Quinoa Tuna and White Bean Salad

If you're looking for a simple, healthy, and protein-packed lunch, this is it my friends! I'm obsessed with the Tuna and White Bean Salad recipe from Budget Bytes. It's ridiculously easy, light, and filling! I was in the mood to experiment with quinoa and I thought it would make a great addition to the recipe. Shredded carrots and broccoli slaw add some crunch for a nice texture variation, plus you work in some veggies! The lemon juice perfectly balances the richness of the beans and tuna. We all know fish + citrus is a winning combination. Throw is all together and you've got the perfect lunch!

Quinoa Tuna and White Bean Salad

Makes 3 cups

Total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

5 oz solid white albacore tuna in water

15 oz Great Northern beans (but any white bean will do)

1/3 cup dry quinoa (plus 2/3 cup water for cooking)

1/4 cup shredded carrots

1/4 cup broccoli slaw

2 green onions

1 lemon

3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Thoroughly rinse and drain quinoa in a mesh strainer.

2. Bring quinoa and 2/3 cup water to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until all water is absorbed, about 10-15 minutes.

3. Drain tuna.

4. Drain and rinse white beans.

5. Juice half of the lemon and discard seeds.

6. Slice the green onions.

7. When the quinoa is done cooking spread it on a plate and allow to cool in the refrigerator for a few minutes (This is a cold salad. If you cooked the quinoa ahead of time, skip this step!)

8. Mix tuna, beans, quinoa, carrots, broccoli slaw, green onions, lemon juice, and olive oil together. Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

Step-by-step Photos 

1. Thoroughly rinse and drain the quinoa. I hope you all have a larger mesh strainer than I do :( It took a few rounds to rinse all the quinoa! I'm adding a large mesh strainer to my shopping list...

2. Bring quinoa and water to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until all of the water is absorbed, about 10-15 minutes.

3. Drain the tuna. 4. Rinse and drain the white beans. Any white beans will do, but I used Great Northern beans!

5. Juice half of the lemon and discard seeds. Use the other half of the lemon for whatever you please :) This citrus juicer belonged to my Grandma Mary. It's very special to me. My mom gave it to me at my bridal shower and I proceeded to cry like a baby.

6. Slice the green onions. I think it's prettiest if you slice them on a diagonal!

7. Cooking the quinoa ahead of time is ideal, that way it has time to cool. But if you can't cook it ahead of time, just spread it out on a plate (so it cools faster) and put the plate in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes. It cools pretty quickly. I suppose you could eat this as a warm salad if you want, but I like it cold and crisp.

8 a. Mix it all together! I found the shredded carrots and broccoli slaw in pre-prepared bags in the produce section. So. Easy.

8 b. Add salt and pepper to taste. Freshly cracked is the best, but any ol' salt and pepper will work of course. This salad can hold up to a good amount of salt because of the tuna. Just add a little and give it a taste test, and add more if you need to!

I hope you all enjoy this salad! The olive oil and lemon dressing makes it perfect for summertime - so bright and fresh. The tuna, white beans, and quinoa pack a protein punch, and you get a lovely crunch from the carrots and broccoli! 

SJK Travels - Vienna, Austria

Hello, friends! Please excuse my blogging hiatus this past year. I've been a tad busy! With my first full-time job, part-time school, getting married, buying and renovating our first home, and traveling a bit, I've had zero time for blogging. But I haven't fallen off the face of the earth! Just fallen off the face of Blogger, but I'm back now, and I hope to always be able to squeeze in some blogging time from now on. :)

Speaking of traveling, I was lucky enough to be sent on a business trip to Vienna! Tough gig right? This was my first trip to Europe, and I was completely swept off me feet with the beauty of the old buildings and the fantastic food. I'm excited to share the highlights of my Vienna trip!

I lived out the tea party fantasies of my childhood at Hotel Sacher, home of the famous Sacher Torte! My colleagues and I split one LARGE continental breakfast, but each ordered our own torte of course.

I loved how intensely flavorful the Sacher Torte was without being overly sweet! A thin layer of apricot jam is a lovely surprise among all of the rich chocolate. And it is served with UNSWEETENED whipped cream! I ate unsweetened whipped cream several times in Vienna actually, and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it! I grew to appreciate the purely textural addition to the pastries. 

I could wander around Naschmarkt, a farmers market + shops, for days... With everything from farmer's stands to delis to bakeries to spice shops to restaurants to soap shops, everything was fresh and pure.

It's probably a good thing that they limit the food you can bring with you through customs, or I would have brought was too many Naschmarkt goodies home with me! I bought only some handmade soaps for my parents and ate a very European lunch of prosciutto and a baguette, with macarons for dessert! Dessert can be after lunch too... don't judge me! :P

As if all of the glorious pastries, coffee, and meat and potatoes Vienna had to offer weren't enough to win me over - The Austrian dry white wine Grüner Veltliner is so delicious! I'll have to hunt for it in the states!

