Martha Stewart Sunday: Williams-Sonoma Roasted Salmon with Thyme Vinaigrette.

I've been super MIA lately because of the craziness at work and school. I'm definitely looking forward to summer and having time to cook, workout, and just hang out with my friends in the city. I just got the Williams-Sonoma Weeknight Fresh & Fast cookbook, and I'm really excited to start trying a bunch of these fresh, seasonal recipes this summer.

This salmon was my first try from this cookbook, and it turned out so well! It was delicious and made for great recipes for the rest of the week (I made it on Saturday afternoon). I doubled the original recipe to make sure I had plenty of extra salmon and vinaigrette for weekday lunches. I'll definitely be doing this again this summer.

Here's the original recipe from Williams-Sonoma, which can easily be doubled or even tripled, depending on the size of your salmon fillet:

Roasted Salmon with Thyme Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

1/2 Tbs. Dijon mustard

2 tsp. Champagne or white wine vinegar

2-1/2 Tbs. EVOO, plus more as needed

1 Tbs. minced shallot

2 tsp. minced fresh thyme

course Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

3/4 lb. salmon fillet (I got the best wild Canadian salmon from Agata & Valentina on 1st Ave.)

3 cups mixed baby lettuces

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

2. In a small bowl, place the mustard. Gradually whisk in EVOO. Mix in the shallot and thyme. Season the vinaigrette with salt and pepper.

3. Brush a small baking dish with EVOO (or spray with Pam if you're lazy like me). Place the salmon in the dish, skin side down. Spoon 1/2 of the vinaigrette over the salmon. Let marinate at room temperature for 15-20 min.

4. Roast the salmon until almost cooked through (15-25 min, depending on thickness). Let it rest while preparing the salad.

5. In a bowl, toss the lettuces with the remaining vinaigrette. Divide the salad between two plates. Cut the salmon in half and put one piece alongside the salad on each plate. Serve immediately.

Nutrition info:

Servings per recipe: 2

Calories: 409.2

Total Fat: 19.5 g

Cholesterol: 120.7 mg

Sodium: 240.9 mg

Total Carbs: 7.1 g

Dietary Fiber: 2.2 g

Protein: 45.4 g

Martha Stewart Sundays: Garlic-Orange Chicken.

Today for Martha Stewart Sunday, I made a Garlic-Orange Chicken dish over brown rice. It turned out spicy and fantastic! I didn't use a recipe, but just made things up from a combination of things in my fridge... like chicken... and carrots... and orange juice... and I was thrilled at how it came out! The orange juice kept the chicken super moist and tender, and well, I tend to love anything with chili powder.

No picture this week... I forgot.

Ingredients:

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 bag of frozen Bird's Eye Asian Stir-Fry mixed vegetables, thawed and drained of excess liquid (you can sub with 3 cups of whatever variety of frozen/fresh veggies you feel like)
1/2 C. chopped carrots
2 shallots, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 tsp. chili powder, divided
2 tsp. ground ginger
3/4 C. orange juice
3 Tbs. lite soy sauce

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Layer vegetables and chopped carrots in a 8x8 square baking dish. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of chili powder over vegetables.
3. Cube chicken breast into bite sized pieces. Toss chicken pieces in a clean dish with 2 teaspoons of chili powder and 2 teaspoons of ginger to season (more or less to taste, my recipe makes it pretty spicy!), then layer chicken on top of casserole.
4. Pour 3/4 cup of orange juice and 3 tablespoons of soy sauce evenly over casserole dish.
5. Finely dice shallot and mince garlic and sprinkle over casserole dish.
6. Bake for 45 minutes at 375, or until chicken is cooked through and no longer pink in the center.

Divide the chicken and veggies between 3 dishes, and pour remaining orange juice sauce over. I suggest serving over brown rice (not counted in nutrition info). This came out pretty sweet & spicy, so you may want to adjust orange juice or chili powder to taste.

Nutrition info:
Servings per recipe: 3
Calories: 290.0
Total fat: 2.7 g
Cholesterol: 91.3 mg
Sodium: 774.8 mg
Total Carbs: 24.5 g
Dietary Fiber: 3.7 g
Protein: 40.2 g

(Again, I use the recipe calculator on SparkRecipes to calculate the nutritional value of my recipes. I'm obsessed!)

Martha Stewart Sundays: Turkey Chili.

