Easy Barbequed Salmon

Easy Barbequed Salmon
from Favorites


3 pounds of salmon fillets
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Place salmon, skin side down on grill--or place on sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil on grill.  Mix remaining ingredients and use to baste salmon frequently.  Cook until salmon changes color.  Turn over and peel off skin.  Baste frequently and cook until done, about 15-20 minutes.

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{cooks note}

I am in love with this salmon recipe.  It is incredibly easy and extremely good.  I usually don't cook mine on the grill, but if I do, I place aluminum foil down to avoid the fish from ticking to the grill and flaking all over the place.  I prefer the oven method for this.  I place my salmon fillets down on a baking sheet lined in parchment paper.  I pour most of the sauce over the fillets and cook in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until fish is cooked through.  Make sure you do not over cook the fish.  It needs to be just cooked through so that the fish is slightly flaky.  I buy the bag of frozen salmon fillets at Costco.  There is no skin on the one's on buy.  I use four of them for this recipe.  They are individually wrapped and the whole bag usually has 7 fillets in it.  The bag will run you around $20.  Fish is usually more expensive than other meats, but it is so good for you.  We eat fish about once a week.  My boys each ate a fillet by themselves.  That is how good this stuff is.  I served mine with roasted fingerling potatoes and asparagus.  Recipe soon to come.

All of my fillets after they had baked in the oven for 20 minutes.  Mine were slightly frozen, so I cooked them an extra 5 minutes and they turned out great.  Before I serve, I take some of the juices that the fish cook in and spoon over the fish to add even more flavor.

Fruit and Feta Green Salad

Fruit and Feta Green Salad

adapted slightly from Favorites

8 cups assorted greens

1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled

1 (11-ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup toasted almonds

1/4 cup sliced apple (I used pink lady)

5 or 6 sliced strawberries

Dressing:

4 tablespoons raspberry wine vinegar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 teaspoon pepper

dash of Tabasco sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons sugar

Combine salad ingredients in large salad bowl.  Mix together dressing ingredients.  Pour dressing over salad just before serving.  

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{cooks note}

I generally use a mix of greens that I get pre-washed from Costco.  It's a large container for $3.99, and it lasts  about a week even though we eat it almost daily.  I also use my mini food processor to mix the dressing ingredients.  A blender would work great too.  You can experiment with different fruits and cheeses for this salad.  I like the combination featured above, but blackberries, raspberries and pears would also be good.

Fruit Smoothie

Fruit Smoothie

1-2 cups berries (or any fresh or frozen fruit you desire)

1 cup milk

1 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt

1/4-1/2 cup frozen orange juice concentrate

1 banana

8-10 ice cubes

Pour all liquids into the blender first.  Blend until well mixed.  Add all other ingredients and blend starting out on the lowest setting until you see a vortex form in the center.  Once the vortex forms, you can turn the speed up higher until all of the fruit has been broken up and there are not big ice chunks.  

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{cooks note}

If you blend your liquids first, this will prevent your smoothie from forming a funnel inside.  If you increase the speed too quickly, an air bubble will form and the blades will spin around inside that bubble causing you to have to shake your blender to get it out.  It also helps to have a decent blender too.  I used my Bosch blender.

The ingredients:

Frozen raspberries and blackberries, skim milk, low-fat vanilla yogurt, frozen orange juice concentrate, banana and ice.

All ingredients in the blender.  I blend my liquids first then added the rest of the ingredients.

  A healthy smoothie perfect for breakfast or a great snack.

Your kids will love it.  Blake spent the last 2 minutes sucking up everything he could from the bottom.

Chicken, Black Bean, and Spinach Enchiladas

                            

Chicken, Black Bean, and Spinach Enchiladas

adapted from {good life eats}

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (cooked and shredded)

1 cup black beans, drained and rinsed

5 ounces baby spinach, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

3/4 cup Monterrey jack cheese, grated (a Mexican blend works great too)

8 large flour tortillas or 12 corn tortillas 

Tomatillo Salsa, recipe follows

Sour Cream Sauce, recipe follows

Spray a 9x13 inch pan with cooking spray.  Set aside.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine the chicken, black beans, spinach, salt and pepper in a medium to large bowl.  Stir until ingredients are just combined.  Add the beans and carefully stir in so as to not mash up the beans.

