I’ve been cooking a lot lately

I’m a little behind on my recipe posts, but the days and nights have been busy, and filled with laughter and happiness, so I really cannot complain. Saturday John and Tonya came over so that us gals could craft and that evening we went to O’Charleys for dinner. I tried the cedar-planked salmon, and oh. my. God. It was delicious.

As luck would have it, the very next day at Ingles, Alex and I spotted a 1/2lb salmon filet on sale for only $2.50. Nothing wrong with it, straight from the fish counter, fresh not frozen, just marked down for quick sale. I knew I’d either have to freeze it, or cook it that night, so I decided to try my luck on a salmon recipe.

For my first time cooking fish at home that is not processed, preserved or frozen, I was more than a little intimidated. I let Alex cook his new recipe first (cast-iron skillet pizza) while I poured over 800 how-to websites and obsessed over what to do with the skin-side. When all was said and done I settled on broiling as my cooking method, and a simple marinade of garlic and lemon infused olive oil. I coupled it with fresh steamed broccoli with a little lemon, salt and pepper, and a risotto-inspired portabello quinoa.

Broiled salmon, mushroom quinoa risotto, and steamed broccoli:

1 large (1/2lb) salmon filet
2 tbsp olive oil
5 cloves fresh garlic
salt
pepper
1 cup broccoli florets
1/4 cup quinoa
1 cup portabello mushrooms

Bring 1/2 low-sodium chicken stock, 1/2 cup water and 1/4 cup quinoa to a boil. While the water is coming to a boil, saute one cup mushrooms in a separate pan. Pour mushrooms and drippings into after it finishes boiling, cover, and set aside.

Cook broccoli however you prefer. I cheat and cook in the microwave in a bowl with about 1/4 cup of water and a loose cover.

Turn oven on to broil. Prepare a pan lined with foil, and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Place salmon on the pan (skin side down!) and rub the flesh lightly with butter. Saute garlic cloves in 2 tbsp olive oil until garlic is golden brown. Be careful not to burn the garlic, it gets a bitter taste. Press down on garlic cloves and remove them. Add lemon juice to oil to taste, and baste over butter layer on fish. Place in oven and broil, uninterrupted for 10 minutes, or approximately 5 minutes per 1/2 inch of thickness. I wanted mine a little bit more done, and turn the oven off but left the fish inside for an additional 5-7 minutes.

Plate up and enjoy a fest of garlic-lemon broiled salmon, mock-mushroom risotto and fresh citrus broccoli.

The whole meal was approximately 605 calories, including: 39g carbs, 28g fat, 52g protein, 519mg sodium and 6g fiber!

Quinoa stir fry with chicken and vegetables

Let me begin by saying I am disgusted with most of the major chicken companies. Primarily, Tyson. I know, I know, I just need to buy organic. Unfortunately, our roommate just moved out and it’s all I can scrape to buy my spinach organic. But Tyson is just ridiculous. The quality is horrendous, and they are grossly overpriced unless you can catch it when the family packs are on sale for $1.98/lb. So this week, nearly out of chicken, I opted for the Ingles meat counter’s stir fry chicken packet. They’re pre cleaned, pre sliced for stir fry, and looked better overall than most all of the Tyson at the store.

I’ve been craving Chinese food really badly for a week or so now, and it was brought to a whole new level on Friday night because my family ordered take out and it smelled delicious. Tonight I threw together a healthy take on stir fry with Quinoa, the prepared chicken, tons of delicious veggies, and a little Asian flavor.

I ate my fill, mom loved it, and dad had seconds. And maybe thirds. It was definitely delicious. Alex had some of the same chicken chopped smaller and made into quesadillas, and he thoroughly enjoyed those, too.

Quinoa stir fry with chicken and vegetables:

1/2 cup quinoa
1/2 medium zucchini squash
1 medium yellow squash
2 medium carrots
1 cup portabello mushrooms
1/2 medium yellow bell pepper
1 medium stalk of broccoli
1 package stir fry chicken, about 1/2 lb
Soy sauce/duck sauce to taste (we didn’t have bottles on hand so it was equivalent to 7 packets of Kari-Out soy sauce, and 4 packets of Kari-Out duck sauce.

Bring 1/2 cup quinoa and 1 cup chicken broth to a rapid boil. Boil for 10 minutes, adding about 3/4 a cup of water halfway through. When most liquid has been absorbed, remove from heat and cover. Leave aside until everything else is ready to serve.

I began by prepping all of my veggies. I simply sliced the zucchini and squash into medallions, and then halved or quartered them depending on the medallion size. I cut florets off the top of the broccoli, and set the stalk aside. Mushrooms got a rough chop, keeping them fairly large since they cook down quite a bit. The carrots were thinly sliced lengthwise and the bell pepper was chopped into bite sized pieces. I trimmed the outer skin off the broccoli stalk, and julienned it so that it mimicked the bamboo shoots I love so much in restaurant Chinese food.

In a large skillet or wok, heat about 2 tbsp of olive oil and 1 tbsp butter. Add all veggies, kickin’ chickn’ seasoning to taste, and saute until all veggies are soft but still a little crisp. When veggies are cooked, add soy sauce, duck sauce, and ground ginger to taste, and reduce heat to low allowing vegetables to simmer while you cook the chicken.

Add 2 tbsp olive oil to another saute pan, add chicken, kickin’ chickn seasoning and saute until chicken is golden-brown and cooked through. Add chicken to vegetables, and serve on top of quinoa.

This makes about 6 healthy servings, and contains: 197 calories, 19g of carbs, 5g of fat, 22g of protein, 248mg sodium, and 3g of fiber.