Hooray for a themed Works-For-Me-Wednesday! This weeks WFMW theme is recipes with five ingredients or less.

This may be cheating, as the potential ingredient list for this meal is virtually unlimited, but I’ll list the five ingredients I always use and then some of the options.

Tuna Salad For Grown-Ups

1 can tuna, drained (I love to use albacore!)
1 tbl reduced fat mayonnaise (or to taste)
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup finely chopped/shredded carrots
1/2 cup finely chopped pickles

Drain tuna and mix with mayonnaise. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Serve over salad greens, in a wrap, sandwich or pita pocket, or eat with a fork straight out of the bowl. Keeps well in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

I use these five ingredients every time I make this salad. Other tried and true options include sesame seeds, chopped celery, red onions or raisins. You can also substitute chicken for the tuna if you prefer. I’m always trying to think of new things to add, what would you put in this salad?

It’s quick, filling and makes a great lunch or light dinner on hot summer days. Enjoy!

Check out Rocks In My Dryer for more great Works For Me Wednesday ideas.

I’ve talked about cottage cheese before. I know some people love it and some people hate it. For me, in the morning, nothing works like cottage cheese.

The plan:

1/2 cup cottage cheese
2/3 cup smart bran cereal (insert your favorite really crunchy cereal here)
1 cup mixed berries

The results:

Happy tummy. Lots of energy. No mid-morning crash. One dish to clean.

I know next week is the official Five Ingredients or Less edition of WFMW, and I’ll come up with something for that too. This week? It’s just breakfast. And that works for me.

Check out more great Works For Me Wednesday tips at Rocks In My Dryer.

Works For Me Wednesday is hard without a topic!

This was the first week of our CSA, because nothing will get me to eat more vegetables like paying for them up front. The crazy weather is delaying some crops in our area by up to a month, so I wasn’t sure what we would find when we went to pick up our share.

This week it was greens, greens and more greens. Looking at this stash, I’m thinking cold chicken salad with a vinaigrette, apple-rhubarb applesauce, egg white scrambles or frittatas - oh yeah, this will work for me. I’m also going to look up some veggie smoothie recipes - who knows, maybe Andrew will eat them in milkshake form.

Since Andrew’s goal in life is to be a tractor driver, the CSA brings an added bonus of spending some time at the farm this summer. In July the kids get to work in their own garden plot and the siren song of you-pick berries and fresh herbs is calling my name.

Most CSA’s in our area are still accepting sign-ups for the summer share, you can find more information on your local CSA here and check out Rocks In My Dryer for more great Works For Me Wednesday tips.

Andrew hasn’t yet adopted the phrase “I’m bored”, although I’m sure it is coming. Instead of saying those dreaded words, he lets me know that he is out of ideas by attempting to maul me or demanding to help me do whatever I am doing.

These tactics annoy me, albeit to varying degrees.

I often find myself with an extra helper when I am working in the garden. Sometimes I love it, but sometimes there are tasks not well suited to three-year-old hands. That’s where the quarry comes in.

The quarry is the unfinished corner of our yard where we dump the things we have cleared out the finished sections. It has piles of dirt, part of a tree stump, various rocks and my compost bin. When I am working in the garden and Andrew wants to help, I set him up with an important job in the quarry. Moving rocks from one place to another, building a rock wall, pulling weeds, loading dirt in his trucks or turning the compost pile are all things that he can do with relatively little supervision and, since he’s in the quarry, it doesn’t matter what sort of mess he makes.

All of these big jobs seem important to him because they are things that he has seen us do in the yard. He doesn’t realize he is being excluded from the real work because, in his mind, he is doing real work. It’s fun to watch him bustle around and it usually buys me twenty minutes or so to finish my work.

As an added bonus, he’s exhausted after all that hard work in the quarry and usually ready for a bath and a nap when he’s done, and that works for me!

Check out more great Works For Me Wednesday tips each week at Rocks In My Dryer.