Here’s the scene: Your New Year’s resolution was to bulk up, beef up your arms and chest, and get a prized six-pack tummy by summer. You have been going to the gym but don’t seem to be getting any bigger in the arms – just in the middle. A lot of times your trainer will tell you the increasing waist size is due to the fact you are eating too many bad fats and not enough lean protein. Standard tuna salad has lots of good protein but lean it is not – not with all that yummy mayo. This Food Network Italian Tuna Salad is a body builder’s dream – all the protein and no bad fats. My partner Dan will take a container of it to work and snack on it throughout the day with Triscuits or lettuce cups.

Tuna fish are a nutrient-dense source of food. An excellent source of high quality protein for building muscle, tuna are rich in a variety of important nutrients including the minerals selenium, magnesium, and potassium; the B vitamins, niacin, B1 and B6; and perhaps most important, the beneficial omega-3 essential fatty acids. Essential fatty acids cannot be made by the body and must be found in foods. Cold-water fish such as tuna are a rich source of the omega-3 essential fats, a form of essential fatty acids in which the standard American diet is sorely deficient. (The other form of essential fatty acids, the omega-6s, are plentiful in a variety of commonly consumed oils such as corn and safflower oil. In fact, the omega-6s are so plentiful in the typical American diet that too much omega-6 is consumed in proportion to omega-3s – an imbalance that promotes inflammation, thus contributing to virtually every chronic disease in which inflammation is a key component.)

(courtesy of Food Network Kitchens)

4 sun-dried tomatoes

1/4 red onion, minced

1 (12-ounce) can solid white albacore tuna in water, drained

1 rib celery, chopped

1/4 cup pitted nicoise olives

1 tablespoon capers, rinsed

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Suggested serving: whole grain breads or bountiful greens

Cover the sun-dried tomatoes with hot water in a bowl. Set aside until soft, about 20 minutes, then drain, chop, and put in a medium bowl. To mellow the minced onion, soak it in cold water for 10 minutes, then drain it well, pat dry and add to the tomatoes. Add the tuna, breaking it into large chunks, along with the celery, olives, and capers, and toss to combine. Add the olive oil, lemon zest and juice, and basil and toss again. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Serve cold, with bread or greens, if desired.