If using corn tortillas, steam them in a tortilla warmer or place them in a damp flour sack cloth and heat in the microwave.

One by one, fill a tortilla with a handful of filling.  About 1/4-1/3 cup depending on what type of tortilla you used.  Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of cheese on top of the filling and roll tortilla up, placing the seam side down in the previously prepared pan.  Repeat until all tortillas have been filled.  Drizzle sour cream sauce on top, followed by the tomatillo salsa.  Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.   

Tomatillo Salsa

This tomatillo salsa is simple to prepare and can be served alone with tortilla chips for dipping.

6 tomatillos, husks removed (I buy a can of tomatillos)

1/2-1 jalapeno, remove seeds to adapt heat 

1/4 cup onion, chopped

1/4 cup cilantro leaves, packed

2 cloves garlic

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

If using fresh tomatillos, place them in a medium sized sauce pan.  Cover with hot water and bring to a boil.  Simmer for 5 minutes.  Remove tomatillos from water and place in a food processor with remaining ingredients, starting with only half the jalepeno.  Process until smooth.  Test for heat and add the remaining half of the jalepeno if desired.  Set aside.  

Sour Cream Sauce

To save on fat calories, feel free to substitue low-fat sour cream.  However, I would not recommend fat-free sour cream.

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

3/4 cup sour cream

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium high heat.  Add the flour, whisking until golden and bubbly.  The flour will start to clump, but don't worry, add the chicken broth and whisk until smooth.  Stir in the sour cream, whisking if necessary to remove any lumps.  Simmer until sauce is thickened.  Season with salt and pepper.

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{cooks note}

You asked for healthy, I'll give you healthy.  We really enjoy these enchiladas.  They are packed with fiber, iron and calcium.  I do not use the jalepeno for a few reasons.  I am nursing and I didn't think my boys would like the heat too much.  It turns out great if you want to leave it out.  Since I had leftover spinach I decided to make a green salad using spinach, romaine, carrots, tomato, avacado and cucumber.  Great way to use it up if you are trying to think of what to do with it.

You can definitely make the sour cream and tomatillo salsa a day or two ahead of time. Just give the sour cream sauce a little whisk to smooth it out before pouring over the enchiladas and you should be good to go.

I cook my chicken in the crock pot for about 6 hours. Add about 1/2 cup onion, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and a couple of shakes of garlic powder...how do you like that for a measurement?  The chicken comes out very tender and is easy to shred.

For this particular meal I used 6 tomatillos from this can.  I am saving the rest in the fridge for another recipe.  I wouldn't go to the trouble of buying fresh.  Takes too long and this does the trick.

I use flour tortillas (made with whole wheat durum flour).  They are the uncooked kind you can purchase at the grocery store.  I have only seen the whole wheat durum one's at Costco.  Of course!  You can also use corn tortillas, but I like these.

Seasoned shredded chicken.

Just after I add the flour to the butter.  It gets pretty clumpy, but smooths out once you add the chicken broth.

Chicken broth.  I usually make my own, but this is expiring soon, so I used it .  If you have chicken bouillon, follow the directions on the label and make your own.  

Since I buy the uncooked tortillas, I have to cook mine beforehand.  Don't forget about them and burn them like I did.  

I like to cook them on my pancake griddle.  Cooks two at a time.

Sour cream sauce ready to go.

Drain and rinse the black beans.

Chopped spinach.  Did you know that spinach is one of the most abundant sources of iron and calcium.  

Eat up!

All three ingredients ready to be lightly mixed.

Ready for the tortillas.

I did not have Monterrey Jack cheese, so I used what I had left of this and added a Mexican blend that had Monterrey Jack in it.  One of these days I'll have exact ingredients for recipes, but until then, this is real life for me, people.  

