Dinner doesn't have to be complicated to be delicious. Let's face it, some days there's just no time for lengthy dinner preparations. If you are having one of those days, this may be just the recipe that you need. Grilled salmon is one of the easiest dinners that you can make. (Not to mention - it's also one of the healthiest meals you can eat.) It's so simple - you won't even need to write down the directions: sprinkle salmon with chef Paul's "salmon magic" and grill. Add a side of grilled asparagus and a whole grain roll and you have a meal.
Sprinkle with salmon magic and grill. Less than 8 minutes later ... dinner was served. This is the perfect meal to fix in a hurry. My family really enjoyed this salmon dinner and best of all - it was a healthy dinner to feed my family.
Ciao!
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Anyone else out there struggle with side dishes? Seriously, I need some advice from you dinner planning rock stars out there - you know who you are. Can you help a girl out? I am in need of some simple and healthy side dishes that I can put together in less than 5 minutes with ingredients that I already have on hand and will make my family think I'm a superhero. I will start the ball rolling and kick off this side dish sharing-fest with one of my new favorite side dishes. This simple orzo salad is delicious and really highlights all of the fresh herbs that I have growing in my garden right now. You can substitute any fresh herbs that you love and put this together for dinner tonight and prove to your family that you ARE a side dish rock star. Orzo with Fresh Herbs 1 Tablespoon butter 1 cup uncooked orzo pasta 2 cups chicken broth 1/4 teaspoon pepper 1/4 cup fresh herbs (flat leaf parsley, basil and thyme) 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Stir in lemon juice and fresh herbs. Serve. This is a great side dish for almost any meal. Fish, chicken, steak - you name it.
The warm weather has put me in the mood for big summer salads. I picked up a recipe for Bourbon Sear Steaks at Eggtoberfest last Fall but for some reason it slipped to the back of my new recipe pile and just recently got rediscovered. Since I've been in the mood for grilling AND salads lately, I decided to combine the two and make steak salads for dinner. Steak Salad 2 Teaspoons dried shallots 1/2 cup bourbon 1/2 cup soy sauce 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup orange juice 2 teaspoons garlic 4 flat iron steaks (I used thin cut strip steaks.)
My salads was loaded with vegetables. (tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, yellow peppers) I also added chick peas, olives and sunflower seeds. I put the steaks on the grill while I whipped up some lemon vinaigrette. Once the steaks were cooked, I sliced them thinly and put them over my salad. Of course the salad for the kids looked a little different than this one. I did manage to sneak in a few carrots and cucumbers with their lettuce. I cleverly disguised them under a sprinkling of shredded cheese so that they would not be identified as healthy. They were so focused on the steak on top of the cheese that I think they forgot about the vegetables that they had inadvertently consumed. The fact that they ate their veggies somehow made up for the fact that the salad was smothered in ranch dressing. It's all about compromise.
Ciao! Just in case you were wondering- yes, we all survived the first week back at school. I really appreciated the fact that the kids started back to school on Wednesday so we could ease back into our school routine slowly. It wasn't easy to get everyone up and going in the morning after sleeping in all summer. What was even harder was trying to stay awake past 9:00 in the evening. (Early wake up calls = early bedtimes.) I had to readjust our dinner time this week as well. Since we were eating breakfast and lunch quite a bit earlier - we were hungry for dinner earlier too. My daughter also had to report to soccer camp at 6:00 every evening this week which was just the incentive I needed to start getting meals on the table earlier. Barbecued chicken is a great weeknight meal that I can prep in the afternoon and have it all ready to throw on the grill in the evening. (I even made the barbecue sauce ahead of time.) I'm going to keep this recipe close for those nights when we are juggling homework and practice and camp. This recipe came from my Taste of Home magazine. Barbecued Chicken 2 Tablespoons oil 1/4 cup tomato paste 2 teaspoons garlic powder 2 teaspoons onion powder 1 teaspoon paprika 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1/2 cup apple cider 1/2 cup fresh orange juice 1/3 cup brown sugar 1/3 cup molasses 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 2 teaspoons mustard powder kosher salt 4 chicken breasts with ribs 4-3-2-1 spice rub 4 Tablespoons kosher salt 3 Tablespoons brown sugar 2 Tablespoons paprika 1 Tablespoon cayenne pepper
Combine spice rub ingredients and rub over chicken. Grill chicken, turning and basting with barbecue sauce every 15-20 minutes. The name of this recipe in the magazine was burn free barbecue chicken. As irony has it, I managed to burn it. Not too bad though - it was still salvageable. There was a lot of barbecue sauce leftover so it looks like we will be having this chicken again soon. Yum.
CIao! I hope that you are sitting down to read this blog post because I have an announcement that will knock you off your feet ... I am on instragram and twitter! I said it would never happen but here I am - a social networker. Ryan and Courtney had the look of fear on their faces when I told them that I was about to join their social networks and I've got to tell you, I was little afraid myself. The instragram and twitter worlds were in a word - intimidating. I decided that I had to jump in and get involved though and there was no better time than now. I've been on Facebook for several years, I am active on Pinterest - I can even Snapchat. How much harder could it be to learn instragram and twitter? (Famous last words.) I can tell you that nothing makes me feel older than trying to learn to tweet or send an instragram. Seriously, I'm a college educated adult, and it took me well over a week to successfully send an instagram. To add to my frustration, I would see small children using twitter in the grocery store. At one point I seriously considered asking one of these children for help but I figured it was a problem that couldn't be solved in the amount of time that it took for the girl behind the counter to scan my groceries. So, I humbled myself and turned to the two social network experts that live in my house for some tutoring. Ryan and Courtney did their best to patiently walk me through the process. (And trust me, it was a PROCESS!) It took some time but I finally feel like I am on my way to being an instragram and a twitter expert. (Well, maybe not an EXPERT but I am definitely better than I was a couple of weeks ago.) So what in the world am I going to do on instragram and twitter, you ask? I'm talking about food of course. The foods that I'm snacking on, fresh finds at the grocery store, the meals that I order at a restaurant, etc. It's not possible for me to blog in real time, like what I'm making for dinner, for example, but I can post it on instragram and twitter as I'm preparing it. So cool. I'm also talking about my workouts because let's face it, there's no way that I could eat all that yummy food and not do something to work it off. I'll let you know which workouts are keeping me motivated and in shape. I'm also talking about my favorite workout gear and what I'm listening to while I work out. This is where you come in. I need followers. If you have an instragram or a twitter account, you can follow me using the links on the right side of the blog. Also, don't forget that you can still follow me on Facebook and Pinterest too. If you're not quite ready to jump on the instragram and the twitter bandwagon, and you need something a little less complicated, try my cedar planked shrimp. It's really easy and it's delicious. I made this shrimp a few weeks ago and it was a big hit with everyone. Cedar Planked Shrimp Brine 8 cups water 1/4 cup kosher salt 1 Tablespoons black peppercorns 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh thyme 2 Tablespoons sugar 8 cloves garlic 3 bay leaves 2 halved lemons
Shrimp 2 pounds shrimp, unpeeled 2 cedar planks 1/4 cup olive oil 1 Tablespoon grated garlic 1 Tablespoon fresh thyme 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon melted butter 1 teaspoon soy sauce 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Serve with rice, over a salad, in a taco or just plain. Make sure that you buy shrimp that is deviened but still has the peel on for this recipe. You will be glad that you don't have to spend the time deviening while you're preparing the shrimp.
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