Salmon with Bok Choy

I was tired and hungry, quickly verging on hangry.

Chopped up that bok choy, and tossed it in a hot pan of sesame oil.

P.S. does that count as a wok?

Then the salmon. I adore crispy salmon skin. drool
Crank up the heat on a pan with coconut oil. Put the salmon in skin side down. Crisp up that skin. Seriously. It’s delicious. Then I did the fancy thing where you spoon the hot oil over the top of the fish to cook it evenly and infuse it with flavor.

Oh yea…flavor. Here is the cast of characters thrown distributed between the veggie and fish.

Then I put it all on the plate and ate it while standing up in the kitchen

Advertisement

Winter Salads

Best way to deal with the boredom of winter? Eat giant salads and pretend it’s summer. Problem solved.

Snack Time

What snacks do you crave?

Spaghetti Night

Since I started cooking, I liked the process of making meat sauce; letting it simmer and meld together for a satisfying dinner. Lets upgrade that experience a little more.

Spaghetti squash is a great start. Pop that whole thing in the oven at about 350° for an hour. Some people cut it first, but its cuts like butter once its cooked so save yourself the effort. Once it’s done (you’ll be able to easily pierce it), carefully cut it in half length wise and let it cool before removing the seedy guts. Don’t remove too much, the rest is that spaghetti goodness.

Now for the sauce.

Drizzle oil in a pan, once it’s heated enough add smashed garlic and diced onion. Let that cook down a bit before adding the rest of the ingredients. This time I used a can of crushed tomatoes, chopped sun dried tomatoes, grated carrots, frozen peas, and some browned [happy] ground beef. [happy=antibiotic and hormone free, grass fed and finished]

Let that all cook together. Simmer it, covered, for as long as you can stand. I let it meld for about the length of a yoga video while my dog gave me dirty looks.

What do you put in your sauce?

Treat yourself

Sometimes this endless freezing cold, gray dreariness of winter makes me want to eat macaroni and cheese in sweatpants on the couch. All day. Every day.

But then you stop by Hannaford and see this

And then my inspiration explodes out of nowhere: rib-eye! Salad? Vegetables? Fancy dinner!
Everyone deserves a nice dinner to look forward to. It doesn’t need to be labor intensive, and it doesn’t matter if its just for you. You deserve it.

For the ribeye I massaged it with olive oil, pepper steak seasoning, and salt seriously, rub that in.

Then sear on each side in a very hot skillet, pop in a very hot oven and move onto the salad.

Arugula, red cabbage, red onion, tomatoes, lemon juice and a bit of dressing.
Chop that cabbage, it’s so pretty and holey moly is it crunchy and delicious.

Then store everything for lunch tomorrow in your Grandma Julia’s vintage Corningwear and glass.

Pull the steak from the oven and let it rest. It’s like massaging. It’s important and my years of impatience have been proved wrong; let meat rest.

Put it all on the plate, I topped my salad with a bit of this dressing:

And devour.

Mending Meatloaf

Today was a day of sickness and bitter cold. Since I’m at the man’s house I did the best I could (it’s hard cooking without my usual cast of pots, pans, and spices).

Meatloaf, zucchini, mashed potatoes. Warm, and comforting. And provided an excuse to have the oven and stove going.

Mini meatloaf for two, and yes I agree my onions weren’t diced fine enough.

Do you use a recipe for meatloaf or do you improvise and hope for the best like me?

Icy ingenuity

What do you do if you’re living alone, like to cook enough to feed an army, and trying to save money and time? You freeze things. A lot of things. Some things I like to portion out, but chicken broth is usually made gallons at a time and then frozen for the next snow day. How do you freeze that much and still have room in the freezer?

Here’s how:

Fill freezer safe ziplock bags, place those bags on a pan and pop the babies in your freezer. The pan that came with my toaster oven happens to be the exact dimensions of a gallon sized bag, FYI.

Once frozen remove from the pan and stack!

Beautiful

Here’s a teaser shot of my dinner:

Making gorgeous food that you actually look forward to makes healthy eating an adventure.