Tuna Fish Macaroni Salad

I love any kind of macaroni salad and I grew up on tuna macaroni salad. Especially during Lent when we had to eat fish on Friday’s. It was fast easy, comforting, cheap to make, filling and good for you!  Load it with raw veggies and omit the tuna and it is just a yummy macaroni salad I love too!

I don’t really measure a lot in my recipes. Unless your baking then you should always measure your ingredients. We grew up as one of 5 kids, my mom was a nurse not always there to cook, and everyone had different schedules so it was hard to make something fast if you were hungry and get out of the way for the next one. We all had different tastes.

I was always a cook and a foody, I loved the fresh organic veggies out of the garden, I loved to learn and try new things. Then I had the brothers who just ate pizza and PBJ or my sister who just ate cereal and liverwurst of all things. I could not really wrap my head around that.

My mom never bought soda unless it was a special occasion, she made her own bread most of the time whole wheat or multi-grain. Back in the day (70’s) no-one used whole wheat.  My family grew our own sprouts and yogurt. My mom was ahead of her time! We lived on orange juice, water and milk if you could drink it. I was allergic to milk at a young age. She made chicken a lot and American Chop Suey. I will have to get that recipe from her.  She was much more of a baker than she was a cook.  I would call her food, blonde food, not having a lot of color.  I think from her Polish and Hungarian background.  Lots of potatoes, breads, soups, kielbasa, sauerkraut. See blonde!

Here’s to blonde food! I colored it up a bit.

You will need gluten-free elbows, I used Ronzoni because it is a mixture of grains like rice, quinoa and corn.
This makes a better pasta in my opinion. Some are just corn or rice.
Cook it according to the directions I used half a box.

For the Tuna Salad:

Chop half a small red onion,
Chop a green onion
Peel in ribbons of one organic carrot
Chop a stalk of celery with the leaves
Chop some parsley

Add your own veggies of whatever you have on hand, like sweet peppers or string beans, olives.. go crazy!

Rinse two 5-ounce cans of Chicken of the Sea White Albacore Tuna in Water.
Use chunk or white whatever you prefer.

For the dressing, whisk together 1/4 cup mayonnaise, a squirt or two of dijon mustard, a bit of salt and pepper to taste, then squeeze in a whole lemon juice. (or substitute one tbsp apple cider vinegar for lemon )

Mix it all together and all more mayo if you want it creamier.

Enjoy!

Karen