another non-traditional holiday dinner

so, even though i don’t really celebrate holidays anymore, i still love to eat the foods associated with each holiday… or at least make up some sweet variation of my own for that particular holiday. for example, i totally made a corned beef and cabbage type meal for st. paddy’s day with shoestring potatoes instead of mashed potatoes.  and oh boy, you should’ve seen me on new years day…  i had the entire day’s meals planned from the moment we woke up.  i was determined to create good energy in this home by starting our meals off right in the new year.  so far, so good. 🙂

for easter, i knew i definitely wouldn’t want to do any lamb or even beef.  i have red meat once in a great while – i just don’t find my body wants much of it anymore.   if i do eat meat, i typically go for fish or occasionally poultry, and of course on the weekends i sometimes add in the reason we all are not vegan – bacon!  {but only super high quality stuff!}

i’m all about colour.  the more colour on your plate, the better.  if i know i’m making a dish that lacks colour {let’s say pasta or a white fish} i will add as much fresh veggies to it as possible. that’s usually why i put things on a bed of lettuce – i want to see some colour in every dish!

for this dish, i needed no assistance with colour.  i did know i was going to have the salmon and asparagus {since it’s in season and so reasonably priced right now!} but i wanted one other thing with colour.  on my grocery list, i literally just wrote, “something purple” — i knew purple would compliment my green asparagus and beautiful salmon-coloured salmon 🙂  recently, we got in some purple carrots, but we were sold out – so i stuck with a grain and added in the famous forbidden rice.

here are the ingredients :

i actually fed 3 people with this – my brother came over for dinner…

– 2 salmon filets {i bought mine on a one-day sale for 4 bucks each!  look for sales when planning your meals!}

– 1 cup forbidden rice

– 1 pound asparagus

– 1/2 cup to 1 cup bacon – chopped

– butter or cooking oil of choice {i used clarified butter}

– something for munching…

mmm, in this case – spring radishes!

preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

first thing you want to do is rinse your rice – run water over it until the water runs clear.   once drained, place rice in small pan and add enough water to cover it by a little less than an inch.  set on medium heat and let it begin to cook.  it will take about 15-20 minutes.

sprinkle your salmon filets with a little S&P and any marinades or other flavours you would like.  i actually enjoy the taste of salmon, so i don’t do much to mine – sometimes i’ll squeeze lemon juice over it.  this time i put a few drops of agave nectar on top.

once this is prepared, pop it in your oven.  i placed mine on a cooling rack inside my pan – first time i experimented cooking it this way.  you can also just wrap it in tinfoil and leave a little room on the sides for some air to come and go… i wanted to try it on the pan to see if it cooked differently… truth is, i think it’s about the same.  because i cook it with the skin on, when you remove it from the oven the skin naturally separates from the flesh, so it’s kind of irrelevant how you cook it.  {however, i did like it this way a tad better because the top of the skin got just the slightest bit crispy and it was good.}  if you were to sear the salmon, that would be a different story.  but baking it – kind of the same rules 🙂

while the salmon is roasting and rice is cooking {stir often and check the consistency as you go}, let’s cut some asparagus and bacon!

**little trick i do for coating veggies – i’ll heat a little bit of oil or butter {i used clarified butter this time – but olive oil or regular whole butter work fine, too} in the skillet, then i pour it over my chopped veggie of choice {asparagus in this case}, add a little S&P and toss it in a large bowl so all the veggies are coated.  then,  you only need to add a small amount of butter {if any} to the pan when cooking them…just to avoid sticking.

then i simply chopped up some leftover bacon i had cooked for my BhealthT earlier this week…

once the asparagus cooked up a little, toss in the bacon bits to toast them up and soak in some flavour…

cook the asparagus to your desired tenderness.  by this point your rice should be close to done.  i only added a smidgen of butter to the forbidden rice – i find it very sweet and flavourful and therefore unnecessary to add much to it.  check your salmon to see that it is cooked all the way through, then remove everything from the heat and on to our final pre-consumption step…

the only thing left to do?!  listen to your belly say “thank you”  🙂

Tags: asparagus, fish, salmon, special meal, sunday dinner