Fast Salmon and Pasta

What happens when you have too much to do in a given day, but want to make something fresh, fast and easy for your family for dinner?  How about incorporating a little Omega-3 action into your diet with a serving of wild-caught Atlantic salmon?  Add some pasta and some veggies and this is almost a one pot meal!  This is one of my very favorite recipes because it has very few ingredients, can be thrown together in minutes and, now that my son can eat fish, is one of the only salmon recipes that everyone in the family will eat. 

For our family, I take about a pound of salmon with the pin bones removed (in our case it is wild-caught Atlantic salmon that I froze when I brought it home from the grocery store and is currently defrosting in the fridge; not ideal to freeze it, but what are you going to do?) and poach it in a skillet.  (Place the salmon, skin side down, in the skillet and add enough water to come about 1/2 way up the side of the fish.  Season with salt and pepper to taste and turn the heat on to medium or medium high.  Once bubbles start forming along the edges, turn the heat down so it stays at a very light simmer, cover and let the salmon cook until it is mostly opaque and flakes easily.)  While the salmon is cooking, bring a pot of  salted water to a full boil and cook a pound of farfalle (bow-tie) pasta.  (I am using a whole wheat pasta this evening.)  When the pasta just reaches al dente status, toss in a bag of frozen peas and let them come up to temp (you will know they are done when they turn a bright green and start floating to the top of the water).  Drain the pasta and peas, returning them to the same pot (only if you dislike washing extra dishes like me; if you like to scrub things in the sink, then by all means, put the pasta and peas into another serving dish).  Add about a tablespoon of olive oil, a teaspoon of grated lemon zest (you could add the juice of the lemon as well if you would like), and season with freshly ground black pepper.  Once the salmon is done, flake it into large chunks (leave the skin behind) and toss into the pasta and pea mixture, stirring carefully to combine (but not break the salmon up too much).  Finally, add the herb of your choice, thinly sliced into a chiffonade (fancy, Frenchy term for "ribbons").  I usually use mint because it complements the peas and the fish and provides a really bright counterpoint for the sour citrus of the lemon. 

The great thing about this recipe is that you can add anything you like to it.  Prefer asparagus to peas?  No problem - add it instead!  Don't like mint?  Add some basil or parsley!  You'd like some spice with your fish?  Well, slice up a jalepeno or toss in some crushed red pepper!  Maybe you like extra protein with an Asian flair?  Heck, add some shelled edamame and season with soy, teriyaki or hoisin sauce!  Don't like salmon?  Oh.   Hmmmm....well, that's just your loss, friend, but add another kind of fish instead - tilapia and trout are actually great alternatives. 

I love these kind of recipes: easy and easy to make your own.  That is what I love about cooking - getting to make your food suit your tastes.  Make it fun, people!  Cook something awesome tonight!

Poor Lady's Pho

I have recently become a member of a fabulous bulk retailer (who shall remain nameless) and took all three of my kids shopping there a couple of weeks ago.  We actually had a pretty good time, tooling around the store, trying samples and finding all of those "extras" that weren't on my original list.  One of the samples we stopped for was pre-made, frozen meatballs which were sold in either Pineapple-Teriyaki or Mango-Jalapeno flavor.  We opted for the pineapple version, since my kids aren't that big on spice, and stuck them in the freezer when we got home.  I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with them until inspiration (in the form of cleaning out the fridge) struck. 