The dish I used to cook the enchiladas in.

Packed and ready to roll...

After all the enchiladas are assembled, place a piece of tin foil over the top and cook in the oven at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Here is an avacado cut in half.  I am going to make a healthy green salad to go with the enchiladas and thought that some of you might enjoy learning how to cut an avacado. I'm sure there are many ways, but this is how I do it.

Slice the avacado like so...

Take a spoon and dish it right out.  It's as easy as that.  

But how do you get the pit out?  You jab it with a knife, give it a little twist...

and out comes the pit.  Please don't jab your hand.  That would really hurt.

The beautiful healthy salad, because you asked for healthy my friends.

Some friends of ours introduced us to this brand of dressing and we have never looked back.  We like the Light Champagne...we are crazy like that.  Not really.  You should try it, it's really good.

Not your typical enchiladas, but great nonetheless. And they're easy to prepare ahead of time.  

Salmon Timballs

Or what I like to call "Salmon Souffle".

Salmon Timballs
from my Grandma Lybbert


1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup fine dry breadcrumbs
1 1/3 cups milk
1 pound canned salmon, flaked
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Melt butter in saucepan, add breadcrumbs and milk.  Cook until slightly thick, stirring constantly.  Mix salmon, parsley, eggs and seasonings together.  Add sauce to salmon mixture.  When you are adding the sauce to the salmon mixture, pour a little bit in and stir it up good before adding the rest.  This will prevent your eggs from cooking.  Put into greased custard cups or ramekins and place in a pan of hot water.  You want the water to go at least half-way up the ramekin.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Place on a platter and pour creamed peas over the top if desired.

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{cooks note}
This dish not only looks pretty, but it tastes really good too.  Good enough that my four year old requested it for dinner.  Hot dog!  You can purchase canned salmon at any grocery store, but Costco sells it in packs of 6 for $9.99.  They are 7 ounce cans and the recipe calls for 1 pound.  I use two cans to equal 14 ounces and it turns out great every time.  I make my own breadcrumbs for this dish, and others, because it is super easy and cheap.  I blend the bread in my blender and freeze it in freezer zip lock bags.  Here, let me show you.

Plain white bread for a $1.

The place on my Bosch where the blender attaches.

Another view of my Bosch.  I have the older series.  There is a much cooler one out now.

Twist the cap off and voila, you are ready to put the blender on.

I introduce to you, the Bosch blender.

This has nothing to do with the blender, I just wanted to show you.  The cord conveniently winds up for easy storage.  Please don't judge me on how dirty it is.  My husband did it.

Tear your bread up into large chunks.  I usually blend 3 slices of bread at one time. If you do more than that, the blender can't reach all of the bread on the top.  Trust me.

The three slices of bread in the blender.

In about 3 seconds your bread turns to this.

Store it in air tight containers or freezer zip lock bags.  Now onto the Salmon Timballs, aka Salmon Souffle.

Two cans of salmon.  This stuff is really good.

The salmon, fresh parsley (you don't have to use fresh, I just happened to have some in my refrigerator) salt and pepper. I didn't show you the picture of the eggs in with it because it looked really gross.

My ramekins.  You can also use custard cups or any other small glass cup that is oven safe.  I use my ramekins for a lot of things.  I'll show you more sometime.

Everything mixed together and poured into greased ramekins.  I use a 9x13 glass dish for my water.  I fill the dish up so the water is at least half-way up the ramekins.

Hot out of the oven.  Notice how the top is slightly browned.  You will want to use tongs, or something similar to take them out of the hot water.

Don't these look lovely?  I know there are a lot of people out there that do not like seafood, but I'm telling you  these are divine.  They should pop right out of the dish when tipped upside down, but don't worry if you have to use the help of a knife to pull away the edges.  I serve mine with creamed peas and red potatoes.  Recipe for that coming soon.


{Don't forget about the giveaway...ends Thursday at 11:59 pm}