By Crystal Hohenthaner
Journal staff

To a certain extent I have already admitted to our blog readers that I love sauces. But it is big confession time here: my sauce issues go far deeper than love. I wouldn’t exactly call it obsession, but the truth is I often eat food just for the sauce that is on it.

For example, I had sushi for the first time this week and even though all the rolls were rather silmilar I wanted the roll with the mango sauce on it. Honestly, I just wanted the mango sauce. And about hot fudge sundaes…really why bother with the ice cream? I have been known to eat the fudge sauce all by itself right out of the jar.

I like steak because of the Worchestershire sauce I slather it in. I like waffles (and sausage links) because they can hold so much strawberry syrup. I crave french-fries when I want ketchup. I only like salad because of the ranch dressing. And honestly, when chips and dip are around I basically use the chip as an edible spoon to deliver as much dip to my mouth as possible.

I found some recipes for dipping sauces that are meant to accompany chicken fingers this week. So, since I’m feelin’ saucy, I thought I’d share.

Chicken Fingers With Dipping Sauces
1 cup low-fat plain yogurt
1 pound chicken tenders, all visible fat discarded
Vegetable oil spray

Coating Mixture
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup dry bread crumbs
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon shredded or grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Honey Mustard Sauce
1/4 cup light sour cream
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey

Blackberry Dipping Sauce
1/4 cup all-fruit seedless blackberry spread
2 tablespoons fat-free or light mayonnaise
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Put yogurt in medium bowl. Add chicken, stirring to coat. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly spray baking sheet with vegetable oil spray. In another medium bowl, stir together coating mixture ingredients.

Dip one piece of chicken at a time in the coating mixture, turning gently to coat. Arrange chicken in a single layer on the baking sheet. Lightly spray chicken with vegetable oil spray.

Bake for 20 minutes, until chicken is no longer pink in the center and coating crisp.
Meanwhile, in small bowl, whisk together ingredients for desired sauce. Serve chicken with sauce on the side.

Much like other people who make a living behind a computer 8 hours a day I have a bit of a weight problem. I’m not obese, but – like many people in America – I need to lose about 20 pounds. And it would probably be best if I lost 30 – or 40.

Plus it’s diet season.

Okay, I want to lose weight – I do. But my sedentary lifestyle isn’t the only obstacle I have to overcome. First of all, I’m lazy. Not sit on the couch and fondle the remote lazy. (Well, I am that kind of lazy sometimes.) But I mean cooking lazy. I want stuff to be easy. I want it to be easy to prepare, easy to store and I want it to keep in the fridge for at least week.

Diet food is rarely easy. And if it is easy – like NutriSystem – it is freaking expensive! Which is a problem, because I’m also somewhat monetarily challenged. So I need food that is cheap. I can’t afford to buy expensive cuts of meat for all of my meals. Heck, I can’t even afford the good cold-cuts for my sandwiches.

In the rare occasions that I have found easy and inexpensive diet foods – like Weight Watchers frozen dinners – they tasted like cardboard. To be fair the Weight Watchers frozen dinner tasted like cardboard with pretty good marinara sauce on it; but cardboard nonetheless. So, to top it all off I have these pesky taste buds that desire elaborate heavy flavors that diet food rarely delivers.

I know my problem is that I want it all from diet food. I want it to be easy, cheap and tasty. Which is why I’m usually not on a diet. Heck, I can barely find non-diet food that is easy, cheap and tasty. (Think Ramen noodles – easy and cheap, but yeah not so tasty.)

Unfortunately – and I know it isn’t the best way to live – due to my fast paced and low budgeted lifestyle most of my food comes out of a can, a box or a jar. Let me tell you eating such food is an easy way to gain weight – not lose it.

In my search for the elusive ”easy, cheap and tasty” food I haven’t found much. But I have developed a killer tuna salad recipe. Now, I don’t know how many calories, or carbs, or grams of fat are in it – but tuna is one of those foods that is good for you. And most Americans don’t eat enough fish. So if you manage to eat a small amount of this tuna salad it is a truly satisfying, easy, cheap and tasty food that might qualify as diet food.

Crystal’s Tuna Salad
2 pouches/cans of tuna (even though I’m cheap I’m picky and I spring for the white albacore Bumblebee tuna)
2 tablespoons of yellow mustard
1/2 cup of Light Miracle Whip
1/4 cup pickle relish
1/4 cup dill pickle relish
1/4 cup yellow pepper rings (chopped)
1/4 cup roasted red peppers or pimentos (from a jar/chopped)

Make sure to drain all the yummy pickled stuff really well or the mixture will be a little runny. Don’t worry if it’s runny, it will still taste great. Then just throw it all in a big bowl and stir. That’s it.

 Depending on who you are you’ll probably want to add or subtract some items. This is just where I start personally. Sometimes I add in some chopped green onions too. But this tuna salad is nice and colorful with lots of flavor and it does keep in the fridge for almost a week.

This recipe makes a lot so it usually lasts me almost a week. Personally, I eat it on white bread, but I suppose you should eat it on lettuce or whole wheat bread if you’re serious about dieting.

Anyone else got a recipe that’s easy, cheap and tasty that could qualify as diet or health food?