I had about 3/4 of a box of chicken stock in the fridge, along with a bunch of cilantro, a jalapeno and a few onions (from our garden!) that needed to be used up.  I asked my husband to grab a box of Thai rice noodles (wide, flat noodles, not unlike linguine) from the store and, when he got home, I set the frozen meatballs to simmer in the chicken stock (plus a cup or two of water).  After they came up to temp, I added soy sauce, hoisin sauce and the remnants of a bottle of vegan Worcestershire sauce to the stock, stirred it around and let it continue to bubble away.  I boiled the noodles as per the package directions and, when they were tender, I rinsed them in cold water and drained them thoroughly.  I washed the cilantro, sliced the jalapeno and onion and grabbed some Thai basil from our garden.  I added a couple of wedges of lemon (I didn't have any limes) and we were good to go.  Everyone got a serving of noodles and meatballs (some with more broth than others) and could top it as they saw fit.  The kids mostly went plain Jane (one of them adding a teeny squeeze of lemon), but my husband and I loaded up on herbs, peppers and onions.  It was super tasty and everyone ate (almost) all of their dinner.....but.  But, the next day, both my husband and I were feeling distinctly queasy.  Could it have been the meatballs?  Possibly.  The kids felt fine and, in fact, finished off the meatballs the next day for lunch.  As for me, I love any and all kinds of pho (even my fake, multi-ethnic version), but I could not stomach the thought of eating any more of that meal.  I don't think I will be buying those meatballs again.....

Chinese Chicken Salad

Man, I seem to be doing a lot of blogging on the fly these days.  I should probably figure out a better way to do my mobile blogging than by typing my post into an email and then copy/pasting it on to the web.  Ah, well...today, I'm typing my email post while hanging in my son's speech therapist's office.  Loads of fun things going on for us today and this is just the beginning.  Yay?

Last night we had one of my favorite summertime meals - Chinese Chicken Salad with Chow Mien Noodles.  It starts with a head of Napa cabbage, shredded, plus matchstick cut carrots and red bell pepper, sliced green onions and minced cilantro.  Add shredded, poached chicken breast and a delicious dressing, made of oil, rice wine vinegar, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, and grated fresh ginger.  Toss all of that good stuff together and serve, topped with crunchy, canned (I know - it sounds weird, but look for them in your grocery store's Asian food section) Chow Mien noodles.  It is tasty, fresh, and super healthy.  It also makes a ton, so we always have leftovers (great for lunch the next day...or two) even with feeding all five of us.  You can change the recipe up to suit your own tastes - make the dressing spicier, sweeter, add different veggies...endless possibilities.  Of course, we have so many freaking doctors appointments (the last one being across town at 4 pm....HELLO, traffic!), I will probably completely cancel out the health aspects of last night's meal with the craptastic-ness of whatever I can find for us on the way home late this afternoon.  Good times!  Oh, well...lunch is gonna be ggggoooooodddd!

Goodbye, Winter Garden! You Were Delicious!

Yesterday, my husband and our daughters ripped out the winter garden that we had at our community garden plot.  The community garden happens to be at my local YMCA, so, while they did that, I was inside, having a nice little workout, which has left me very sore this morning.  Thank you, Body Pump!  It was funny because, as I was working my tail off (literally), I could see the three of them, out the window, working their tails off gardening.  After my class was finished and I had reclaimed my toddler from the nursery, we all went out to see the results of all of their hard work.  They had an enormous pile of onions of all shapes, sizes and varieties, as well as a couple dozen good sized carrots.  Sadly, most of our other plants either succumbed to the Texas heat (starting to become of the "hotter than hell" variety) or the bane of my gardening existence: bugs that I call "squash bores".  (I call them that because....that....is their name.)  Anyway, my once gorgeous artichoke plant was the latest, and perhaps most tragic, victim and had to be cut back to a mere shadow of its former self.  I hope that it will survive, but we shall have to see.  In any case, they planted some new munchables for the bugs - melons and cucumbers, specifically.  We loaded up the onions and carrots, took them home to clean and.....

A freaking hour later, I was finally finished cleaning the dirt off of all of my lovely veggies.  I really didn't know what I wanted to do with them (and the five new potatoes that they also dug up), so I made sure they weren't going to make a mess in my fridge or take up too much room and I let our dinner menu percolate in my head for a bit.  What I eventually came up with was this: a caramelized onion and new potato tart with white cheddar cheese, served with honey glazed carrots.  I sliced all of the onions into 1/8 inch slices and cooked them for about 20 minutes in olive oil on medium to medium high heat until they were completely soft and a lovely browned color.  I set them aside to cool, while I cooked the carrots, also sliced into 1/8 inch pieces.  I added them, another tablespoon of olive oil, salt, pepper and about 2 teaspoons of honey to a skillet with about 1/2 a cup of water.  I let them simmer, covered, in the water mixture until they were soft, then uncovered the pan and let the honey and oil caramelize and glaze the carrots. 

