Easy Baked Salmon

I love salmon. It's probably one of my top favorite fish entrees and preparing it at home has never been simpler than this recipe I am sharing with you. I wish I had noted where I actually found it to give them proper credit - all I can say is thank you and YUM!!

I bake this salmon recipe in my Breville Smart Oven Air but I've added a note for regular ovens too. It's easy, quick and deliciious. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

• Salmon fillets - cleaned and skinless or skin on and scaled

• Small lemon (for zesting so choose nice skinned one, reserve lemon to cut in wedges to serve on the side with your finished dish.

• Shallott - finely minced (for 3 fillets, I used 1/2 of a medium)

• Salt and Pepper (I prefer fresh grind as it adds a nice, thicker seasoning base)

Line a baking tray with foil. Lightly spray.

Lay cleaned and dry salmon fillets, skin side down, on the lined tray.

Top with in this order: Minced shallots, fresh zested lemon, salt and pepper. Drizzle each piece with a little olive oil.

In the Breville, at 250 degress, Bake for 20-30. Check for personal doneness starting at 20 minutes.

In  regular oven, 15-30 minutes. Begin to check for personal doneness preference at 15 minutes.

This is a slow bake so it stays juicey!

How to know if your salmon is cooked? "Salmon is done when easily flaked: You can also check the doneness of your salmon with a fork. When the salmon flakes easily with a fork, it's ready." Don't overcook! "Salmon will change from translucent (red or raw) to opaque (pink) as it cooks. After 6-8 minutes of cooking, check for doneness, by taking a sharp knife to peek into the thickest part. If the meat is beginning to flake, but still has a little translucency in the middle, it is done. It should not however, look raw." Always let it rest for a few minutes and remove skin before serving if the skin was left on.

Easy Chicken Salad

For lunch or a light summer dinner, I love how easy it is to make this very basic chicken salad! Feel free to swap out ingredients for ones you like but I'll be honest, it tastes pretty good as is. And it comes together quickly! This basic is good for 3 servings.

Ingredients:

• 1 can chunk chicken breast - about 12.5 ounces

• Brown Spicy Mustard (I love the Trader Joe version)- 1 tablespoon

• Garlic Aioli (I love the Trader Joe's version) - 1 tablespoon

• Diced Celery - 2 stalks

• Green onion, sliced - 1 full stalk

• Fresh Ground Pepper to taste

• Salt to taste

• Chopped tomatoes (I prefer to use romas for this but any tomato will do) - 1-2 for garnish

• Thick romaine leaves - depends on how much you will eat!

I mix this all up with the measurements above. If I want it a little more moist, I add more spicy brown mustard but you could also add some light mayo (to keep it on the light side.) Feel free to add more crunch with an additional celery stalk or more green onion! 

It's so easy to add more (or less) of any ingredient to meet your taste. Serve in the romaine leaves with diced tomatoes on top or if feeling really hungry, use your favorite bread!

Stays well for a few days in a tightly covered container. I use any leftovers as a quick grab and go for lunch at work.

Note: According to my scanning ingredients, for points purposes you only have about .25 per serving (Aioli). Not bad!!

Easy Crock Pot Chili

While I typically use canned beans (I always try to get BPA free), you could also substitute for dry beans (this will increase your work to soak and such) but either way, once you throw it all in the crock pot you are done!

Ingredients:

• 1-15.25 oz can pinto beans

• 1-15.25 oz can kidney beans

• 1-15.25 oz black beans

• 1-15.25 oz white seasoned beans

• 1-15.25 oz chili beans

• 1-15.25 oz mexican style diced tomatoes

• Optional: 1 can additional bean of choice, 1 can of corn (about every other time I throw this in there!)

• Optional: 1 pound ground beef or ground turkey seasoned and cooked and then added to chili the last hour OR keep on the side and people can add to their own bowl so that your chili remains vegetarian

• Chili Powder

• Salt and Pepper

• Garlic Powder

• Nature's Seasoning

• Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce

• Condiments: Grated cheese, diced onion, sour cream

Before I add the beans to my crock pot I rinse each one (except the seasoned and chili beans) in a colander to remove the starch and salt which seems to keep it less salty and gas producing!

After rinsing beans, I add to a 5 quart crock in layers as follows: 1-2 beans, seasoning, couple tablespoons of hot sauce, repeat. Last layer is the tomatoes (and corn if using) with a bit more seasoning. I usually end up doing about 3 layers. Then stir all together well. Set the crock on low and you are done! I let mine go about 6-8 hours, stirring a couple times after the initial 3-4. If you have a warm function, you could always turn it to warm after 6 hours or you feel it's done but not time yet to eat.

Serve with condiments and either warmed flour tortillas or make a batch of cornbread!

Debbie's Chicken Soup

Have lots of time? Cook your own chicken and use the broth it produces. Don't have lots of time, pick up an already cooked rotisserie chicken - either one will work!

• 1 whole chicken (I cook mine in a pressure cooker and reserve the liquid. You can also cook a whole chicken in 6 cups of water in a large pot with a lid, again, reserve liquid) Or purchase an already cooked chicken.

• 3-5 cups water for soup (can use less and add more chicken or vegetable broth instead)

• 32-48 ounces chicken broth (less if strained broth from cooking own chicken)

• ½-3/4 c chopped onion

• Celery stalks-1 per 2 people

• Potatoes-1 per person (can use russet cut into fourths or use couple small white/butter type at 2 per person) - I find for soups, don't use a russet!

