Salmon

I love salmon. Fresh, succulent, healthy, delicious. The recipe below is one of my husband's variations that are always good.

For your Grocery List:
-Salmon: we like a piece that is even, thicker, from the head (more so than the tail which is thinner) like the one in the picture.
1 lb is about perfect for 2 people and so good for you, but if you want, you can eat less (but why?).

[salmon_filet by Dr. McGuire, courtesy of photobucket.com]

-seafood magic
-McCormick Asian Seafood Sauce (Asian food section Kroger's)
-JFC Ginger Dressing (Kroger's)
-soy sauce (I like gluten free)

-sunflower oil

-Soy Free Earth Balance (Kroger's health food section cooler) or grass fed sweet butter

-lemons
-white mushrooms
-tomatoes
-zuchini
-yellow squash
-carrots

-tinfoil

(*Note: I try to separate my grocery lists into groups of items that can be located in the same section when possible.)

I prepped this dish by cutting up my julienned vegetables that I like for the week (or pulling them out if I've already done that).

My husband doubles up a tin-foil pan with edges (like a squarish pan with sides) and puts it in the middle of a small broiler pan. He washes the fresh salmon and sets it in the middle. He uses this with the grill too, but tonight it's in the oven.

He slices mushroom and surrounds the fish with the pieces. (He thinks this helps keep the fish moist.)
For this version of his salmon, (this varies), he sprinkled seafood magic over the top of the fish, the McCormick Asian Seafood Sauce sauce and sliced over that with a marbling of the Ginger Dressing.

He put it into the broiler for about 7 minutes or until it got bubbly.
Then he turned the oven to 350 degrees and checked it at five minutes and then five more minutes. (This piece was thicker- but it slices open nicely in the middle when it's done and you can see how it is cooked.)
(*Note: on the grill, it is about 15 minutes with the cover closed over the tin foil "pan" itself, without the broiler pan, although the broiler top is nice to carry it back and forth as it's not flimsy.)

When the salmon is about five minutes out, I spray Pam Olive Oil in a big frying pan, then I put 1 TBSP of fresh sweet butter or soy free Earth Balance and 1 TBSP of sunflower oil in it and get it hot. Then I throw about four or five handfuls of the julienned vegies in and toss with a spatula constantly. I like the vegies to be somewhere between cooked and raw or half and half.

I cut up tomato pieces for each plate.
I mix in servings of the vegetables with the raw tomatoes for each plate.

My husband removes the top salmon from the bottom skin that I don't like and serves it.

I like lemon slices and the gluten free soy sauce on the table: lemon squeezed over the fish and a tsp. of soy sauce or two mixed over my vegies.

If you want a full meal*, (i.e., a half-pound salmon each), your calories intake for this meal is about 765 including sauces.

If you go for 1/3 pound of salmon for your serving, it's 573 calories total for this meal.

If you go with 1/4 pound, it equals about 473 calories for the salmon and vegies.

*(By the way, I do really well with my OJ/milk and coffee mornings at 260 to 400 calories, lunch at about 400 calories, a possible 100 calorie snack, and a dinner that falls between 600 and 800 calories, so for my system, this is perfect. But adjust, of course, as needed.

And there are always nice variations to keep in mind like light dinners in between more filling ones, but I think if you do too many light dinners, your body may end up feeling deprived and hold onto its extra weight too, so every now and then, a more filling, healthy, dinner–i.e. still in line with your healthy eating objectives–is very reassuring to the body for a sense of well-being and for staying with a fitness program.)

Anyway you enjoy it, it is a healthy dinner and, in my humble opinion, even the bigger serving will do no harm to your diet because it's ALL good for you! And it is so succulent, that I have trouble eating salmon in restaurants that too often ends up being served dried out or overcooked or tough.

-bbffair

PS As someone has already mentioned over on Tracy Anderson, sometimes you have to offer rice to the people you eat with, but I try to stay away from rice for my own plate except for occasional treat dinners because on a regular basis, it can stall your results.

-bbffair