Tuna with Arugula and Sunburst Squash

Well, I think that it is pretty apparent after making dinner last night that it's time to figure out how to use an actual grill because this little grill pan just isn't going to cut it anymore. Fortunately, dinner still turned out edible just not quite as good as I was going for.

I started out by covering the tuna steaks in a mixture of Trader Joe's Island Teriyaki Sauce and rice wine vinegar and set aside for about 20 minutes. While the tuna was marinating, I made a quick red wine vinaigrette and drizzle over top of some arugula. I also prepared the red pepper strips, watermelon balls, pluot slices and cherry tomatoes for the plate.

I heated a grill pan to medium high and cooked my tuna steaks for a few minutes on each side, however, because of the sticky/sugary nature of the marinade, this burnt to the pan and caused one side of my tuna to turn a bit, well, dark. So I immediately took the tuna out of the pan, calling it officially done at this point and set it aside to rest. 

After cleaning the pan, I returned it to the burner and lowered the heat to medium so that I could grill the sunburst squash on all sides, just until cooked through.

I also took the remaining sauce from the marinade and cooked it down slightly to brush on top of the finished tuna.

The finished product was not too bad, provided you covered the tuna in the sauce. I much preferred the simple arugula salad with red pepper and a light sprinkling of parmesan cheese on top.