Junque Food: Salmon Filets with Broccoli Slaw

(this was originally posted on my other blog. You can see it at: http://realworldpaleo.blogspot.com/ )

Tonight I was home late because I'd gone grocery shopping after work. My lunch and p.m. snack were but a faint memory. I was tired, foot sore, and cranky.

And hungry.


But I did not want to make dinner.


People tell me that part of the problem with sticking to a Paleo-esque diet is all the prepping and cooking, and planning, and shopping...


Honey, I did South Beach when it first came out, and followed the memu in the first edition of the book for the first month before I felt confident enough to mix it up on my own. And I was cooking for 2 other people in the house who were also doing the diet - so I know from prep time. And cooking, and shopping, etc. ad Nauseum.


But it seriously, doesn't have to be a big-assed deal. Take tonight, for instance, I didn't want to cook, so I made the quickest thing I could thing of.

I made Salmon Filets and Broccoli Slaw.

Isn't this a beautiful dinner?


It really does taste as good as it looks, too. I know, because DaHubster is behind me making yummy sounds as I type this.

The salmon filets were cooked my favorite way - half pan seared, half poached. That sounds complicated, but all you do is get a skillet really hot, with a tiny bit of oil. Then put the filets in the pan flesh side down, cooking for two minutes. Flip the filets over, pour in chicken stock halfway up the side of the filet, cover, turn the heat as low as it will go, and let it finish cooking about 4-5 minutes. I threw some green onions in there before covering, too.


Easy, right? And it took all of 10 minutes.

The slaw took maybe 10 minutes as well, and here it is:

• Buy per-shredded Broccoli slaw from the store, and if you are so inclined (as I was), an additional bag of shredded carrots. I only used a handful of the carrots, btw.
  
• Slice up 1 or 2 green onions
• Mix in a bowl.

Dressing for slaw:

• 2 parts Red Wine Vinegar (or lemon juice if you don't use vinegars)
  
• 1.5 parts good olive oil
• about 1 teaspoon brown mustard (for emulsification)
  
• about 1/4 teaspoon honey (to cut the acidity)
  
• Spices to your liking. I used salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and oregano

Put into a jar with a lid and shake. Then lightly coat your slaw.

Viola!

Now, as far as vinegar not being Paleo, well...that's your determination to make. I use it, and I don't think there's too much a problem with it. It's technically not "of the time frame" but I haven't heard any overtly negative reactions bodily too it, so I'm not really worried about it.But if you do not want to use vinegar, lemon juice is a very good substitute.


So really, it was 15 to 20 minutes of prepping and cook time. And I have to tell you, I am not feeling so cranky anymore, now that I've eaten that.


Enjoy.

Junque Food & Junque Pile

Greetings from the Micro Mini Ranch...or, as we wont to call it lately, Kitty Thunderdome. We have one cat that is beating up on another one, and the one that's getting his tail kicked (or bitten as the case may be), is too nice to beat back. He's not a wimp. I prefer to think of him as a gentleman.  I currently have 5 cats, four males and a female. We've determined that female is biting the tail of one of the guys. We aren't sure if he's provoking it, or if she's just being a drama princess. Anyway, things came to a head (or a tail, what have you) this past Friday night during dinner.  The poor guy's tail was bitten pretty bad. We've been watching him like a hawk. Cleaning it, trying to keep the puncture wounds open so they don't fester under the skin. I also have some left over antibiotics from another cat that I'm giving to him as a preventative measure.  He seems to be rebounding fast.

Can't we all just get along???

Anywhoo...My mother and I are working on a beef stroganoff recipe for the crockpot.  We'll see how this first version comes out, and if we like it, I'll be sharing it here.

In the meantime, Holiday decorations continue to be put up here and there. The tree is up in the living room, but I don't have any lights in the window's yet.  Today, I dug out my Christmas themed potholders and oven mitts, and some kitchen towels and put them up in the kitchen.  It's slowly but surely looking a little like Christmas around here  :)

I'm also getting the week's worth of breakfasts ready.  Crust-less mini quiches from the South Beach Diet Boo

k are on the menu this time.  Basically, it's eggs (or egg whites), a little bit of cheese, as much veggies as you have or want, spices, etc, and pour into muffin tins and bake for 30 mins until they are puffy and cooked through. this week's quiches will have broccoli, red pepper, green onion, and mozzarella cheese.  I generally eat 2 for breakfast, and I always throw some Louisiana Hot Sauce or Srichacha sauce on them! MMMmmm!



