Tag: seafood

Vinaigrette Tuna

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

A couple days ago, I mentioned an article that Julie had found that suggested trying vinaigrette with tuna (for a sandwich) instead of mayo. So, on Friday, I stopped by Target and picked up some Wish-Bone Olive Oil Vinaigrette.

I checked to make sure, and it had didn’t have any saturated fat. And, of course, as it’s olive oil vinaigrette, the 5g fat per serving were all “good fat”. So, I tried some this morning with my tuna sandwich. Now, before I give the verdict, I’ll mention the dual purposes of mayo within a tuna sandwich:

  • Taste: Mayo adds an additional flavor component to the sandwich (a good one, natch).
  • Glue: Though not literally glue, the mayo also serves to bind the tuna together (so that it doesn’t as easily squish out the sides of the sandwich).

As a taste, the Wish-Bone vinaigrette was different but tasty. It didn’t have the creaminess of mayo, but had a sense of spice to it (by design). Still, I think I prefer the egginess of good mayo (after all, both the vinaigrette and mayo have the oil in common).

The killer feature of mayo — its glue-factor — was absent from the vinaigrette. So, in combination with its not-quite-as-good taste, I don’t see vinaigrette as a good long-term solution for my tuna sandwich needs.

Up next: I may just have to check the suitability of try blue cheese dressing in a tuna-oriented role (perhaps for breakfast tomorrow, if I don’t succumb to the desire to make soft yet fluffy pancakes).

Tuna Sandwiches

Ashley Bischoff4 Comments

I have a tuna sandwich for breakfast and lunch every day. And, each day I use a 12 oz can, which is the equivalent of two “normal size” 6 oz cans of tuna. So, that gives me 32g protein per sandwich.

In the past, I used to add sliced tomato and sometimes even avocado to the sandwiches as well, but I’ve stopped doing that for now. So, my sandwich creation is fairly simple: tuna + low-fat mayo + rye bread.

Just yesterday, Julie offered a suggestion that she had read in a magazine. According to the magazine, by mixing tuna with mayo, the saturated fat of the mayo tends to counteract the good effects of the omega-3 fats in the tuna. As a substitute, the article recommended trying a mustard-based vinaigrette instead.

Why they recommend a mustard-based vinaigrette, I have no idea. Maybe the authors just happen to like mustard-based vinaigrettes and wanted to pass along the suggestion. At any rate, the important part is that the dressing contains monounsaturated fats (such as olive or canola oils). So, in that sense, I suppose that any dressing would be just as good (assuming that it also had no saturated fat).

As I mentioned, I use low-fat mayo and, of its 2g fat per serving, only 0.5g of that is saturated fat. So, in my case, I’m not sure how large the benefit would be. However, there’s a chance that using a vinaigrette may be even more tasty than mayo anyway. So, next time I go out for groceries, I may just pick some up.

Come to think of it, I have some Wish-Bone “Just 2 Good” Blue Cheese dressing in fridge (with just 2g fat per serving, as the name implies). And, sure enough, it has no saturated fat per serving. Mmm — tuna sandwich combined with the power of blue cheese…

DFWBlogs Cocktail Event – July

Ashley Bischoff3 Comments

I attended the DFWBlogs Cocktail Event was last night at the Hurricane Grill. And, like last time, I had a good time.

Since their menu is online, I had already decided beforehand that I’d be ordering the fried catfish. And, the cornmeal-battered fillets of catfish were indeed “white and fresh-tasting”. More than that, though, the steak fries that accompanied the fried catfish were excellent — they were crisp and full of potato flavor.

All was not rosy. For one thing, someone decided that, as a group, we should sit near the front of the restaurant next to the giant sound-reflection panels (otherwise referred to as “windows”). At the beginning of the evening, it didn’t make much difference, but towards the end it wasn’t helping. Especially with the karaoke (?!) later on, the packet-loss on some of my conversations was approaching 80%. To give you an idea, one conversation resembled something along the lines of “ Weezer … Smirnoff … Thomas … emo …”.

So, yeah, I would have preferred a location more inducive to conversation. But, the food was still delicious and, up until the sound-levels reached critical mass, the conversation was good as well :).