TGIF (Thank God Imma Foodie)

I am a foodie.  I love talking about food, cooking food, trying new food and I love hearing the oh’s and ah’s when someone is enjoying the food I have made for them. 

I often have people asking me about what type of food I eat,  how I prepare certain things and ask me to pass along some recipes.  It's hard for me to respond to each email, text or Facebook messages asking me these things.  But I do typically snap a picture of my meals or dishes that I find especially yummy.  I post a lot of these photos on Instagram (my 'handle' is ShanMajors).  

WARNING:  if you think pictures of food is annoying then stay away from my Instagram account! 

Today, I thought I'd share just a sampling of some of the things I make and love.   

Chicken Salad

I was given this recipe by one of the best, sweetest and caring cooks I know.  Almost 12 years ago, she offered to help ease my stress of preparing for my 1^st child’s 1^st birthday party by bringing some sandwiches for everyone.  I figured she was going to bring lunch meats, cheeses and breads – nope, not this gal!  She delivered these wonderful little chicken salad sandwiches and they have been a part of our family meals ever since I begged her to write down the recipe.   Over the years I have made some tweaks to her recipe and eventually ended up this most recent version.

1 can of white chicken breast (something like this)

2 boiled eggs - chopped

1 cup of red grapes (cut in half) or 1 diced apple or BOTH!

1-2 stalks of celery sliced very thin

1 Tablespoon of lite soy sauce

1 Tablespoon of pickle relish

1 Tablespoon of your choice of mustard

Handful of your choice of chopped nuts (I like almonds or walnuts)

Approx 3/4 cup of Hellmans Mayonnaise dressing with Olive Oil

a squeeze of 1/2 fresh lemon 

In baked wonton wrappers with ground black pepper and topped with a jalapeno.

In a romaine lettuce leaf...getting ready to scarf it down like a hot dog.

Tuna Cakes

I rarely eat canned tuna, but I could possibly live off of fresh tuna - but my pocketbook begs to differ.  With that being said, I had a couple of cans of tuna sitting in my pantry for what seemed like forever.  I needed to find a way to use the canned tuna, that wasn't gross!  After combing through all my recipes, I found two that seemed decent (at best) – so I combined them into one fantastic tuna cake recipe.  And I had enough insight at the time to snap a few pictures along the way.

Combine in a bowl...

1 can of tuna - drained

1/2 cup or so green onion - sliced

1/3 cup of Italian bread crumbs

2 Tablespoon chopped FRESH parsley - fresh makes SUCH a big difference

2 cloves of chopped garlic

1 Tablespoon of mustard

1 egg - whisked

a squeeze of 1/2 fresh lemon

OPTIONAL:  Hot sauce to taste

OPTIONAL:  1 Tablespoon chia seeds.

Pat mixture into little cakes and add to 1 Tablespoon of coconut oil on medium heat.  Tip:  don't put the cakes into skillet until it's nice and hot.

Cook until a beautiful golden brown; flip and do the other side.  Drain any excess oil on paper towels.

Tuna cake topped with fresh corn from the cob and a salsa.

Tuna cake with an over-the-top salad.

Raw Kale costarring Broccoli Slaw

I think everyone probably knows I kind of like kale chips.  However, sometimes I have the itch to change up my kale game and whip up some super-fast and healthy raw kale salad.  This stuff is so yummy, holds up in the fridge for several days and is virtually guilt free!

Rinse and dry the kale

Tear kale into bite size pieces - don't use the stems.

Place kale into a bowl and drizzle with a small amount olive oil. 

And now here’s the weird part – massage the olive oil into the kale.  Yep, you read that right MASSAGE the kale.  Each piece needs to be covered (not dripping) in the oil.

Add a heaping Tablespoon of mustard (I like honey mustard, but you can use whatever kind you like)

Drop in a handful of craisins along with some almond slices or chopped walnuts or both!

Finish it off with the juice of 1/2 of a fresh lemon.

I usually make mine in the evening and let it marinate overnight in the fridge. 

The very last thing to do is taste it – if it’s too bitter, add a small amount of honey or sugar.

Broccoli slaw and Kale Salad (I ran out of craisins, so the Kale Salad got the shaft).

As for the broccoli slaw, it’s a piece of cake (man, I love cake)!

Toss 3-4 handfuls of Dole packaged broccoli slaw into a big bowl

Add some sliced almonds or chopped walnuts

Throw in some craisins

If I have cherry tomatoes on hand, I will add some of those too. 

Moisten the mixture with some Asian-y dressing. 

Pop it in the fridge for at least a few hours and then dig in – just like the raw kale salad, I typically make enough to last me a few days. 

So there you have it, folks!  Who says eating healthy has to be a boring salad with dry piece of chicken breast.  

Bon appetite!