Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Pan Seared Salmon with Creamy Vegetable Rice (and a Dance!)

One of the tastiest dinners that I make fairly frequently is also one of the easiest.  EMX LOVES salmon.  This meal is a combination of a couple of recipes that I have refined into my own take on things.  The nice thing about this meal is it doubles or triples very easily.  While you are making it, the dance is optional, but highly recommended.

Easy to follow directions are at the bottom of the post.

THE INGREDIENTS:



THE SALMON:

I usually buy individually frozen salmon from Wegmans, but you could certainly do this with fresh salmon.  I always check for bones just in case they were missed in packaging.



Sprinkle salt and pepper on each side of the salmon and place in a medium-high heated skillet/frying pan with a drizzle of oil.  Now, DON'T TOUCH IT!  Seriously.  Leave it until the first side is nice and lightly brown and slightly crispy.  You'll thank me for that when you dig in for your first bite.  In case you missed it... DON'T TOUCH IT!  Leave it alone.

Then when the first side is easily released from the pan, flip it and then.... wait for it.... DON'T TOUCH IT again.

It should look like this:



Trust me... you'll thank me for telling you not to touch it. 

THE RICE:

Now, you can use whatever veggies you like for this.  It started as a creamy rice with tomato recipe that I found in one of those Kraft Foods magazines, but I've omitted things in the past and added different ingredients and this rice is always delicious!

Start by sauteing one diced onion in a tbsp or so of either oil or Italian dressing.  Add salt/pepper to taste.

Add in whatever other veggies you want at this time that need to be cooked through.  I'm adding zucchini and tomato tonight.  This time I'm also adding chopped frozen spinach but I'm going to wait until the end to add it since it just needs to be heated through. 



After the veggies are starting to soften, add the rice and then the chicken broth (or vegetable broth or even water) and simmer until the rice is cooked through and most of the liquid has dissolved.  Next, add the frozen (but defrosted by now) chopped spinach.

Now comes the creamy part - add the cream cheese and Parmesan cheese and stir through.



 
Plate and serve!




THE DANCE:

The Chemical Brothers - The Salmon Dance




R loves the Salmon dance!







Pan Seared Salmon with Creamy Vegetable Rice
Printable Version

Ingredients:

Salmon (duh)
1.5 cups White or brown instant rice
1.5 cups Water or broth
2 tbsp cream cheese
2 tsp Italian dressing
Parmesan cheese to taste
salt/pepper
diced onion, tomato and any other vegetable you like

Pan Sear Salmon in a frying pan with a drizzle of oil - a few minutes on each side until each side is crispy and light brown.

In a separate pan, saute onion and selected veggies in 2 tsp Italian dressing until tender.  Add rice and liquid and simmer until rice is cooked through.  Add Cream cheese and Parm cheese and serve!



You know you're gonna love it if you give it one chance!

Friday, March 18, 2011

It's Friday, I'm in Love... and other random thoughts

LOVE this song from The Cure.  Every Friday morning, I listen to the FMS on WBER and at 7ish they play this song.  Lately I've been missing it, which totally puts me out of sorts for the day.  :(

R has been potty training up a storm!  (Which explains my long absence... every free moment is spent in the bathroom with him lately.)

I'm going to be "trying" to organize my recipes soon.  I have a bigger binder and need to get them sorted into some kind of usable system again.

EMX and I painted R's bathroom this past weekend.  Pics to follow.  Preview of color.  I now have the painting bug and can't wait to start the next room(s).

Had a super busy week, baking, turbo kicking and hip hopping, more baking, tapping.... Last night we had plans to take a family walk since it was so nice out, but we ended up talking/playing with our neighbors instead.  It was nice to catch up and meet one of the new babies of the neighborhood. 

I've been tracking my caloric/fat/protein intake this week just to see what I'm taking in daily and I was pretty disturbed that my lunch of a very small bowl (1 cup) of cheerios, 1% milk, a banana and an apple was ~600 calories!  Seriously?  Not sure I like knowing that information.  I might just go back to not paying attention to that kind of stuff.  Ignorance is bliss I suppose.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Sunday Family Dinner - Oberdon style

If you are from Rochester, you will appreciate this post.  If not, maybe you will still appreciate it, but maybe not as much.  Garbage plates are a serious thing around here... They may not sound very appealing, but they are DELICIOUS!  (And completely unhealthy and greasy and did I mention, delicious?)

If you don't know what a garbage plate is, you can go here or here for an accurate description with pictures.  They are perfect after a night out on the town, or if you are in my family, for Sunday family dinner.

So that brings me to my dad's famous meat sauce recipe.  In Rochester, we actually call it hot sauce, but it's really not that spicy in my opinion and it is not really hot sauce like Frank's Red Hot.  It is just deliciously seasoned meaty sauce that you can put over your Plate or cheeseburger, or Hot Dog.

Complete recipe will be posted at the end with measurements, etc.



Start by chopping up the onions and sauteing them in the butter. 



Once the onions are translucent, add the ground beef and brown it.  Once this is done, drain the fat/liquid and add the seasonings, stir well and  then add water. 

Did you ever wonder what sugar, ground nutmeg, ground cloves, dry mustard, chili powder, cinnamon, cumin and paprika look like all mixed together?  Me too - here is what it looks like:



For fun, use a spoon that makes you smile and smiles back at you.  (Thanks Dad!)



Simmer uncovered for at least an hour to reduce the liquid amounts.



Then spoon over your food of choice and dig in.  Finish the gluttonous meal by making a brownie ice cream sundae and then vow to work out tomorrow.



Dad's Meat Hot Sauce

  • 2 lbs ground beef (I prefer 90/10)
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 2 cups chopped onion
  • salt/pepper
  • 1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1 1/2 tsp chili powder
  • 2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp ground cloves
  • 2 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 2 tsp dry mustard
  • 2 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 qt water
Saute onion in butter until translucent.  Add beef and brown.  Drain.

Add seasonings and mix together well.  Add water and simmer to reduce, about 1 hour.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Not going to lie, I'm pretty excited about this!

This may clearly define how much of a nerd I am when it comes to recipes, but I don't care.  Google search now gives you the capability of narrowing your search results to RECIPES only!  Who-hoo!