Ok people.  We’re down to the wire here…I will be touching down in Cancun in T-minus 8 days, the suspense is killing me!  It’s supposed to be like 5 degrees the day we leave which just makes it that much sweeter.  I’ve been working on trimming the waistline for a while now and I think it’s worked to some degree.  I actually eat pretty well for the most part, I do have to let you all in on something I found out tonight though.  Experts say that once you stop eating McDonald’s cheeseburgers for an extended period of time you will no longer want to eat one if it’s sitting in front of you…and this is complete bullshit.  I know this because my husband brought home those cheeseburgers for our boys (judge free zone!) and I wanted that thing just as bad as I wanted it the last time I had one which was like forever ago.  I took a bite hoping I would be repulsed by the taste, however I was not repulsed…not at all.  But miraculously I was able to use that thing called willpower and not steal the rest of my two year old’s cheeseburger after all, I ran to the shower and didn’t look back…Lauren 1, crackburger 0.

Anyhoo…enough about cheeseburgers, let’s talk tuna salad…yay!!!  Just go with me on this one, ok?  First thing I will tell you is that I am just addicted to this white bean and tuna salad as I am to McDonald’s cheeseburgers but the good news is that eating this salad might make you feel slightly better about yourself.

First things first…there’s no mayo here.  I am a fan of mayo don’t get me wrong, but this salad don’t need no mayo.  Let’s just get right to it…

1 – 12 oz can solid white albacore tuna in water
1 – 15 oz can cannellini beans (drained and rinssed)
3 – celery stalks (diced)
2 – green onions (diced)
1 cup – carrots (sliced thin)
3 tbsp – capers
juice of 1 lemon
drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Start with a decent can of tuna…

Throw that in a large bowl and add a can of cannellini beans that have been drained and rinsed well…

Now it’s time to throw in the veggies…for the celery I like to cut the stalks down the middle and then chop..

For the carrots, I used a bag of sliced carrots and then just diced them up some more because that’s easy to do.

Add all of the chopped veggies…

and then add the capers…I also suggest adding some of the caper juice.

I’m addicted to capers, I can’t say enough about these delicious tiny morsels…capers are the unripened flower buds of Capparis spinosa…a prickly, perennial plant which is native to the Mediterranean and some parts of Asia. Sounds very nice doesn’t it…I would eat them if they grew on the side of a boat.

Now, you need to squeeze a whole lemon over the bowl…

and then drizzle in some extra virgin olive oil…

Add some salt and freshly ground pepper and it’s done!

This is one of the best clean eating meals I’ve ever come up with…my husband loves it too. You can eat it out of a tomato or on some whole wheat toast or just out of the bowl…the flavor combos are freaking awesome.

Try this spin on tuna salad and let me know what you think, preferably in the comments section because no one ever comments on my blog posts…did that sound desperate? Oh well, I’m already married.