I found another yeast-less pizza crust recipe (2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon of salt, 2/3 cup water and 1/4 cup olive oil), so I whipped that out, pressed it into a rectangular shape, topped it with paper thin slices of potato (salted and peppered those), the caramelized onions and finished it off with about four ounces of shredded white cheddar cheese.  I baked the tart in a 425 degree oven for about 20 minutes, until the cheese was melted and lightly browned in spots, and the potatoes were cooked through.

I wasn't expecting a thoroughly warm reception from the kids for this dinner (mainly because of the preponderance of onions, caramelized and hidden by cheese or no), but the girls ate it up!  They even came back for seconds!  Our son, on the other hand, usually a vegetarian by nature, refused to eat a single bite of the tart.  He ate a couple of carrots and steadfastly refused to eat anything else.  (This could have had more to do with the fact that, because dinner was running really late, we gave him his full cup of milk as an amuse bouche.)

Based on my general success, I left the dinner table last night feeling like a bit of a culinary bad-ass.  I mean, I literally took a pile of root vegetables that were dug up (from the ground!) in the morning and turned them into a tasty, satisfying vegetarian meal to feed our family of five for dinner that night.  I used ingredients that were in my pantry and fridge to round out the meal and (almost) everyone ate it!  See?  Culinary bad-ass. 

TGIF. For Reals.

So, this week has just gone to shit - personally and food-wise.  Everyone is ok and we have all been fed all week long, but SO so many things happened this week that I am just totally off my cooking game.  Thankfully, I had some of my mother's magical chicken spaghetti in the freezer, so I just dumped the whole cylinder-shaped block of sauce into my pan to defrost.  Soon, my kitchen will be filled with the gorgeous aroma of my mother 's home cooking, my fridge will be stocked with booze (cause, damn.  I need a freaking drink.  Don't judge - I bloody earned it.), and this week will be in my rear view.  Thank God it is Friday hasn't sounded so true in a very long time.

Fun with Hospital Eating

This one is going to be super, extra fast because I am typing this on my phone from a "couch/bed" in my daughter's hospital room.  Food-wise, I've been scrounging it for the past two days.  Yesterday, after our very first ER visit (what a milestone, right?), I realized I had not eaten in over 8 hours.  That's A LOT for me. (I work out a lot, so I usually end up eating every 3 to 4 hours).  I was literally about to fall over from a super fun combination of hypoglycemia and stress, when my sister presented me with the Best Sandwich Ever.  EVER.  It was so good - turkey and mustard with all the fixings, plus jalapeño kettle chips.  Yum.  My husband brought me a burrito for dinner that was probably the size of my head.  Again: awesomely tasty.  

Today's been slightly less yummy and as weird of an eating schedule: I grabbed a latte and pumpkin bread from the hospital cafe mid-morning, then, mid-afternoon, I had a Clif Bar, beef jerky and a Coke Zero. Yeah, that's right...be jealous.  Be very jealous - not of the food, but of my apparently cast iron stomach.  

So, by the time I made it back across town to our house for a shower and some time with my littlest munchkin, I was craving anything real and especially anything green.  I made myself, my son and my mom (who was keeping my son this afternoon) BBQ chicken sandwiches with a salad of romaine hearts and cherry tomatoes.  Good gracious, it tasted good and fresh.  I'm kind of living for tomorrow, when I hope we get to go home for good, mainly because my breakfast is already in my purse, awaiting consumption: a Clif Bar sans beef jerky.  Breakfast of Champions!

Last Day of School!

Wow!  Here we are, on the morning of the last day of school!  I said it on my Facebook page and I will say it again here: this is always a bittersweet time of year for me.  Even as much as I am looking forward to more time with my kids (which is saying something after a VERY difficult night last night - that is a different story altogether) and all the fun things that summer brings with it, I still look at the end of the school year as just that: an ending.  For us, it is the end of an era - one of my daughters will move on to a different elementary school next year, which will necessitate quite a number of changes in our daily routine, my little one will start preschool, not to mention the more obvious fact that they are all getting older and so am I....aaaaannnndddd I just veered into a Fleetwood Mac/Dixie Chicks (depending on your age) song. 

