Brown Sugar Baked Salmon

    So I have given up cheese for Lent- this is a very hard thing for an Italian, because I am also in turn having to give up on food treasures like pasta and pizza, among other delicious cheesy things. I feel like I could be a better Catholic the rest of the year, so I try to take the season of Lent very seriously. 

That means, until Easter, no cheesy temptations on the blog (meaning I have to put off making my french onion soup, which is simply divine). But as it's Friday, and I can't have red meat (gave that up last year for Lent), I made this salmon over rice for lunch. Besides the salmon, it is likely you will have soy sauce and brown sugar lying around your pantry and it only takes a bit of foil and 15 minutes. Piece of cake.

Also side note- if you put marshmallows in your brown sugar, it keeps the sugar soft and not too clumpy.

Simple Ingredients

Smother in sugar and soy sauce

Bake that shiz

Poof- it's done

The Single Serving!

Brown Sugar Baked Salmon Recipe:

     Ingredients-

    1 1/2 tbs, soy sauce
    2 tbs, brown sugar
    1 filet, salmon

     How To-

Put oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Place salmon inside a foil sheet and coat it in brown sugar. Drizzle the soy sauce so the sugar absorbs it. Wrap in the foil so the sauce cannot escape and place in oven for 15-17 minutes, depending on how crisp you like it. Simple as that!

Enjoy!

Thoughts:

I took this for lunch, as evidenced by the last photo.  It smelled and tasted so good when I pulled it out of the oven, but the microwave reheating didn't do it any favors. Really great quick meal, but I would recommend eating it while it is hot the first time.

Egg & Broccoli Rice Pilaf

I think this was Nana's at some point- I'm not sure if she gave it to me because I relate to Martha or the Bitch....hmmm

     Tonight, I am racing a deadline at work for an archaeological conference presentation I have to make in January (see my presentation abstracts here).  I also forgot to take meat out last night.  Thus, I found a box of Trader Joe's rice pilaf/orzo and I had some frozen broccoli florets and a egg.  Feel free to use real broccoli here, I just prefer only the florets  and the cheapest least wasteful way to do that is to buy them frozen. Since it's very hard to open a box of rice (or similar product) without using the whole thing, I did get leftovers of the pilaf from this recipe- however the other ingredients are geared for ONE SERVING.

I really love Kikkoman Soy Sauce; too bad it's not medicine

Butter is melted, rice and seasoning are stirred, water is added

Pot is brought to a boil and then let to simmer, covered

Delicious pilaf

In retrospect, I remembered I always add garlic salt and lemon juice when I cook broccoli (it might be the only way I know)

Splash lemon juice and pour the garlic salt generously

One scrambled egg coming right up

The Single Serving

Drizzled in soy sauce

Egg & Broccoli Rice Pilaf Recipe:

     Ingredients-

 2 tbs, Butter

2 cups, Water

1 box, preferred brand of Rice Pilaf

1 tbs, Lemon Juice

1 tbs, Garlic Salt

1 Egg

1/3 cup, chopped broccoli

Splash of Soy Sauce

     How To-

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium low heat.  Add the contents of the rice box (rice and seasoning) and stir well. Slowly bring this to a boil, and add the water.  Let simmer for about 20 minutes or until the rice has absorbed all the water. About 10 minutes into the pilaf cooking, start on the broccoli.  Add the chopped florets to a separate skillet on medium heat.  Douse with lemon juice and garlic salt. Let broccoli cook for 5-7 min, occasionally stirring and adding a pinch more garlic salt.  Put the broccoli in a plate and scramble the egg in the same pan.  Both meals should be done cooking simultaneously. Mix up with soy sauce and serve!

Thoughts:

This was really unexpectedly delicious. I thought it would be a decent meal thrown together at the last minute. Yet despite the few ingredients, the flavors were very explosive. Would easily make again.  Plus, protein from the egg.