Last nights dinner! (Rana)

Lemon-Garlic baked Salmon was the main dish, with a little dollop of pesto sauce.
Asparagus, mushrooms, and leeks broiled with brown butter was one side.
Rosemary-thyme Gold fingerling potatoes as another side.

I decided to give my mom a break and cooked dinner for me and my family on a visit from school.

I'll start with a recipe for the salmon!

Lemon-Garlic Baked Salmon:
Ingredients:
1 whole salmon fillet(half the fish, not a slice of half the fish)
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
4 tablespoons of olive oil
1 large baking pan
Aluminum foil
Lemon juice, to taste

Steps:
First lay the aluminum foil out on the baking dish.

Then wash the salmon fillet and try and debone it if its not deboned already. It's not difficult, but if you don't know how you may end up like me and stab your index finger while searching for bones.

Pour olive oil all over both sides of the fillet and lay it down on its skin side.

Rub the crushed garlic onto the fish gently, just let it lay on top, it doesn't matter if they are big chunks of garlic, they'll bake into yummy garlic chips anyways.

Place in oven at 375 degrees, bake for about 25-30 minutes or until you can push the large end of the fillet and it seems firm. Remove from oven, serve, pour lemon juice on it to your hearts desire.


Brown Butter Vegetables:
Ingredients:
1 package of asparagus tips
1 leek
1 package of mushrooms
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
Rosemary, salt, and pepper

Steps:
Wash all your veggies. Leeks may be harder to wash because of their layers. I just slice them up and put them in a cool water bath, so the dirt falls to the bottom.

Dry your veggies, cut the mushrooms, and lay them all out onto a baking pan that has been oiled, buttered, or liberally sprayed with Pam.

Place 2 tbsp of butter into a heated frying pan, the pans heat must be low. Slowly swirl the pan and watch for the butter to start to brown and smell nutty. When that occurs, take it off the heat, and pour over the vegetables. Sprinkle veggies with some rosemary. Pour the oil and move the pan around to incorporate it.

Place in an oven heated to 375 degrees for about 20-25 minutes (or until the asparagus is nice and tender). Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then serve.


Rosemary-Thyme Gold Fingerling Potatoes:
Ingredients:
1 bag/pound of fingerling potatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
Rosemary and Thyme (dried or not)
Salt and pepper to taste

Steps:

Wash the potatoes. Cut the larger ones in half so they cook evenly with the smaller ones.

Oil the pan, put the potatoes in there, move them around to coat them in oil. Cut some of the butter onto each side of the potatoes/pan. Sprinkle with rosemary, and thyme.

It's smart to bake these before the fish AND the veggies, for potatoes take a while. Also, while baking, take the pan out and move it around so that more than one side of the potatoes get browned and delicious. Cook them at 375 degrees for around 35-50 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Salt and pepper, serve, and enjoy!

And there you have it! A delicious meal! If you want you can use some pesto to eat the salmon with, my family loves pesto so we do it for almost every meal. Use whatever pesto recipe you find, I usually just eyeball it all and it ends up tasting delicious!

Cabbage and Spam Soup (Vivi)

This is a really fast soup that I made when I was in a hurry to make dinner before my family came home. It's pretty dang healthy, and REALLY cheap, especially if you just toss in whatever vegetables you got on sale in the supermarket. It can also be made vegetarian by substituting vegetable broth for chicken, and using firm marinated tofu instead of SPAM. Plus, the garlic and chili is good for sinuses, so it's a good recipe for cold weather or when the family starts exhibiting symptoms of cold.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (or whatever oil you like. I just use what I have)

6 cups of low/ no sodium chicken broth (I make my own from chicken bones, but canned is alright for other people's tastes)

half of medium cabbage, shredded

two cloves of garlic, crushed

one whole onion, chopped

two large potatoes

one can of Light Sodium SPAM, diced

any other vegetables you may want to toss in

pepper to taste

crushed red pepper to taste

oregano to taste

Directions:

1. Brush the oil onto a deep pot and saute/caramelize the onions and garlic, shredding the cabbage and chopping up your other vegetables. The vegetables should all be cut up about the same size so they all cook evenly.

2. pour in the 6 cups of broth into the pot and add in all the vegetables. Heat it to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to a simmer until potatoes are tender, but not mushy. Sprinkle in the spices to taste.

I made brown rice to serve with the soup, as the soup itself isn't very filling for a family of 5, as well as the fact that brown rice is delicious and very healthy for you. If you make it in the rice cooker, and you put it to make when you started the soup, that is the amount of time it should take for the soup to be done. Enjoy~

Deliciously served in my Kitty Soup Mug<3