Not Tuna in a Can

First, today is my Oma's birthday! I wanted to give her a shout out. I know you are working but I hope you have a great day anyway!

I also need to give an early shout out to Lisa, my brother's girlfriend! Her birthday is Sunday and even though she's a hardworking nurse now, we will still find time to celebrate.

Ok, so my final shout out is a Roll Tide! Alabama broke their small curse with Ole Miss by winning Saturday but not before making me sick with nerves. It was a long and crazy game. Hopefully, since Bama plays Kent State Saturday they will get a bit of rest.

After my Denver trip last week, I was a bit scared to get on the scale but it turned out that I only gained about a pound. I found this to be motivating. My body did me a favor so I've done it a favor and eaten the way I'm supposed to (with the exception of two allotted cheat meals). I am going to a concert tomorrow night in Birmingham which will be a challenge BUT I have to be up on Wednesday morning at 6AM so I'm hoping that will deter me from partying too hard. Essentially, what I'm saying is, I weigh on Wednesday so I am in the home stretch of a potential weight loss and I'm not going to screw it up now.

I'm not sure how long ago it was but at least 10 years ago, I branched out at a restaurant in Chattanooga, Tennessee and tried something I had never tried before: Tuna Steak. I figured everyone was always saying how healthy fish was and I liked canned tuna so I ordered it. I'm so glad I did. It was perfectly cooked and delicious. Over the years, if I see tuna steak at a trustworthy place, I will order it. Well, a couple weeks ago, Fresh Market had 7oz tuna steaks for a ridiculously good price so I got a couple to make at home, which I'd never done before. First, I skip oil in a lot of my cooking just to save calories. I add fat and flavor in other ways. With fish, it's so lean so you need a little oil. I used my toasted sesame oil along with soy sauce and garlic to marinate the fish and then I simply seared in a hot pan for a few minutes on each side. If tuna steak is overcooked, it quickly becomes canned tuna. I like my tuna steak rare but it hops over the line between rare and too done in a hot second so if I could turn back time, I would take off about 10 seconds on each side for both of my tuna dishes. It was still delicious, though. I made a salad with the first tuna inspired by a DELICIOUS tuna steak salad I had at Cosmo's at the beach last year (pictured first). I added feta, green onion, balsamic vinaigrette and sesame seeds. It was pretty and tasty and I loved it.

The second dish I made was pretty much the exact same except instead of a salad with feta, I served the tuna over a bed of rice. Carbs make everything better so I really enjoyed it this way too.

As I said, I'm going to a concert tomorrow night. I get to see Heart which is basically a life long dream of mine because my 7 year old self could be heard belting out, "All I Wanna Do is Make Love to You," and my mom would be like, "Um, let's not sing that in public." I also get to go to my first home game of the season this weekend. I wanted to give my parents a shout out too because out of nowhere, I now have a really nice, new TV for my living room!!! It was a total surprise. Ian is happy because he had fun setting it up and my Dad is happy so if he comes over to the house, he can actually see the TV. I did nothing to deserve a TV really but I'm certainly glad my parents decided to go to Best Buy yesterday.

I hope y'all have an awesome week!