Maple Glazed Salmon

I'm feeling fishy! Let me preface this with the fact that I have only recently became a fish eater. Oh I'd gladly eat tuna fish out of the can, yes its very yummy and a great way to lose weight. Oh and I'd eat swordfish because lets be honest, it tastes like steak when grilled. And call me strange but I could eat my weight in sushi. I think it had to do with the fact that raw fish just doesn't taste fishy. But no not until the last year have I became a fan of fish. Now I can't eat a large variety of fish but I'm loving salmon and so I've started fixing more salmon dishes lately. And one of my favorite is this quick fix meal. I can't wait for dinner tonight!

Menu: Maple Glazed Salmon, Scrumptious Sweet Potatoes and Orange Zest Broccoli

Maple Glazed Salmon

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground ancho chile powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon sea or kosher salt
4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets
Cooking spray
1 teaspoon maple syrup

1. Prepare grill, heating to medium.

2. Combine first 5 ingredients. Sprinkle fish with salt; rub with paprika mixture.

3. Place fish on grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 7 minutes. Drizzle fish with syrup; grill 1 minute or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.

Scrumptious Sweet Potatoes
I usually like to buy the prepackage sweet potatoes, you know the kind that are wrapped up in plastic. They have the microwave directions on the side and only take 5 minutes to cook. So I suggest looking for these at your grocery store, otherwise bake your sweet potatoes in the oven.

While the potatoes are baking combine a few tbsps of butter with brown sugar and chopped pecans, you could even throw in a pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg and chili powder. After the potatoes are done, split them open and drop a tbsp of your butter mixture in and let the ooey gooey goodness melt all over them.

Broccoli
Another quick fix convenience, I buy the steam-fresh packages of frozen broccoli. Pop it in the microwave and out comes perfectly steamed broccoli. But to dress it up, while its steaming, I take an orange and get some yummy zest. Put the zest aside and then cut the orange in half. After the broccoli has steamed put it in a big bowl, add the juice of 1 half orange and the zest. Mix it up and you're ready to go.

Now everything is ready to go so plate and serve!

Recipe and picture courtesy of my favorite website CookingLight.com

Broccoli Stir-fry

Chicken Teriyaki Stir-Fry

• 1/2 lb of chicken strips or chicken breast cut up
• 1 tbsp of sesame seed oil
• 1 16 oz bag of broccoli stir-fry mix
• 1 cup of teriyaki sauce or you can make your own

1. Heat sesame seed oil over high heat in a wok or skillet with tall sides
2. Add chicken and saute until done
3. Stir in bagged veggie mix and cook over high heat until all water has evaporated
4. Stir in teriyaki sauce (mixture of a few tablespoons of molasses, soy sauce, oil, and garlic)
5. Coat chicken and veggies with sauce, remove from heat

Serve over either white or brown rice.

This recipe came from the back of a Bird's Eye veggie bag and again was another great fast fix meal. I changed the salt and sugar amounts in this meal by adjusting the amount of soy sauce and molasses I used in the teriyaki sauce to fit our family's needs. Who needs take-out when you can have a meal that tastes better and is healthier without the added msg and salt.