My foodie takeaways from the trip:
1. Sometimes less is more when it comes to sugar in desserts. I actually LOVED the unsweetened whipped cream that topped many of the desserts. And oftentimes a non-overly-sweet flavor was the star of the dish, like fruit puree, liqueur, or coffee. I'll keep this in the back of my mind the next time I'm whipping up something sweet!
2. Sliced deli meat and a hunk of fresh bread is one of the best lunches ever. I find myself craving this for lunch, especially on days when I feel lazy. Some deli meat, a hunk of cheese, and some fresh bread as finger food, and I'm tooootally content. Luckily Publix is the best grocery store ever, so high quality versions of all of these items are always readily available to me. 
3. Grüner Veltliner wine is fan. tastic.
4. A week of eating lots of meats and starches is best followed by a week of eating salads. ;) I'll have to say, a lot of the food in Vienna was HEAVY. I got home and all I wanted to eat was green things. But all the goulash, wiener schnitzel, and spaetzle sure was fun while it lasted!

Browse around #SJKTravels on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for even more wanderlusting-foodie pictures from my trip!

Berry Apple Crisp

Berry Apple Crisp is my all-time favorite non-chocolate dessert! I have dreams about my fiance's Great Grandma Daniel's Apple Crisp recipe, which is delightfully autumnal with apples and cinnamon. What's a girl to do in the summertime? Throw in some berries! Strawberries and blueberries taste like summer to me, and with the addition of bright lemon zest and honey, this dish is transformed into the perfect summer cookout/picnic dessert! 

Featured in La Petite Fashionista Magazine!

Berry Apple Crisp

Makes 10-12 servings

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

5 Fuji apples

16 oz strawberries

6 oz blueberries

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp lemon zest

1 Tbsp honey

1 cup flour

1 cup white sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1/2 cup melted butter (1 stick)

1. Grease a large baking pan (at least 9 x 13) and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Peel, core, and thinly slice apples. Slice strawberries.

3. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon.

4. Mix apples, strawberries, blueberries, lemon zest, honey, and half of the brown sugar mixture and pour into the greased pan.

5. Mix white sugar, flour, salt, and baking powder in a separate bowl. Mix in one egg with a fork until the mixture is uniformly crumbly.

6. Pour crumble topping over fruit. Top with the remainder of the brown sugar mixture, followed by the melted butter.

7. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. Serve cold or warm with a dollop of whipped cream.

Grease a baking pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. And wash your berries! Mmmm pretty summer berries.

Peel and core the apples. I'm admittedly not very good at this... I cut too much apple away with the skin! I think it's just something that takes practice.

Thinly slice the apples. Don't munch on too many slices as you go or your berry apple crisp won't be very apple-y!

Slice the gorgeous strawberries.

Zest the lemon and get ready for your kitchen to smell amazing!

Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon *googly eyes*

Mix the blueberries, strawberries, apples, lemon zest, honey, and half of the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture and pour into the greased pan.

Mix white sugar, flour, salt, and baking powder in a separate bowl. Mix in one egg with a fork until the mixture is uniformly crumbly. This will take a minute or two, but eventually the egg will moisten little chunks of the dry ingredients and the mixture will have little crumbles throughout.

This is what it will look like! Some crumbles are bigger than others, but there aren't any smooth floury parts anymore.

Pour the crumble mixture over the fruit.

Pour the rest of the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture over the crumble topping.

And here is where it gets REALLY heavenly... pour a stick of melted butter on top of the whole darn thing.

Just... Ugh. There are no words.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Serve warm OR cold with a dollop of whipped cream! Paul's family traditionally serves it cold, but I think I like it warm.

I actually LOVE this more than apple pie! The crumb topping is crispy and buttery and sugary and perfectly contrasts the soft, saucy fruit. And the gorgeous purple color from the strawberries and blueberries? So good! Enjoy!

Watermelon Margaritas

It's Saucy Jocey's Kitchen's 1st birthday! I can't believe it! This experience has been an absolute BLAST and I can't wait to continue experimenting with food, dirtying-up my kitchen (my fiance and I have a clutch deal going - whoever cooks doesn't clean), and showing you all what I come up with :) Although the school year leaves me pretty swamped, it's summer again, which means more free time and more blogging! I can't wait. As for the coming year, a few of my goals for my blog are:

1. Improve my food photography. Get a new camera too?

2. Post at least once a week on average. Note - that's about what I averaged this past year, but next year I will be even MORE swamped than I already am, with more school, work, and planning a wedding :) I'm DEFINITELY not complaining - I'm a lucky girl! I'm also a busy girl though, so once a week blogging is a reasonable goal I think!

