Yummy Tuna Patties

This is a recipe I originally posted in my fitness blog several months ago, but since not many people have access to it, I thought I'd republish it here! As some of you may know, I've been on a real health kick of late. I've lost about 50 lb in about a year and a half (most of which I had gained during grad school), I've started running long distances (I'm doing a 10k race this Sunday!), and in general I've been trying to improve my diet. Part of this has been to drastically increase the amount of protein I've been eating since I'm a real carb addict.

I find that the easiest way to get enough protein in my diet (not that I really get enough protein) is to have a can of tuna once in a while. I have been known to eat it straight out of the can when I'm feeling particularly lazy, but let's face it: tuna on its own is pretty damn boring. For a while I was mixing it with low fat greek yogurt (instead of mayonnaise), a few nuts, maybe some herbs or cut up veggies. I haven't bought greek yogurt in a while, however, so today I decided to mix it up with some stuff I had lying around the kitchen. Thus were born these super tasty tuna patties.

Ingredients

• 1 can tuna (I used Gold Seal Chunk Light Tuna in broth)
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp instant oats
• 2 tbsp whole spelt flour
• 1 tsp whole grain mustard
• 2 tbsp fresh cilantro
• small amount of fat for frying pan (I used a bit of non-stick cooking spray)

Mix everything in a bowl with a fork until it's well-blended. Heat up a frying pan to medium heat and add a small amount of fat for cooking (a couple of sprays of non-stick cooking spray in my case). Form the tuna mixture into patties with your hands and gently place them in the frying pan. I was able to make three approximately 3-inch patties. Cook for 5 minutes on each side. Serve immediately.

I've been told they keep, though I can't attest to that because I just wolf mine down right away. I topped them with a few tablespoons of cottage cheese, but low fat greek yogurt is also nice as would be a multitude of other toppings, I'm sure. Here's the nutritional breakdown for all three patties:

Calories: 277kcal
Carbs: 15g
Fat: 9g
Protein: 36g

Enjoy!

Catching up on 8 months worth of knitting projects: Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of this catching-up-on-my-knitting instalment! We begin with some projects I knit purely for myself, 'cause really, I'm the one who appreciates my knitted gifts the most. As before, I'm linking to my Ravelry project page for each project in case you want more details.



Clockwise from the top left, we have some stripy legwarmers knit in Knitpicks Chroma, a super-soft Koolhaas knit in Berroco Flicker, some fingerless mitts knit from various leftovers, my Morning Dew sweater knit in Lanificio di Milano Mohacril (vintage), a super-awesome dice bag in Cascade Heritage (because I'm really cool now and play Dungeons & Dragons), and a wonderfully soft and warm hooded scarf knit in Diamond Luxury Collection Baby Alpaca Glimmer.

The yarns for most of these projects were wonderfully luxurious to work with. The Berroco Flicker, for example, I was at first attracted to because of the shininess, but then when I touched it, it was so soft that I couldn't put it down and it just had to come home with me. I think a similar situation happened with the Diamond Luxury Collection Baby Alpaca Glimmer (now that's a mouthful). The Knitpicks Chroma isn't quite as soft as baby alpaca, but it was still lovely to work with and the resulting legwarmers are super soft and warm. Boy are we lucky to live at a time when so many awesome yarns are available!

And now, some baby things!



Starting in the left corner and going clockwise, we have some baby socks in Patons Kroy 3-ply (discontinued), a cute baby cardigan in various scrap sock yarns, and a baby surprise jacket, swirly hat, and baby socks in what I think is Punta Merisock Hand Paint (it was a gift yarn, so I can't be sure). The three items knit in the Merisock went to my friend Ellie, who's due to have a baby any second now, the multi-coloured cardigan went to my friends Shanna & Gordon and their lovely little girl Beatrice, and the pale blue socks will likely go to my sister-in-law's baby. I love knitting baby things! They're so cute!

Now, I did say last time that I would also talk about wedding knitting, but perhaps I'll save that for a future post because there's still one more wedding to go to this season and I have plans to knit something up for that too.

Catching up on 8 months worth of knitting projects: Part 1

I know that one post won't properly sum up all the knitting I've done since Christmas time, but I'll attempt at least to give you a rough overview in this two-part blog post. Using my rudimentary photoshop skills, I'll try to sort of group projects into themes. I've included links to my Ravelry projects pages for each of these in case you want more information.

The first theme is socks! I love knitting socks, and I love wearing hand-knit socks. They're great portable travel projects and can be as complicated or as simple as you like. And nothing is as warm and squishy as a hand-knit sock hugging your toes.



Clockwise from the top left, we have my Twisted Mockery socks knit in a mystery gifted yarn, my Nutkins knit in Austermann Step, my Johanna socks knit in Jojoland Melody Superwash, my Turtle Toes socks knit in Turtlepurl Yarns Striped Turtle Toes, and my Double Helix socks knit in Cascade Heritage and Fiber Charmer Chris Sock.

I'm always a fan of interesting heel construction, and with the Double Helix pattern, I was able to try an innovative spiral heel which turned out beautifully. On top of that, the Twisted Mockery socks provided me with the opportunity to knit my first heel flap! Can you believe I'd never knit one before? I can't say it's my favourite, but at least I've expanded my horizons. I'm always in the market for cool new sock yarns too, and the Turtle Toes socks are knit with my favourite sock yarn concept to date. You might have noticed that the stripes on the socks match up perfectly, and that wasn't an accident. The yarn came in two skeins that were dyed together so that the colours would show up at exactly the same place! What they can do with science these days, let me tell you...

The next theme is stuff I've been knitting for others!



Again clockwise from the top left, we have Evenstar gloves I knit for Ellie in madelinetosh dk, Evenstar gloves I knit for Daphne in Araucania Nature Wool left over from my Luxe Cable sweater, a toque I knit for Yeddi in various leftover yarns, a super cool dice bag I knit for Miranda in a mystery leftover sock yarn, and a catnip-filled hamburger I crocheted for Nick's kitty out of random scraps.

You probably noticed that I've knit the Evenstar pattern twice in the above picture, and let me tell you, I'd gladly knit it up again! The cables are just so addictive in that pattern, and the result is just stunning. The first pair I knit in the madelinetosh was so amazing (that yarn is worth every penny) I was immediately hooked. This was actually the third time I'd knit that toque pattern as well, and I had knit a dice bag for myself before I knit this one for Miranda. I used to hate knitting the same pattern twice, but I guess I've now found a collection of patterns that I can fall back on when I want to knit a certain type of gift.

And next up we have patterns I've test-knit for the Happy Seamstress. Joanna has been very prolific over the last few months, and I've been lucky enough to get first dibs at knitting them up!



Clockwise from top left, we have sushi I knit from a kit Joanna had given me, the Cafe Tank which I knit from Knitpicks Galileo, and my bright pink Bat Hat which I knit from Bernat Roving. The latter was part of my Halloween costume. I was a pink cat woman type thing.

By the way, Joanna is having her patterns featured as part of the Independent Designer Program on Knitpicks, so you should definitely check that out!

There's more, of course... Next time I'll talk about baby gifts, stuff I've knit for myself, and wedding presents. Hopefully that will cover almost everything!