Healthier Tuna Salad Sandwich

Hi! My name is Rina aka Mama Bear from Gotta Little Space. You might recognize me as a former monthly Make It From Scratch carnival host! Stephanie invited me to contribute to the MIFS blog and I am super excited to do so!! Thanks Stephanie!!

I love food. A lot. My husband does, too. So does our 2 year old - and his tastes are pretty strange for a toddler! We love trying new things, and being in the kitchen with my hands in a mixing bowl or stirring something up on the stove is where I'm happiest.

Some time ago we realized that eating processed, fake foods wasn't for us (but don't get me wrong, we enjoy our rare fast food moments - and I'm all about salt and vinegar potato chips!). So we decided to do our best to eat fresh, local, as un-tinkered-with foods as possible.

We're planning a fairly adventurous garden in the backyard of our first house, and we're lucky enough to live in an area that has a massive variety of other fruits and veggies to supplement (and can, and freeze, and otherwise preserve!).

Last year my family took all of us kids to California for a vacation, and my husband and I decided we were going to try and drop a bit of weight so we wouldn't be embarrassed to hit the pool or wear clothing to beat the heat.

Enter the ChangeOne plan: an eating plan that wants to teach you how to lose weight simply, safely and forever. You can click here to view all of the ChangeOne posts (about the plan, recipes, our experience and of course, our weight loss) on my personal blog, if you so desire.

It worked really, really well for us. My husband and I lost a combined total of 40 pounds in about 3 months - and we ate more while doing ChangeOne than we did before (and we were gaining weight then, certainly not shedding it!). Unfortunately though, once we returned from California, despite our best (half hearted?) efforts, we strayed from eating properly - and we've both gained back a bit of weight.

So here we are, starting back up on the ChangeOne plan. We're excited about it because we know it works, and we enjoy the food. One of the lunch recipes provided is for this tuna salad sandwich (see the picture at the top of the post, click to view it on Flickr). It's really delicious on a grainy, whole wheat bread - add some crunchy lettuce and a few tomato slices, too!

Tuna Salad Sandwich
Serves 2

1 can white or light tuna in water, drained
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon plain yogurt
1 tablespoon low fat mayonnaise
1 tablespoon pickle relish
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon minced onion
3 slices whole wheat bread
lettuce and tomato slices

Place tuna in a bowl and combine with the lemon juice. Add the yogurt, mayo, relish, mustard and onions and combine well. Line 2 bread slices with the lettuce and tomato (if desired). Top each with half the tuna mixture and the remaining slices of bread.

Variations!
Tex Mex: replace the relish and mustard with salsa.
Indian: add 1 teaspoon curry powder and 2 tablespoons raisins.
Italian: replace the yogurt and mayo with fat free Italian dressing.