Tuna Salad

When you're pregnant or nursing, apparently you're supposed to limit your intake of tuna. Actually, it's probably seafood in general, but I didn't have to pay much attention to that, since the only seafood items I even think about consuming are fish sticks (only because they're heavily breaded) and tuna salad (which I only eat if it's made by someone in my immediate family).

Dale thinks the tuna salad thing is a bit weird, given my eating habits. And I can't really explain it, either. I mean, it has pickle relish (I don't like pickles) and mayonnaise (YUCK) in it! I guess it's all about how you grow up, and tuna salad was a staple in the Schae house. I believe 5 of the 6 of us ate it, which is pretty good considering there are some pretty picky eaters in our clan (I mean, the only veggies we could agree on were corn and green beans!). For those of you that know our family, you won't be surprised that Scott was the lone holdout on tuna salad. To my knowledge, he still avoids it like the plague...

Anyway, the attempt at explaining why in the world I like tuna salad is not the reason for the post...

So now that I'm not pregnant and am no longer nursing, I made tuna salad the other night for the first time in, probably, 4 years. Crazy. Craving isn't even an appropriate word to describe the way I was feeling as I popped open those cans of tuna (if you don't make 3-cans-worth at a time, it's a waste of effort) and the smell wafted through the kitchen.

But describing the feeling that overcame me isn't the goal for this post, either.

I remember helping my mom make tuna salad when I was growing up. You had to boil the eggs for 15 minutes, take sweet pickles and chop them up very finely, and then, when the eggs were finished, you had to slice them up, as well. It was a very time-consuming process. Though the result was quite yummy, the time it took always seemed a bit excessive to me.

But welcome to the 21st century! Now, instead of cutting up sweet pickles, I use this:


And instead of cutting up eggs, I use this (thank you, Pampered Chef!):

And, a mere 20 minutes later (only because of the 15-minute egg boiling process that I can't figure out a way to shorten), I was finished! And though that first night I was able to have the tuna salad in my most favorite form (spread on a piece of toast, with a slice of cheese on top, in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes), today for lunch I settled for this:


Please excuse the haphazard appearance. Showing off my culinary presentation skills is not the purpose of this post.

Nope. The S-O-L-E objective of this post is to make my sister's mouth water. How did I do, Sarah?!?