So, before I get too weepy, let me just say that the last day of school, for us at least, brings lots and lots of food treats.  The girls will each have classroom parties, which my son and I will attend, and which will be packed with snacks and drinks.  Then, as a way to distract my girls, who tend to be as maudlin as me on the last day of school, I promised that if they went easy on the junk at school, I would take them out to get burgers for lunch.  Finally, as is our "tradition", they were allowed to choose our dinner for the last day of school, which will be: shrimp (since my son can eat it now.  Yay!) with spicy ketchup (homemade cocktail sauce), cheese fondue (homemade because I decided I was too cheap to buy the ridiculously priced pre-made variety, imported from Switzerland) and chips and salsa (store bought).  I think....I think I just gave myself a stomach-ache reading our meals planned for the day.  Ah, well.  I have plenty of anti-acids in the medicine cabinet, and we will get back to a semi-normal eating routine tomorrow.  Tomorrow: FIRST DAY OF SUMMER VACATION! 

Thinking....

I have been doing a lot of reading lately, which has lead to a lot of thinking...dangerous, I know.  Some of my reading has included various blog posts and articles about, essentially, the idea of "checking out".  Maybe checking out is the wrong turn of phrase.  Maybe it would be more accurate to describe it as gradually lowering standards of participation over the course of a certain time period; for instance, over the course of a school year.  This idea of having a metaphorical finish line to cross and slowly divesting yourself of responsibilities associated with the race you are running got me thinking about a lot of things, but, particularly regarding the ideas that I put out into the ether via this blog.  My writing style could be construed as having a negative (I like to call it sarcastic) bent and it occurred to me that, anyone who reads this and who does not know me personally may be left with an unsavory (food pun alert!) impression of me.

I don't honestly remember the details of everything that I have ever written, but as a whole, this blog has been about feeding my family in the most nutritious, cost-effective way possible while attempting to expand their food tolerances and preferences.  Some of my posts have covered the nights where I stumble, specifically lowering my own food-related standards because life has just completely gotten in my way that day.  I think though, that what I want my readers to take away from this post, is that I know I have extremely high standards especially when it comes to food, but I do find myself making compromises, on very specific things, from time to time.  I am human, after all, and I do these things to maintain my sanity, primarily as a mother, but also as a professionally trained chef.  However, like most things in life and particularly in regards to parenting, I look at the idea of feeding my family as a marathon rather than a sprint.  The race that I run, in the long term, will be one of healthy cooking at home because that is what my biggest priority is as far as feeding my family goes.  Even though I stumble (and I tend to often), I enjoy my very brief respite and, in my case, I get back into the kitchen to cook something delicious and nourishing for my family. 

Though I am a professionally trained chef, I also have the immense privilege and responsibility of being the primary caregiver for my three children, and I feel that, based on my own education and the knowledge I have acquired, I do not have the right to check out, long-term, of something as fundamental as feeding my family on a daily basis. I know so many people who struggle with this specific part of everyday life; cooking does not come naturally to everyone.  I find no fault with the struggle nor with alternative choices (eating out or other faster/easier solutions) that another person may make for their families.  I certainly find no fault with the short term breaks we allot ourselves from the frenetic pace of our routine, daily lives.  That being said though, as a parent, I also feel that I do not have the right to check out, long-term, of many, many other priorities that I have set for my family's lives: their literacy, their education, raising them to be productive and contributing members of society...the list goes on.  I know we all have our moments of weakness and I know that I certainly do, in cooking and in life, but I dislike the idea of congratulating myself for allowing, as I said before, a divestment of the various responsibilities associated with my life commitments.  All of that being said, different people have different priorities and, as I am finding more and more frequently, those priorities do not overlap with mine, which is totally fine.  I've just been thinking is all....again, dangerous, I know.