Tuna Bean Salad / Spaghetti with Tuna sauce

I seldom bring a packed lunch to work.  There are many reasons for this

• I am not a morning person and dislike thinking about food until I've been awake for some time
• I dislike sandwiches (well, bread, mostly)
• buying lunch forces me to leave my desk for at least a few minutes
• There are several good options close to the office I am currently working at
• I can offset some of the cost against my tax
• If we have leftovers suitable for lunch, I like to give them to Mr Duncan so I can be sure he's eating something healthy and not stocking up on cheese baguettes at Pret.

Probably my favourite option for lunch is Crussh.  The food tastes good, feels healthy and the salads are substantial - they actually satisfy my appetite. 

Sometimes I get their tuna bean salad, but when I do I always think I could so easily make this it home and at lower cost.  Last time I took a pic of the ingredients with my camera so I could try my own version.

When Mr Duncan came home after his Australian visa medical with a diagnosis of high blood pressure, I thought it was a good opportunity to try making a tuna bean salad for our lunch for the next day.  I am normally happy to soak and cook my own beans, it costs less than and causes less gas than the cans beans you buy in supermarkets, however in the interests of using food up before we move, I'm not replacing dried goods as we run out of them and have a fair stack of tinned goods to get through too.

Fertility focus
Chickpeas like all legumes are a good plant source of protein.
Kidney Beans are rich in folate and vitamin C.
Tuna, like all oily fish is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids which can increase production of the egg white cervical mucus needed for the sperm to reach the egg.

I replaced the kidney beans and chickpeas with a rinsed tin of 3 bean salad.  I actually buy them to use in chile sin carne however they worked fine in this.  I substituted a white for red onion, added in some finely chopped yellow bell pepper and omitted both the salt and oil. I also forgot to take a photo.

We both ate it for lunch and I liked it.  Mr Duncan even said it was okay and he'd have it again though he's not a fan of tinned tuna or having healthy lunches.  The problem was there was still half of it left over.

I didn't want to have the same dish two meals in a row and put it in the fridge.  A few days later it definitely needed using.  But it was pouring with rain outside and salad for dinner didn't appeal.  I thought about the ingredients in it - could I make it into something else?

I used to make a simple vege pasta sauce with tuna 'meatballs' - so I knew the tuna would go with a tomato pasta sauce, balsamic vinegar works with a tomato based pasta sauce too.


Spaghetti Tonno

Just as good second time around

I just stir-fried the salad for a few minutes while I chopped some garlic which I added along with a tin of tomatoes.  It simmered while I cooked the spaghetti then I mixed in some chopped fresh basil before stirring through the pasta sauce.  Garnished with a little grated cheese and chopped fresh parsley.

It worked really well and even Mr Duncan agreed that the Tuna Bean Salad and Tuna Pasta Sauce combo was one to repeat - two fast and tasty meals in one!