More Veggies

In my quest to eat more veggies and less meat, I made myself the most gorgeous and delicious Greek Tuna Salad the other day. No, I'm not becoming a vegetarian. I'm trying to simply cut the meat portion size down and incorporate fresh veggies with every meal. My love affair with bacon or anything pork and a good, crispy pan-fried diner-style burger will forever prevent me from vegetarianism, and I'm okay with that. More than okay with that. Everyone can thank Mark Bittman's new cookbook, The Food Matters Cookbook, for this vegetable increase.

I think I love this cookbook because Mr. Bittman likes beans and I love beans. There are some really great recipes for cooking with beans of all sorts. This really has nothing to do with the Greek Tuna Salad, except that it does have garbanzo beans in it. I'm just really enjoying his new cookbook.

Greek Tuna Salad

Yield: 2 servings

1 can olive oil packed tuna, drained

1/2 cucumber peeled, seeded, and diced

1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and diced

1 green onion, chopped

1/4 cup sliced kalamata olives

1/2 cup drained garbanzo beans/chick peas

2 Tbsp. feta cheese, crumbled

2-4 handfuls chopped romaine lettuce

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 lemon, juiced

Salt and pepper, to taste

Garlic Croutons, optional

Toss all the ingredients together except for the tuna. Season with salt and pepper and add the croutons, if using, and toss again. Portion the salad onto 2 plates and top each salad with equal amounts of the tuna.