Salmon-Veggie Bake & Beet and Blood Orange Salad

The salmon bake is the easiest, fastest, and most flexible way I have found to cook fish that turns out delicious almost without fail.  You can use pretty much any fish (although oily seems to be better) and any veggie / herb combination you can dream up.  You don't even need to watch proportions; as long as your foil will close, you are set.

I said "almost without fail" above as I came really close to failure last night.  I didn't plan ahead for this meal, and  was just using what I had on hand for the veggies: leeks, scallions, lemon, and fresh thyme.  Sounds amazing, right?  Not so much.  For whatever reason (am I supposed to pan fry leeks first??) the leeks were bitter as all get out - just simply inedible.  And sadly, as you can see from the image below, I had my leeks right on top of the salmon flesh.  Luckily, a little scraping and the meat was fine.  But let that be a lesson to you from me. 

Salmon-Veggie Bake
1 salmon steak, skin on (or any other fish you fancy)
1-2 cups chopped and sliced veggies
fresh herbs
salt, pepper, other seasonings to your taste

Preheat oven to 350.  Tear off a rectangle of foil, making sure it is big enough to wrap all your ingredients with some wiggle room.  Spray foil with a bit of cooking spray.  Lay your fish in skin side down (I like to put a couple slices of citrus down under the fish).  Season the fish with salt, pepper, garlic salt, Mrs. Dash, whatever, just be sure to season it. Lay your cut veg on top and on the sides.  Finish the pile with fresh herbs.  Bring up the two long sides of the foil and fold over twice  to make airtight-ish, leaving a bit of space on the top. Roll and fold the remaining sides to make a packet.  Place the packet on a cookie sheet, and pop the whole thing in the oven 20-30 minutes, depending on the thickness of the cut of fish.

calories depend on the size of fish and what veg you use

Beet and Blood Orange Salad
4 small blood oranges, peeled and segmented
2 bunches of beets, greens removed (save em for later, or you can use them as the base of a salad)
for the dressing:
juice from 1 navel orange (1/2 cup)
1 tsp mace
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp mustard

Boil your beets for 20-30 minutes until a knife slips in easily.  Allow to cool, then cut into segments about the size of your orange slices.  Mix your dressing and simply pour it over your beets and oranges.  Enjoy the pretty colors :)

makes 5 cups.  70 kcals per cup.

Eric's Dinner: nothing.  He ate lunch at 2:00 and apparently that means he doesn't need food at 8pm...