30 Rachael Ray Recipes in 30 days: Avocado Tuna Bacon Salad

To celebrate the start of fall this year and to create a new challenge I am going to cook & blog 30 new (to me) Rachael Ray recipes over the next 30 days. I have been a long time fan of Rachael Ray's recipes so I am only going to focus on things I haven't made, fit the lovely fall season, and is football worthy food Trust me when I say I have stacks of her magazines and printed recipes from many different shows that are years old. I promise to find the good ones to share with you. Cooking magazine stacks....... does anyone else know what I am talking about here? 

I picked Racheal Ray, despite many of the good celebrity chefs, because I love her creativity. She does focus a little on meatless meals, cooking with veggies, and makes family friendly stuff. Making family friendly, family approachable meals is so important to me because I am not one of those parents that cooks up frozen kid meals while I make something else for myself. While, I let my hubby and son get away with a few things like commercialized cereal at breakfast, or an occasional handful of sugar covered/yogurt covered pretzels at lunch, in our house, at dinner everyone eats the same thing. Some things are harder than others because of my son's small hands... like a huge open faced sandwich is a difficult maneuver. But its been that way since we adopted our little guy and it works. If you don't cook for your whole family at dinner time, it might be worth considering that this could be a fun new experience for you. Not because it would save you time and money by not having to cook two separate meals, but to create new family experiences together. 

Please come on this fun trip over the next 30 days. Check back everyday and see if you might find something good to eat too. 

Anyways... to start off this fun challenge and if you need another reason to cook bacon here is my version of an avocado tuna bacon salad with homemade bacon mayo. The mayo, which has been adapted to fit into this beautiful tuna salad, originally was a make ahead meal for buttermilk fried chicken coleslaw sandwiches. The sandwich was good. I would probably make it again, but the clear winner of that dinner was this mayo. It was unforgettable!! Please click on the title above to see the original recipe.

Note: anything with bacon should have an explanation point

my salad... forgot to put the bacon before the picture... got distracted by the avocado... ooops! 

When you add this little condiment to your tuna, you are able to create a tuna salad that is so elevated, it lands in another stratosphere. Additionally you can use this condiment on sandwiches with the same results. No more boring tuna and no more boring lunch time sandwiches. 

Ingredients for one salad 
(double as needed): 

2 cups of romaine lettuce, cleaned and chopped
1 roma tomato, sliced
1/2 sliced avocado
1/2- 1 full cucumber chopped (depending how much you like cucumber) 
1 green onion, sliced green & white parts
1 can of tuna, drained
1/4-1/2 cup of mayo
2 Tbs of secret sauce (recipe below)
2 pieces of bacon, pan fried to a crisp and chopped into pieces

Directions for salad:

1. Cut up all washed veggies into a bowl or plate.

2. Combine the tuna, mayo and secret sauce in a small bowl.

3. Taste the tuna and add salt and pepper if needed. 

4. Top the fresh veggies with the tuna for a large adult salad

5. Garnish the salad with the silky buttery avocado and crunchy salty bacon chunks

Ingredients for secret sauce  

(makes approx 1- 1& 1/2 cups)
The sauce is good for 1 week covered and kept cold. 

2 slices of bacon, pan fried in 1 tsp olive oil, drippings kept

1 tsp grainy country dijon mustard

1 Tbs lemon juice

2 egg yolks 

2 tsp rice wine vinegar

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp taco seasoning store bought or click here for a recipe

Directions for sauce: 

1. Separate your eggs yolks.

2. Fry up your bacon. Keep the drippings. 

3. Cut the bacon into small pieces after cooled on a paper towel. 

4. Whisk everything together except the oil, bacon, and drippings. 

5. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil while still whisking. Add in the bacon drippings and the bacon chunks. 

6. Set aside covered. It will thicken up within 5-10 minutes. It will be a thick spreadable mayo like sauce after cooling in the fridge.

There it is. Most incredible tuna salad ever! 

Many more recipes to come all inspired by Rachael Ray. 

from my kitchen to yours