So what’s happened in the last two weeks?
Two Friday’s ago we had a resume event where we were able to make changes to our resume to make it as good as possible. I had lots of little tweaks but now looking at my resume, it’s so much better. So that event was a success! Last Tuesday we received our first projects in which we get to work directly with a company. Our first meeting as a team with our client is actually later today, so I’m both excited and a little nervous. On Monday (two days ago!), my Medical Diagnostics class gave our phase 1 presentation for our project. It went really well and we got a lot of great feedback and constructive criticism from our professors, so I’m excited to see how we progress with phase 2.
This recipe is the first recipe that I researched for and it turned out way better than I was expecting it to. In all honesty, I didn’t have high hopes just because I haven’t followed a recipe in a long time, so I was sure that I would mess up somewhere. I think this was also my first time cooking fish? I’m always nervous cooking any fish or meat because I always think that I am undercooking it, since I don’t like when it’s overcooked. It’s the little things.
As you can see here to the left, the recipe itself was actually very straight forward and easy, so it was a good choice to start off with. This recipe is from a magazine series titled Better Homes & Gardens Special Interest Publications, and the specific magazine was the 13×9 One-Pan Comfort Food. I grabbed this magazine a while back since I knew things with grad school would be picking up quickly, and I thought this would be a great way to still have healthy meals while not totally cutting into my already busy schedule. Plus, I need to eat! So why not make something fun?
The recipe calls for salmon, salt, pepper, cherry tomatoes, shallots, garlic, oregano and olive oil. Having most of these items already in stock, the shopping list for this recipe was not only extremely short, but also well within budget. The most costly thing was the salmon of course. I also have this habit of not reading the amounts I need, rather I just read what I need, so I ended up buying a little bit over 1-lb. of salmon, which turned out fine, but in the end, I think I should have purchased a second package of cherry tomatoes. less tomatoes didn’t make or break the dish, but I think it would have been nice to just have a few extra goodies on the side.
As you may or may not be able to see from the photo, the recipe suggests finishing the dish off by adding “a bed of hot cooked Israeli couscous tossed with olive oil and a few handfuls of fresh arugula or baby spinach.” Now, me being me and not reading directions, I, of course, did not see this, so I just finished it off with some good ‘ole classic rice. Worked just fine 🙂
What can also be seen from the photos are the clear differentiations made in my version. I initially was following the image by using whole cherry tomatoes, but then having finished the package and wanting a bit more, I sliced up a Roma tomato (and I wish I had sliced up a second one). I also chopped the shallot smaller, rather than in the strips that the image suggested. Additionally, I cut the salmon into portions prior to cooking. I mainly did this because the salmon I bought was so long that it would not have fit in the pan. But it also turned out to be beneficial because it made platting the food much easier (in my opinion).
As I mentioned earlier, I finished off the dish with some rice and I added teriyaki sauce for some added flavor. This in and of itself was delicious, but seeing as how this was my big meal for the day (quite literally), I was noticing that I was getting hungry a bit after eating. So I decided to add a bit of a spin onto the recipe and instead of doing Israeli couscous with baby spinach or arugula, I added chopped up sweet potato and avocado. This was delicious and I personally feel like it really added a lot of great flavor.
So that was this week’s recipe! I definitely recommend trying it out, it lasted me the whole week (with ~ 1.5 lbs of salmon). I don’t know if my salmon was farm-raised or wild caught (I prefer wild caught for taste and environmental purposes), but if you do choose to try this out and have wild salmon, here’s a nutrition fact about wild salmon:
Wild salmon is high in omega-3 fats and a good source of protein. It also contains other nutrients such as B vitamins, potassium, and selenium. (Information obtained from The Power of Superfoods magazine – I love my magazines).
Hope you try it out! Next post is a quinoa based dish!
To be continued…
Gabriela
Gabriela Maria 