3. Redesign my blog. I've dabbled a little in html (surprisingly little considering my major - computer science), so I can figure my way around some website designing I think! 

4. Cook healthier. Don't get me wrong, I love the occasional fried chicken and sugary baked good, but for every day, my goal is to eat healthier than I do now. I would like to make a not-putting-as-much-garbage-into-my-body lifestyle change. Paul and I joined an organic produce buying club recently, which keeps fresh organic produce in the house at all times, which I LOVE. 

To anyone stopping by to read my blog, thank you :) sharing recipes and stories with you all this past year has been a joy, and I look forward to many more!

To celebrate year one - a fruity summer cocktail of course! Margaritas scream summertime to me, as do watermelons. This marg is definitely a lighter cocktail as far as alcohol content goes, as opposed to Beergaritas which are more on the potent side. Feel free to add more tequila to your liking! A bit slushy and not overly sweet, this is the perfect poolside cocktail! 

Watermelon Margaritas

Makes 5 (1 cup) servings

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

3 cups chopped watermelon

1 1/2 cups limeade (simply limeade ideally)

1/2 cup tequila

salt for the rim of the glass

Puree 3 cups of chopped fresh watermelon. Mix watermelon puree, limeade, and tequila. Serve over ice with a salted rim!

It's a little baby watermelon! We got this mini guy in our organic produce share from Annie's Organic Buying Club. It's been such a nice change to have organic fresh produce always around to snack on and cook with! Paul and I get the 3/4 share, which two people can finish in a week if they put their minds to it, but it's a tiny but of a challenge. But that's good, because it forces us to eat more fruits and veggies than we used to :)

Give the watermelon a rough chop so you can measure out 3 cups, and puree in the food processor!

Mix the pureed watermelon with limeade...

... and tequila! These margs are definitely on the easy-drinking side of the cocktail spectrum. Feel free to add more tequila if you want!

Serve over ice with a salted rim, sit back, relax, and enjoy!

My Big Fat Greek Recipe Collection

In honor of Greek Easter on Sunday, I thought I'd compile and share my Greek recipe posts! Greek Easter as a youngster for me meant celebrating with loads of family, loads of food, and an Easter egg hunt with hundreds of eggs filled with candy and cash (not just coins my friend, bills. The Greeks don't mess around with Easter).

Even if you don't celebrate Greek Easter (or Easter at all), look at Sunday as an excuse to eat Greek food! It's also Cinco de Mayo - What's a girl to do? Greek for lunch, Mexican for dinner probably. Check out my Cinco de Mayo Pinterest board for recipes and entertaining ideas!

Pictured to the left is little-me and my Papou :) Some of my fondest memories of him are of him coming over to my house and cooking for us, dictating the recipes to my parents. My parents gifted me with those written recipes a few months ago, and I was so happy I was brought to tears.

I feel the most connected to my Greek culture when I'm cooking! Below are some recipes from my family, some from me, and there is a whole recipe book full of more to come! Enjoy!

  Not only is Greek Salad undoubtedly DELICIOUS, but Greek Salad Dressing is extra virgin olive oil and vinegar based, do it's healthy! I love making a chunky salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, feta, and red onions. One of my go-to pot luck/tailgate/picnic dishes is Greek Pasta Salad, which is just the normal salad with rotini pasta and chicken! It's wonderful with or without the chicken.

One of my favorite dishes of all time is a Chicken Souvlaki with Tzatziki Sauce. For me, the more garlic, the better, which is why I could pretty much eat tzatziki sauce plain by the spoonful. There's only one time in my life when I uttered the words "Well that's just too much damn garlic." I was eating skordalia at a restaurant and my dad (the only full-blooded Greek at the table) was the only one who could eat the seemingly half potato, half garlic spread, which is usually very tasty, but had gone a little overkill this time. Anyway, the point is, if you love garlic, you will love tzatziki sauce! Try it if you haven't already!

These 3 recipes are straight from my grandparents' recipe book. Tiropita is a savory cheese pie, which is enticing enough I think! The phyllo dough is buttery and flaky and the cheese filling is hot and creamy... You can't beat it. You just can't. 

Dolmades are stuffed grape leaves, and just about every recipe for the filling is different. Ours is ground beef and rice based, but there are quite a few vegetarian versions out there too! These little bite-sized meaty bundles are the perfect hor d'ouevre!

Last but not least, for dessert - the simple, understated perfection that is Rice Pudding. It's nothing fancy, but it's my FAVORITE. I even like it better than baklava! I know, I know, where's the baklava? It's still in the book! Coming soon though :) don't worry.

Check out My Big Fat Greek Recipe Board on Pinterest! 

I hope you all enjoy my family's recipes :) It makes me happy to be able to share the love and share the food. It's the Greek woman in me - I need to feed people. Now go eat some Greek food!