Does your child love tuna? If so, and you’re tired of making yet another ordinary tuna salad sandwich what about making up some fun tuna swirls, muffins, pasta salad and ‘Sunflower’ twist on your standard tuna salad recipe?
Here are some of my favorite ways to serve up tuna in a kid lunch:
Tuna Swirls
Ingredients
1 can tuna, drained
2 tbsp. mayo
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 sweet pickle, chopped
splash of lemon juice
3 slices of whole grain bread
dab of butter or margarine
Combine tuna, mayo, onion, pickle and lemon juice in a bowl. (Can be prepared the night before and refrigerated.)
Cut the crust of the bread. Gently flatten each slice with a rolling pin. (Don’t roll too hard or you may tear the bread.)
Spread a thin layer of the tuna mixture on the bread. Roll up. Spread a little butter or margarine on the seam to seal it.
Tuna Melt Muffins
Ingredients
1 can tuna, drained
2 tbsp. mayo
1 cup chopped pickles
1/4 cup medium cheese, grated
1 English muffin, split in half and toasted
Combine tuna, mayo, pickles and cheese. Spread on one side of a toasted English muffin and top with other side to make a sandwich. Let cool. Wrap up in plastic or seal in a container.
You can also make the tuna mixture the night before, cover and refrigerate until morning when you can assemble into a tuna melt muffin sandwich.
Tuna Sunflowers
Ingredients
1 can tuna, drained
1/2 cup shelled sunflower seeds
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 tsp. basil, dried
1/2 cup yogurt, plain
2 slices of whole grain bread
Combine tuna, sunflower seeds, onion, basil and yogurt. Cool mixture long enough for it to set (approx. 20 minutes).
Using a flower shaped cookie cutter, cut out a flower from each slice of bread. Spread the mixture on one half. Top with the second half.
If you have a small circular cookie cutter you may wish to cut out the middle of one slice so you can have an open middle and the sandwich when assembled looks like a sunflower.
Tuna Pasta Salad
Ingredients
2 eggs, hard cooked, chopped
1 cup broccoli florets, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
2 cups shelled pasta
1 can tuna, drained
1/2 cup red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup green onions
1/4 cup ranch dressing
Combine ingredients. Toss to coat. Pack in containers and refrigerate.
