Posts Tagged salad
Apricot Mustard Salmon and Salad with Tangy Vinaigrette
Posted by Van Santos in Main Course, Seafood on February 5th, 2010
A very busy week, a very stressful week, has kept me out of the kitchen… and I have missed it so. As I was finishing up hour number 9 of one very tedious task at work I started thinking that I really needed to take care of my cooking fix today. Really, what better way to start the weekend. Well, I can think of a few others…. 
I decided that I wanted a good fish dish. Yes, the baked Mac n Cheese is still in my the back of my head (and I’ll get there at some point) but I wanted to do something creative and the Apricot Mustard Salmon was the answer.
Apricot Mustard Salmon Recipe
3 tbsp olive oil
2 salmon cuts
8 oz of apricot preserves (roughly 1 cup)
4 tbsp of coarse ground mustard
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 sliced peppers jalapeño
1/2 cup white wine
2 rosemary sprigs
Salt and Pepper to taste
1) Turn on the oven, set to 400 and let the oven pre-heat as you prep.
2) Heat olive oil over a medium-low flame in a medium sized pan, add the jalapeño peppers and sautee for roughly 3 minutes (until they begin to soften)
3) Add Garlic, heat for an additional minute
4) De-glaze with white wine
5) Add mustard, stir into the mixture
6) Add Apricot preserves and stir in so all ingredients have blended together.
7) Turn heat to low, simmer for roughly 15 minutes while constantly stirring to avoid burning. The sauce will begin to thicken when ready.
8 ) Place your salmon on a foiled cookie sheet, salt and pepper to taste, add a sprig of rosemary and cover with the Apricot Mustard sauce.
9) Bake for 16 minutes
Salad with Tangy Vinaigrette Recipe
1 bag of mixed baby greens
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tbsp peanut oil
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tsp honey
5 chopped green onions
10 fresh mint leaves, chopped
A “Handful” of chopped walnuts
A “Handful” of Feta Cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste
Yea, this one is quite simply… mix your red wine vinegar, oils, ginger, and honey. Pour over the baby greens, add walnuts and cheese, green onions and mint. Toss vigorously and serve.
Apricot Mustard Salmon
I wasn’t sure how this was going to turn out… but hot damn I was happy. The sauce is on the sweeter side of the spectrum but the peppers and mustard add a nice after bite that one wouldn’t expect. In order to cut the sweetness simply add a bit more mustard. As sad as this sounds, as the salmon was baking away I was eating the extra sauce straight from the pan. Why let a good thing go to waste, I love it!
The salmon and sauce blended so well. The sweetness of the sauce was countered by the natural flavors in the fish leading to a near perfect balance.
I like throwing together random vinaigrette dressings. The thought of honey, nuts and feta cheese seemed to compliment the fish (well, in my mind) and in reality it did. The nuts really brought out the taste of the honey, and the honey added to the sauce that was over the fish.
Enjoy!
Tortilla-crusted chicken
Posted by Eileen Devlin in Food, Low Calorie, Main Course, Poultry on December 8th, 2009
With this being my first post I wanted to be sure the dish is well worth your try. Rest assured, it is. For something so simple there is a lot of flavor and texture.
You will need:
1 c finely crused multigrain tortilla chips
1/2 tsp dried oregano, crushed
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 egg
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about 1 1/4 lb total)
shredded romain/salad
purchased salsa*
avocado slices
1. Preheat oven to 375 and coat a baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. In a shallow dish combine chips, cumin, oregano, and pepper. Place egg in another shallow dish; beat lightly. Dip chicken in egg and then coat with tortilla chip mixture.
2. Arrange chicken in prepared baking pan and bake for 25 minutes or until no longer pink. Serve on romaine and top with salsa and avocado. Makes 4 servings. Enjoy!
*I used a medium salsa for extra ‘kick’ and flavor.
Nutritional Information (per serving):
Calories: 230
Total Fat: 6 g
Cholesterol: 135 mg
Protein: 35 g
Carbohydrate: 7 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sodium: 143 mg
More spoils from the garden
Posted by monicajane in Side Dishes on August 15th, 2009
Not a whole lot of cooking happening around here. At least not of the variety I find inspiring to share.
I do think our tomatoes are quite inspiring though. Here is a picture of a tomato salad. Very simple ingredients to maximize the fresh tomato taste.
Tomato
Fresh basil
garlic
salt
olive oil
That’s it! I find tomatoes taste best without vinegar as they are already a bit acidic.
My husband made this one following my directions. I would personally cut up the basil a bit smaller…but this was mighty yummy.
Roasted Beet Salad
Posted by monicajane in Food, Side Dishes, Vegetables on August 2nd, 2009
This is a very easy and tasty salad.
I used two very large beets, but as you can see it’s still a relatively small salad. Good for two to four servings depending on size. I don’t generally feel inclined to pig out on beets even though I love them.
I cut off the tops and the bottom and placed them in a baking dish bottoms down.
I roasted the beets at 450 for about an hour and a half. Roasting time will vary according to the size of the beet. They are done when the skin is wrinkly and starts to come apart from the flesh of the beet at the top. The bottom of the beet the skin generally remains attached.
Let the beets cool for a while and then peel and cut them in large bite size pieces and place in a bowl.
I added:
red onion sliced in half-circles.
Whole mint leaves.
Olive oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Salt and pepper
All those ingredients can really be used to your taste. I didn’t measure anything, I simply tossed them in until it looked and tasted good.
Below is a before picture of the beets. As you can see they are very large. They did not come with greens which is a great shame as beet greens are delicious too, though, in general, you eat them separately.