• Carrotts-1 per person, chopped into 1 inch chunks

• Other veggies as desired including brussel sprouts (keep whole), zucchini - both green and yellow cut in chunks, Mexican Chayote squash in chunks, mushrooms, leeks - really, whatever other vegetables you are craving!

• Salt and Pepper to taste

• Vegetable/soup seasoning - I use Bragg Organic Sprinkle (little goes a long way)

• Any other seasoning as desired (Nature's Seasoning, Garlic Powder)

Cook whole chicken in large covered pot  with water for 2 hours or, pressure cook chicken as directed or use precooked.  Debone and place chicken in large pot. Add water, chicken broth, onion, salt, pepper, other seasonings as desired, potatoes, carrots and let cook on low with lid for 1 hour. If you want, you can just offset lid a little with a toothpick to get a little steam out.

 NOTE: If you use pre-cooked chicken, you can wait to add it into the soup for 1/2 hour after you start the vegetables. Or if you have someone who doesn't eat chicken, don't even put it in! Keep the chicken in a bit of broth in a pan and people can make their own soup bowl!

Add veggies such as brussel sprouts and any dense squash (like Chayote) for ½ hour. Add zucchini and other soft squash and mushrooms for ½ hour. 

Cook desired noodles (I prefer a wide noodle) per directions in separate pan, drain.

So noodles don’t absorb liquid and become mushy, when serving place a spoonful of cooked noodles at bottom of bowl and then pour over those the soup. 

Hearty Butternut Squash Soup
(Inspired by Allrecipes)

My original butternut squash soup was butter, shallots, butternut squash, broth, seasonings and heavy whipping cream at the end to add a thickness and richness. It was good but not great for my dairy avoiding youngest son! When I stumbled upon a butternut soup recipe from All Recipes, added my own twists and such, the result was a heartier and healthier soup. 

This soup is fairly easy to make, especially if you buy your butternut squash already cubed! It's a great base and can be made vegan by using the vegan butter and vegetable broth or just vegetarian by using vegetable broth. If neither are something you need, or want, chicken stock can add a different flavor to this soup.

Toppings can be whatever you want, I suggested a few below we use. I serve with a big side salad and if I have my homemade sourdough available, warmed for a bit in the oven is perfect. I've also recently made homemade easy buttermilk biscuits to have and that was a hit.

I allow about 1 1/2 hours-2 from start to finish because I cut up my own squash and blend in a blender. Vegetable prep takes a bit of time but it's so worth it. You may find it goes faster for you, especially if you use the immersion blender to blend at the end.

Ingredients:

• 4-5 tbsp butter - to keep Vegan, use Miyoko's Vegan Cultured Butter (I prefer the one with a hint of sea salt)

• 1 small onion or 1/2 large, chopped (varies on personal taste)

• 2-3 stalks celery, chopped

• 1 large or 2 medium carrots, chopped (don't make too thick!)

• 3 medium Yukon gold potatoes, cubed

• 1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed or purchase a package of already cubed.   For my squash, I use a method I learned for watermelon. I cut my squash in half leaving the bigger side with the seeds to tackle after I work on the thinner side. I stand up the half on my cutting board and "shave" away the outer skin with a very sharp chef knife. Works pretty good. Using a sharp, heavy knife is key. Watch those fingers!

• 1-32 ounce container vegetable broth (or chicken if not doing vegetarian/vegan) plus a bit more as needed or added water will work too.

• fine ground salt and pepper to taste

• **Optional: Nutmeg (about 1teaspoon or so, depending your taste) at the end

• **If have, Nature Seasoning (by McCormick) and California Style Garlic Powder - by McCormick)

 Instructions:

1. After cutting/chopping all vegetables, I toss each one with a bit of salt and pepper (and Nature Seasoning and Garlic powder) and let sit for a few minutes - adds flavor.

2. In a soup pot, melt butter (3 tbsp). When melted add your onion, celery, carrot, potatoes and squash. Stir well and then put in the next 1-2 tablespoons of butter on top to start melting down

3. Stir now again so nothing sticks on bottom of pan, about 5 minutes or until lightly browned. I usually do this for almost 8-10 but stir!

4. Pour enough of the broth to fully cover the vegetables. Okay if you use it all (depends on size of pot - my ceramic soup pot is tall so I use the full 32 ounces right off the bat.)

5. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover pot and SIMMER for about 40 minutes or until all your vegetables are tender. You may need to slightly askew your lid to keep a nice simmer and avoid boiling your soup to death.

6. Choice to blend: a) If your pot can stand an immersion blender, this is the easiest or b) transfer the soup into a blender. I have a VitaMix so I ladle out ONLY the veggies into the blender (any that doesn't fit, into a bowl) and I blend in a batch or two, adding the blended back into the remaining broth in my soup pot. Obviously, if you have an immersion blender and can use in your soup pot, EASY!! Just fully blend. Either way - NO chunks of veggies, you are looking for smooth.

7. Add any remaining stock not used previously.

8. Stir, taste and season with additional salt and pepper if needed. Here's where I also add my nutmeg. Stir again, taste (add anything if desired) and let it simmer very low, lid off.

9. Stir occasionally, your soup will thicken. When desired consistency attained, turn off. If your soup started too thick for your liking, add a bit of water or more broth. It needs to simmer low for about 15-20 minutes to really meld all the flavors together!

I serve the following as extras to this soup once in bowls: Chopped scallions (green onions), chives, crusty croutons and if dairy is not an issue - Cotijo cheese. Can also include some rice (brown or basmati adds good flavor and texture.) My hubby adds chicken! Really, this is a great base soup so the sky is the limit on what you may add or top with. But it is hearty and rich all on it's own too. Enjoy!!