Salade Niçsoise, a dieter's dream

Tastes and colors both terrific!

Tonight, on a 90 degree day in New England, we ate a cold supper of Salade Niçoise.  I had ambition to grill some tuna, but the store didn't have any, which made me think it was probably twenty dollars a pound and this would be neither a cheap nor a frugal meal.  So I bought some nice Italian tuna in oil--it has a great flavor and I drain as much of the oil off as I can.
Procedure:  line a big platter with lettuce leaves.  In the middle, put two cans of Italian-style tuna in oil, well drained.  Surround the tuna with vegetables dress is an oil and vinegar dressing.  We had:  green beans, tomatoes, red pepper, olives, artichoke hearts and garbanzo beans.  And two hard-cooked eggs.  Potatoes are traditional, but I must have put them in the wrong grocery cart.
I served this with bread sticks, and we had guilt-free seconds and there is enough left for lunch.  All in all, a satisfying find.
 From it's name, I assume the salad comes from Nice.  We ate it many years ago on the Rivera, and it was a crazy lunch with a whole bottle of wine (yikes) and many female topless diners.  Well, you know.  France is France.

I lost another pound and must behave this week because we're having a dinner party on Saturday with a high carb salad/veg and homemade chocolate ice cream.  
We've been eating fruit salad with oranges, cherries, raspberries, and peaches and I can't tell you how good it is.  Everything on sale, of course. 
The lettuces in the garden will soon be eating size and we are already munching on the fresh herbs.  Tomatoes and cukes coming along.  Flowers pretty.  Mosquitoes hungry and plentiful.  Our little Eden does have its varmints.


Aloha! 


The Cheeseparer 

Remembrance of Things Past

Washing out bread bags! That was one of my jobs as a kid, because I had frugal family who had experienced the depression. How I hated it. Hated margarine, too. Still do. My grandparents raised a big garden and kept chickens. As a kid I wore pajamas made out of muslin feed sacks. Soft fabric and pretty patterns. My grandma and I used to giggle about our "feed sack pajamas." Can you beat that? Comments to this blog are always welcome, if clean.

We had a cheeseparing dinner (without cheese) last night. Tuna and noodle casserole. The tuna was on sale. Confession: I hate tuna in water. Doesn't taste right. Doesn't even taste good. So I suck it up and buy the fancy Italian kind packed in olive oil. Of course I drain the oil out, and last night I used the oil to make the sauce, a white sauce with bits of scallion and red bell pepper. Salt and pepper. Sometimes a sprinkle of cayenne for complexity. 2 cans of tuna. 3/4 lb. noodles (on sale at Ocean State Job Lot). Nice thick sauce. Crushed potato chips on top. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. Served with a green salad. A bit of ice cream (on sale, natch) later on.

This will yield two evening dinners and at least one lunch. How frugal is that?

Here is the link for savings hints from the Grandma. Mine was the same way. Loved the photos and the commentary. Love the web for finding such treaures. Frugal Tips from the Past.

http://untraditionalhome.com/?p=309