boil the eggs. (Everyone has a different way to do this, but I cover the desired amount of eggs in water, bring to a boil for a few minutes, then I turn the heat off, letting sit for about 15 minutes. This seems to work pretty well, but do your own way!)
-Dice celery into small pieces.
-Chop eggs and mix with celery, mayo, and Dijon mustard.  Don't over-stir, you want it still chunky.
-Add salt and pepper to taste.
-Sprinkle with paprika. (Not entirely sure what this does aside from making this look like a giant deviled egg, but it looks nice.)
-Spread on bread, crackers, or just eat with a fork. I do all three.

Pasta Salad...Italian-style.

The VERY best thing about training for a half-marathon is the license to eat carbs like it's your job. Seriously. (The worst? Getting up every Saturday morning at 5 a.m. and running, rather than enjoying delicious sleep.) Of course, I've blogged my recipe for the Southwestern Pasta Salad. You should have known that I have other versions. OF COURSE I DO. Momma needs her carbs. She gets them this way. Oh yeah, and with beer too. Duh.

Ingredients:
-1 box of bow-tie pasta
-One red pepper
-One yellow pepper
-One orange pepper
-One cucumber
-Half a pint of grape tomatoes
-Four ounces of feta cheese (I used a tomato basil flavor)
-Eight ounces of chicken breast meat, cooked, cut into bite-sized pieces.
-Italian dressing

How to:
-Cook pasta according to package directions. Rinse with cool water.
-Chop all veggies into bite-sized pieces.
-Toss all veggies, cheese, pasta, and chicken.
-Drizzle with Italian dressing to taste.
-Eat.

The finished product!

I'm currently obsessed with Aldi's light salad dressings. Oxford just likes to supervise.

Tuna salad, guacamole-style.

Lunches...the bane of our existence. Well, figuring out how to keep it interesting, delicious, yet not waste-expanding. That's tough. Tonight, I whipped up something a little different. Tuna salad. Boorrrrring. We've all had that. Perhaps you've heard of using avocado instead of all of the mayonnaise to make it healthier. I decided to do that. 

But that's not exciting enough. I put a quarter of a jalapeno in there. I added some lime juice. Salt and pepper. Then I threw some corn in there to add a little bit of texture. I wish I had cilantro. Really, this is more guacamole with a tuna bonus, but I'm gonna go ahead and call it a sandwich filling. A damn good one, right?

Ingredients:

-Two cans of tuna (I prefer the white albacore)

-One ripe avocado

-One lime

-Quarter of jalapeno, if desired

-1.5 tablespoons mayo (I like the olive oil kind)

-Half cup of corn (I used frozen, but I bet fresh would be amazing)

How do:

-Drain tuna.

-Mash avocado into tuna. Add lime juice and other ingredients.

-Salt liberally (or to taste).

-Spoon into pita with some romaine lettuce and some sliced tomatoes.

Pasta salad...Southwestern-style.

I hate figuring out what to have for lunch. The worst is when I haven't planned well and have to figure out what to eat at the exact moment I am starving. The fact that I am in a rather large metropolitan area and can have pretty much anything my heart desires makes it even more difficult. I like to ease this stress in my life by planning lunches at the beginning of the week. I can eat the same thing for a week without complaint, so really, it's just a matter of varying it up from week to week.

Lately, due to our running training schedule, P.I.C. and I have been trying to make sure we get enough carbs in our diet. My eating tends to run along the lines of low carb. I can't shake the "pasta and potatoes are bad," entirely, so I figure in moderation, I should throw them back in. Not much is better than a hot baked potato with a dab of butter and salt and pepper, right?

In any event, we've been doing pasta salad for our lunches the past couple of weeks. I try to vary it on a theme to make it more interesting. The pasta is, of course, whole wheat. I use lots of veggies. Legumes make an appearance. Of course, chicken is in the mix for some protein, as is cheese. This week? I went Southwestern.

Ingredients:
-1 13.25 ounce box of whole wheat pasta (this week was penne)
-6 ounces of cooked chicken breast (I like to use the frozen chicken tenders. They defrost fast and cook quickly.)
-1 red bell pepper
-1 orange bell pepper
-1 yellow bell pepper
-1 jalapeno pepper
-1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
-1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
-1 cup frozen corn, thawed
-1/2 cup spicy ranch dressing
-1 lime
-Salt and pepper to taste

How to:
-Cook the chicken, if necessary. This time, I just sauteed in a little olive oil, seasoning the chicken with some cumin, salt, and pepper.
-Cook the pasta according to directions. Rinse with cool water.
-Chop the peppers into small pieces.
-Mix chicken, peppers, beans, and corn together.
-Squeeze the lime into the mix.
-Mix the ranch dressing with a half cup of water. (I really dislike low fat dressings, so I just mix them with water to keep the taste, just lower the calories.)
-Mix in the dressing.

Serves about six.

Southwestern Pasta Salad.

Cheeeeeeeese.

Enjoy your lunch.