So, one of my goals this year (not a resolution, per se) is to blog more often, and to give this blog a little more structure. Another goal (not resolution... because then I can't break it...) is to cook more often for myself and to experiment with baking and more variety in the things I attempt in my kitch.

Voila, I present Martha Stewart Sundays, when I will share a recipe or adventure in domesticity from the previous week... because hopefully I'll have done something domestic in the previous week! I firmly believe that young people don't cook enough for themselves (myself included!) and would be much healthier and happier if we cooked more and packed our own meals for work.

This week, I'm making a big batch of turkey chili (using leftover frozen turkey breast from Thanksgiving) to take to work for lunch, adapted from the South Beach Diet Turkey Chili recipe.

(Excuse me, please, I'm a terrible food photographer, I know! I swear, this tastes much better than it looks!)

Ingredients:

1 McCormick Original Chili Seasoning Packet
1 cup chopped onion
2 minced garlic cloves
2 cups 99% fat free chicken broth
2-14.5 ounce cans diced, no salt added tomatoes (do not drain)
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
1-14.5 ounce can cooked beans (do not drain)
1 lb. diced turkey breast meat, skin removed (you could also buy a roasted chicken prepared from the deli section of the grocery store and remove the skin)

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Add chopped onion and cook until translucent, about 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 more minute.
2. Add chicken broth, tomatoes, spice packet, and tomato paste. Partially cover and simmer until it thickens slightly, about 30 minutes.
3. Add diced turkey and beans. Simmer for another 30 minutes.

Divide into 4 servings. Serve hot or cold.

Nutrition info:
Servings Per Recipe: 4
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 383.3
Total Fat: 9.8 g
Cholesterol: 48.8 mg
Sodium: 2,491.0 mg
Total Carbs: 34.2 g
Dietary Fiber: 13.9 g
Protein: 30.0 g

(I use the recipe calculator on SparkRecipes to calculate the nutritional value of my recipes. This is a really neat tool, especially when I'm trying to detox a little right now after the fat/carbs/sugar of the holiday season!)

This turned out delicious! I don't love beans, so I loved that this had a 2:1 ratio of tomatoes and turkey to the actual beans. It gives it just enough of the right texture without being overwhelming.

A foray into vegan-ish baking.

Do you ever really want to make something, and then realize that you don't have half the ingredients? Or better yet, your milk/eggs/SUPER IMPORTANT INGREDIENT is expired?

This seems to happen to me a lot... Maybe because I don't buy groceries that often. Or because life gets in the way and I don't actually cook anything when I originally planned on it... So I experiment!

A few weeks ago, I was planning to make Martha Stewart's Pumpkin Layer Cake for Thanksgiving, bought all the ingredients, and then we didn't have time to make it. And here, 3 weeks later, I still had all the ingredients... except the eggs and milk are expired... and there's no way in hell I'm going out in the freezing rain in NYC today just for some stupid eggs.

Experimentation! I've never tried vegan baking, but I've heard good things about it. Basically, you replace the wet ingredients like milk and eggs with things like applesauce, mashed banana, pumpkin puree, canola oil, etc.

After googling a few recipes, I started with this one for Vegan Old-fashioned Soft Pumpkin Cookies in mind... and added some other things to make it into cake batter... My additions are in pink.

INGREDIENTS

• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I nixed the 1/2 cup whole wheat flour because of course, I'm lucky to have ANY flour at all, let alone whole wheat)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (I didn't have ground cloves either, so I added an extra 1/2 t. of ginger)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened (So I cheated, it's not vegan anymore... because I have regular old unsalted butter in my fridge, no vegan margarine)
• 2 cups Libby's canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup applesauce (The recipe called for 1 T. of applesauce for the cookies, so for cake batter, I added extra applesauce)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• about 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (I wasn't measuring this... but adding it little by little until I got the desired consistency)
  

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Grease cake rounds.
3. Combine flours, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt in medium bowl.
4. Beat sugars and butter in large mixer bowl until well blended.
5. Beat in pumpkin, applesauce and vanilla extract until smooth.
6. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Beat in olive oil little by little, guessing as you go to achieve desired consistency.... Cross your fingers...
7. Divide batter evenly into two cake rounds.
8. Bake for 30-35 minutes.
9. Pray to God that it turns out...

I cheated again and topped it off with Martha's Light Cream Cheese Icing... again, not vegan, but that wasn't really the point. The point was using up what I had, which was lots of cream cheese!





