I add celery, tomatoes, cucumbers and sometimes pico degallo which gives it a good taste - You could also add broccoli and/or green onions
this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2023
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Cheatcode for flavor is chicken bouillon. Powdered chicken stock has almost no calories but packs a ton of non-specific savory flavor (umami) that you can put into any savory dish. If you feel like a dish is bland, you salt it and it still feels not salty, try adding chicken bouillon and the flavor pops out. It's why Australians go mad about their "Chicken salt" which is mainly bouillon and salt. (If it still taste bland after this point, you probably need some form of acid like a vinegar in the dish.)
Tuna itself is pretty generic in flavor so just go ham with spices and seasoning. I like to mix my tuna into scrambled eggs (1 whole egg + 200g of egg white), mix it with gochuchang red pepper paste for big flavor, mild heat, and slight sweetness. You can also use Laughing Cow cheese wedges for about 45cal. Mix that into the pepper paste with a little bit of water to turn it into a creamy consistency. You can use the cheese wedge trick or cornstarch slurries to make creamy sauces/gravies for whatever dish you want with minimal calorie cost.
There's a lot of exercise programming you can do to optimize your fitness, but when we know diet is like 90% of the aesthetic outcome, leveling up cooking skill is probably much more important for creating tasty lean food you have no problem adhering to.
Careful with powdered chicken stock (or any stock) from supermarket brand. They may have nearly no calorie but a lot of fat, salt and other generally un healthy stuff.
Making chicken stock yourself take time but you can make big batches and use it through the week.
And how would you go about powdering it?
I've never done it, but I hear people talk about reducing it and then freezing it into ice cubes. Then, you can easily store it in your freezer and just grab a cube as you need.
That I never tried, but by boiling it enough that's what you will get in the end. I store it in concentrated liquid form, and it's more convenient to use this way for me.
Copying all of this, brilliant 🙏
Nah, us antipodeans go nuts for chicken salt cos it's basically NaCl and MSG. Well, the ones you get at fish n chip shops are. The consumer mixes are a bit less salt heavy as nobody would buy it if they knew how bad it actually was for you, ignorance is bliss!
How has no one mentioned (low calorie) mayonnaise yet? It's such a staple tuna combo!
Don't forget the herbs and red onions
Umm, you might want to consult this article (https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/how-worried-should-you-be-about-mercury-in-your-tuna-a5041903086/) before continuing with your plan.
I make pasta with red onions and tuna. Just cut up the onion in medium chunks, fry it up in a generous amount of extra-virgin olive oil, add the canned tuna in it. When pasta is ready mix it all together and add some extra oil on top. Add chilli flakes if you'd like some spice. It's not really low calories unfortunately...
In general, I have to say that it does matter which canned tuna you buy. I only buy a very specific brand and only the one that comes in olive oil. Anything else is cardboard to me, so I feel you.
Start your recipe with the really good stuff. In recent years the cheap tuna has become terrible.
Ok good thoughts about brands here, I'll splurge a bit and see what I can find!
Good luck! Not sure which country you're in but see if you can find Rio Mare as a brand. That's the one I like (partly because I grew up with it), Mediterranean and Eastern European delis tend to have it I think.
Try boneless & skinless sardines or mackerel for a less mercury-filled fish hit.
I eat 2 cans per day, generally on top of a leafy green salad. Ranch dressing makes everything taste great.
Others have pointed out the mercury risks as well. I'll try sardines they go well on a pizza or in a Caesar salad so why not raw
tuna mayo onigiri
I'll see if I can fit the rice into my daily calorie intake, great idea!
Regular tuna salad is good but with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and some basil it can be great. I'm also a big fan of adding cayenne
Tuna croquettes.
Finely dice the white parts of two spring onions. Mix with 1/4 cup bread crumbs, 2 beaten eggs, 200 grams of flaked tuna (I think that's like 8 oz?), salt, pepper and whatever herbs you like. Form into 8 balls. Put another 1/2 cup bread crumbs in a dish and roll the croquettes through it to pick up an outer layer of crumbs.
