Have you ever looked at something that you have seen a thousand times, and all of a sudden you see all of the untapped potential you have been missing from the beginning? It is almost like this ugly thing that you take for granted is suddenly filled with simple beauty. It was a warm July day in 2020 when I had this experience with none other than…. A tuna sandwich.
All my life, a tuna sandwich had three ingredients: White Bread, Tuna, Mayonnaise. Maybe some lettuce added so your mom felt like she was helping you get your veggies in... all wrapped up in plastic wrap and shoved in your lunch bag to take to school. There has always been something delicious about this simple sandwich but let’s be honest, it was nobody’s favourite meal.
On this day, it was hot, and I had been working in my garden all morning. When lunch time rolled around, I was starved and ready for a quick meal that would fill me up for the rest of my day working outside. I opened the cupboards and the can of tuna caught my eye. Perfect! This would be a 2-minute prep that would let me get back to my garden!
As I started gathering my few supplies needed for my tuna sandwich, something made me stop and look at this task in a different way. I asked myself, how could I make this better? Ideas started swirling into my head until this was far from a three-ingredient simple meal that would take 2 minutes to make. Leave it to me to complicate a tuna sandwich!
I looked around my kitchen for inspiration and was drawn to the homemade Italian style bread from the night before and it hit me! Get your butt back out to that garden and harvest some of those veggies you have been working so hard on!
Once I got out to the garden, this project really got out of hand! I came back with a basket full of ingredients that I had grown myself. And so my beautiful tuna creation was born!
The ingredients for my new tuna sandwich were:
- Fresh Home-Made Bread
- Canned Tuna
- Mayonnaise
- Fresh Dill
- Green Onion
- 1 Stalk Of Celery
- Sliced Tomato
- Sliced Cucumber
- 1 Lettuce Leaf
- 1 Kale Leaf
On that day I left my kitchen feeling a sense of empowerment when it came to my food. Not only did I turn something plain into something beautiful, but I was able to take something that offered minimal nutritional value, and pack it absolutely full of delicious nutrients! This Tuna Sandwich was the start of my obsession with sharing this message. This lunch told a story of exploring new things and learning to grow my own food. It represents the start of something amazing.
The moral of this story, and of Healthy Hicks as a whole is simple: Every meal you make tells a part of your story. You are in control of what that story is and you have the ability to make each and every piece of that story beautiful in its own way. Even if that part of the story is a tuna sandwich.
Take a look at my tuna sandwich recipe below:
I absolutely love this post! I don't like tuna sandwiches but I have often found myself doing this with my pasta sauce. To the poi t where I'm standing with the fridge door open for far too long trying to figure out what I can add or use up.
Awesome post!