Annnnd the taste test...



It turned out really great! Of course, everything's better with icing... but no, really, I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's moist and dense and not overwhelmingly sugary or pumpkin-y. It kind of reminds me of the pumpkin scones from Starbucks. Success!

Update: I brought my two pumpkin cakes into work this morning, and they were completely gone by lunch!

I like soup.

I had a snow day yesterday and was off work and class. It was great. I stayed in bed all day and read with the kitties. They couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting ready and going to work. I did go out and brave the blizzard to get a few things from the grocery store, and ended up making a delicious pot of Chicken Wild Rice Soup. Don't be scared. It's easy. Soup is one of the first things I learned how to make.

Chicken Wild Rice Soup

3/4 c. chopped carrots

3/4 c. chopped celery

1/2 c. chopped onion

1 package sliced white mushrooms

3-6 oz. cans of cooked chicken

1 1/2 c. wild rice (I actually couldn't find good wild rice here and had to use a wild rice/brown rice blend. Whatever. Just follow the instructions on the package)

4 c. chicken broth

16 oz. light or fat-free cream

12 oz. light of fat-free sour cream

salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary

1. Cook wild rice according to package until just a little bit crunch (like 5-10 minutes less than what the package tells you)

2. On medium-low heat, add chicken broth.

3. Add vegetables, mushrooms, and undrained chicken. Cook on medium-low heat until vegetables are soft (about 10 minutes).

4. On low heat, stir in cream and sour cream. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU KEEP THE SOUP ON LOW HEAT WHEN YOU ADD THE DAIRY PRODUCTS OR THEY WILL CURDLE AND GET ALL NASTY. The other ingredients must be cooked-through by now because you can't turn the heat up again!

5. Once the cream is stirred in properly, add about 1 tsp. each of salt, thyme, and rosemary, and 2 tsp. of pepper. Or to taste.

How easy is that? It turned out absolutely delicious and sooo filling. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but it was pretty, too. Just the perfect creamy bowl of soup.

Perfect for a snow day.

I like cooking.

I really love cooking, making delicious, homemade meals to savor. Although I don't always have the time to make something spectacular, even putting together a simple meal makes me feel better. I think especially because I live alone now, cooking makes me feel like a little homemaker, like I have a real home.

Cooking healthy meals isn't always easy either. I love fried chicken, mashed potatoes and macaroni & cheese, so sometimes it's hard to choose a healthy meal over one full of flavor (and usually fat). I've come to a place where I try to make at least a few healthy substitutions in every new recipe or to lighten up some of my old favorites. At the very least, I'm learning to eat high-cal foods in moderation.

That being said, I'd like to share some of my recipes with you single girls out there. I swear, it's all easier than you think! And while it's not all low fat, a lot of it is, or could be with a few simple swaps.

I forgot to take a picture of tonight's dinner, but I swear I will in the future!

Low-Fat Turkey Meatloaf

(I know not everyone likes meatloaf, but it's one of those weird homey things that I actually really like. Also, this recipe isn't revolutionary, but even this seemed daunting to me when I first started cooking)

1 lb. lean ground turkey

1/2 c. warm water

1 thick slice whole wheat bread, cut in 1 inch cubes

1/2 c. roughly chopped onion

3/4 c. ketchup, divided

1/4 c. mustard

2 egg whites (or 3/4 c. liquid egg whites)

1 tsp. black pepper

1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Also, a good loaf pan is not to be under-estimated! I have a silicone pan from Silicone Solutions, and it's so great because absolutely nothing can stick to it no matter how much you burn something! If you don't have a loaf pan, you can also make mini loaves in a muffin pan.

Pre-heat your oven to 375.

In a large bowl, soak bread cubes in warm water for 10 minutes.

While it soaks, chop your onion. I like it in pretty big pieces, but a smaller chop is fine, too, if you prefer.

Mix ground turkey, egg whites, 1/2 c. ketchup, mustard and spices into the bread mixture. Mix very thoroughly. You can add extra cayenne if you like it spicy, or a dash of hot sauce or Worcestershire sauce, to your liking. I like it with just cayenne.

Pack mixture into your loaf pan, or divide into individual muffin pans. Spread 1/4 c. ketchup on top of mixture.

Bake for 1 hour at 375, slice, and enjoy.