Ginger Soy Salmon Filets

Salmon. One of my favorite dinner proteins. Tasty, nutritious, versatile, and cooks in minutes. Perfect in my book. Salmon is total brain food, giving you a good dose of inflammation reducing Omega 3 Fatty Acids. Perfect to add to your families weekly dinner repertoire. Introducing it early in life will definitely increase the likelihood of your kiddos liking it and them building a taste for it. The recipe below is super kid friendly as well. Salmon can be pricey so my favorite way to incorporate this on a regular basis is to purchase it in frozen filets. Its convenient, defrosts quick, and leaves you with perfectly portioned pieces. I purchase mine from Whole Foods Market, which I know seems like it would be more expensive, but oz for oz  happens to be a really good deal. They've always got some on sale. I feel like if I'm going to have animal sources of protein it's important to learn a bit about sustainable farm and fishing practices. If your interested, check out that link. Really interesting stuff.

This recipe incorporates fresh garlic and ginger. Full of antioxidants and flavor, try incorporating both of these as much as possible into your diet.  Fresh ginger is great added to warm water with lemon or tea, and I like to keep it in the freezer so none goes to waste.When buying ginger, it will look like a gnarly, twisted root (which it is). If dirty just give it a rinse, chop off a 1 inch piece and peel it. Now your ready to chop it into pieces as big or small as you'd like. 

Ingredients:

2 defrosted Salmon filets

2 pieces of aluminum foil, large enough to form packets around the Salmon

1 inch of ginger root chopped

2 cloves garlic chopped (1 for each piece of Salmon)

2 Tbs low sodium soy sauce or Tamari

Drizzle of sesame oil (small drizzle onto each filet, optional)

Place one Salmon filet on each piece of aluminum foil, top with garlic/ginger, soy, then sesame oil. Close the aluminum foil to create a packet for each.  Place each package on a baking sheet and bake at 375 for 12 minutes or until Salmon feels firm to the touch and flakes with a fork. 

Zucchini Tostadas

Zucchini Tostadas. Quick, easy, perfect dinner! And you get to use up all those summer zucchini you've got hanging around! Recipe below and will be posted on website with more photos soon!

-Tostadas (found in Mexican Food section of store) or get corn tortillas brush with olive oil and bake until crispy

-2 large zucchini sliced, sautéed in olive oil, salt, pepper, and 1 tsp cumin powder

-1 can vegetarian refried beans

-Sliced red onion

-Crumbled Feta cheese

- Salsa or enchilada sauce

Spread each tostada with refried beans, top with zucchini, red onion, and feta. For half of these I also topped with taco meat that I had frozen from a previous dinner. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 375 until warmed and cheese slightly melts. About 10 minutes! Half fully veg, half meaty = pleases everyone:) serve with a large salad and guacamole to bump up the veggies  and heart healthy fats! 

Black Raspberry Cobbler

I was trying to think of the perfect recipe for the 4th, trying to come up with something to pay homage to the nations colors, but I couldn't come up with anything! Thinking back to when I was growing up there is nothing that says American to me more than a dessert with black raspberries in it. Not that they hold some special place in American history (or maybe they do hahaha) but I just always connect being an American with black raspberry pie. Weird I know haha. Maybe its all the effort my mom used to take trudging through the overgrowth to pick the berries, and all the time it took to make the homemade crust. It was such hard work to make one small pie! She was channeling the hard working spirit of all Americans I'm sure:)  This cobbler isn't nearly as labor intensive as a pie, but just as good. Who has the patience for pie crust? especially gluten free pie crust? Not me thats for sure. This takes about 20 minutes to put together, and the minimal amount of ingredients really lets the berries shine.The biscuit topping is a simple drop biscuit  with the addition of corn flour and oats. A touch of buttermilk and cinnamon are added at the end! It really doesn't get more American than that!

1 Cup gluten free baking mix 

1/2 Cup fine corn flour

1/2 Cup rolled oats

2/3 Cup buttermilk

1/2 Cup water

dash cinnamon

Mix all ingredients and set aside to be used as the topping.

Add to an oven safe pan such as a cast iron skillet:

3 cups black raspberries or any berry

2 Tbs maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

dash salt

Let cook for 3-4 minutes on medium high, or until berries are just starting to break down.

Scoop the biscuit mixture on top of the berries with an ice cream scoop. This will give you about five large biscuits. Bake at 375 for 12 minutes.