Coat with cooking spray and either bake for 25 minutes in a moderately hot over, or fry.
I use about a slice and a half of bread to make those crumbs and this is a two-serving recipe, so I think it works out on the low calorie front.
Mayo + pepper. Spread into toast. Perfection.
Could also throw in onion, celery, a bit of mustard and boiled egg to make tuna salad.
A Little olive oil, some herpes or spices…some vegetables..Well I described a salat :D
You can mix the tuna with some low fat creme cheese or some low fat Greek yoghurt (watch for added sugar)
If you are looking for lower calorie and less heavy metals canned salmon would be a better option than tuna. I had canned salmon on my diet every second day just with soy sauce, tastes heaps better than tuna.
I'll see if I can source it, I don't think I've seen it in stores around me. Thanks!
A small amount of low sodium teriyaki sauce drizzled over canned tuna can do wonders. If you like chicken teriyaki, beef teriyaki, salmon teriyaki, etc., it's not quite as great but still strikingly comparable. Just make sure you don't go nuts with the sauce -- it's got sugar so a tablespoon may get you 20 calories with the flavor but a lot can rack up empty calories really quickly, plus even the low sodium variety will add up sodium too if you pour it on heavy.
I often make lean chicken breast with oven or pan roasted vegetables (broccoli, red cabbage, diced onions, sliced mushrooms, minced garlic, occasionally snap peas) for a healthier version of a stir fry (over brown jasmine rice on my lifting days but without the added carbs on rest/cardio days) but there are days when I just don't have the chicken to do it. Canned tuna becomes the quick and easy substitute when needed.
(Important to note, however: I've tried mixing the tuna in with the vegetable/brown rice mix but that seems to disperse the low sodium teriyaki sauce to a point where it's useless. Instead, put the canned tuna out on a plate separate from the vegetable rice bowl, drizzle the sauce over the tuna evenly and take a bite of it, then take a bite of the vegetables and rice after. It gives the tuna the full flavor benefit of the sauce but still allows you to simulate that teriyaki bowl satisfaction).
I'm going to make a really weird suggestion: I don't like fish except salmon. Then I tried canned sardines in oil. They're actually quite good and not fishy at all. I'd recommend trying to choke them down once. The Calorie count is high for the weight, but they're very filling due to the protein and fats. I ate them on a 1200 calorie diet.
One of the recipe of my diet, nothing fancy but taste good for very good nutrional value:
Cook half portion green lens and half red rice (called "wild rice" sometimes) in salted boiling water.
Dice half an onion and cook it with the the oil from the tuna can in a hot pan. After few minutes add the tuna. Separate in small piece with a wooden spoon and cook for ten minutes.
When rice and lens are cooked, dry them, add to the pan, reduce heat to low and mix. Add herbs. Keep cooking and mixing for 4 minutes.
It also really depend the brand you buy. Try to take the cans cooked with olive oil or white wine.
Dried tomatoes go along nicely
One of my favorite dishes is a variation of a tuna salad, the ratios are very flexible but would be something like:
1 can tuna 2 large handfuls of spinach, chopped chiffonade 1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed (I just rinse them with water and let them drain) 1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed Mayonnaise to taste (I tend to add around 2 tbsp to just barely dress the salad)
Mix all of the ingredients together and eat it with corn tortilla chips or tostadas.
Seasoning is your friend.
You can try some curry powder, crushed red chili flakes, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, chili powder, etc.
Throw in some olive oil to help with the dryness. Homemade mayo is extremely simple to make at home, eggs, oil, and some type vinegar.
If you want some fresh ingredients: onions, garlic, ginger, green onions, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers.
I generally don't follow a recipe, I just throw in whatever I feel like at the time.
The pouches of flavored tuna are decent. I put them in a salad. It's not cravable, but it is totally edible.
IMO lemon pepper is the best.
Eat your vegetables, spare the fish.
Tabasco