I love this stuff!

Junque Food - Stock!

Here's a subject near and dear to my heart - Stock!

WTF?

Yes, stock. I love it. I use it constantly, for a richer and fuller flavor to my meals. If a recipe calls for water, I use stock. Broth, if I have to, but I prefer to use home made stock. And I will tell you why. Homemade stock is low in sodium, because you control what you put in it when you make it. It's easy to store, and it's an environmentally friendly way to wring out the last little bit of your foodstuffs before throwing it out or , (as in the case of the veggies) throwing it in the compost, as we do, adding another environmentally friendly layer to the mix).

You can make stock out of virtually anything you cook. My favorite is chicken, beef, and veggie stock.  All require a little forethought, but once you get in the groove, you will give it no more of a thought than you gave to meal planning in the first place.

Chicken and beef stock: First rule of business is SAVE YOUR BONES! After any meal, throw the leftover bones into a freezer baggie (one for chicken and one for beef and LABEL the bag, trust me, you will forget which is which), and put them in the freezer.  When you get enough bones to fill a stock pot about 1/3 of the way, you are in business. Throw the bones in the pot, cover with fresh cool water, bring up to a boil, then turn the temp down low and let simmer for a few hours. Ta Da!  Let cool, fish out the bones and toss, then freeze the stock for later use.

Veggie stock: Same first rule of business: SAVE YOUR SCRAPS! I know it sounds gross, but come on, you cleaned the veggies before cutting them right? Pretty much anything is fair game when it comes to veggie stock: carrot and potato peels, celery ends and tops, onion cores...whatever you were going to throw out, put it in a freezer baggie and freeze. Get a good mix of stuff in there, and then do the same thing as with the chicken and beef bones. Cover with water, bring to a boil, then simmer for a few hours. Take the strainings and throw them into your compost pile, or throw away.

Here's a great tip that I learned awhile ago for storing your frozen stock. Once it's cool, pour it into ice cube trays and freeze. Once they are frozen, put them in a baggie for minimal storage space in the freezer. Each cube is about 2 tablespoons of liquid if you need measurements for a recipe.

Great. I have now have a freezer full of stock, what do I use it for?? Whatever you want. As I said, it makes a great replacement for water in a recipe. You can substitute stock for water when making rice, I boil potatoes in veggie and chicken stock (or a combo of stock and water) when making potato salad. Last night I used veggie stock for poaching salmon fillets. And, of course, there is always soup to be made! Really, its uses are endless.

I hope you try making stock, it's fun, it's not time consuming, and it's a great way to wring a little extra out of a dollar - which is something most of us need.

Junque Food

This past Sunday, I went through my fridge to salvage leftovers before they went south, then cooked up a bunch of meals or parts of meals to be used this week. I’m pretty proud of what I managed to accomplish with the odd assortment of what I had on hand:

 

• A tub of cooked plain elbow macaroni – leftover extras from Mac-n-Cheese,
• A bowl of leftover homemade pizza sauce,
• Half of a large pot of bean soup, made by Da Hubster, that needed to be portioned and frozen as well,
• A bag of shredded broccoli & cabbage for slaw making that was nearing it’s expiration date
• 3 lbs. of green bell peppers that I got on sale (have you seen the how the price of peppers has risen lately??)
  What would you do? Here’s what I did:

• The elbows were re-incarnated into a tuna casserole, and portioned for take-to-work lunches and dinners.
• The leftover pizza sauce got portioned into individual baggies and frozen.
• Portioned and froze the bean soup.
• The brocco-slaw was made.
• The bell peppers were washed, diced, and frozen to be used in recipes later.

 

For extra credit (or because I love to make ahead for the week):

• Another loaf of bread was made
• 2 lbs of taco meat cooked up and ready for tacos, nachos, enchiladas, etc…

 

I have to tell you, I had a hard time choosing what to have for dinner Sunday night.  I settled on tacos topped with the brocco-slaw. OMG. NOM!

 

I do this on Sundays often because it’s a great way to use up what I’ve got, and because I really don’t like cooking a full meal when I get home from work. If most of the meal is already made, then I don’t mind throwing dinner together. It keeps us from ordering out, or running through a drive-thru.  And let’s be honest, it tastes better.