Salmon and Pasta dinner

A few days ago, I guess my mom decided to do something fancy and make my family a dinner of salmon and pasta; it tasted SO GOOD. :) 

For the pasta, she made Japanese carbonara from a Youtube video. You can see the video here. She didn't follow the video exactly, but just watched it to get the general idea of ingredients to use. The ingredients are in the info box. To make the pasta a little less fatty, we substituted heavy cream with milk, bacon with onions and ham (the onions actually ended up looking like bacon! :O), and normal cheese with low-fat cheese.  

As for the salmon, she went to foodnetwork.com and used Giada's "Grilled Salmon with Citrus Salsa Verde" recipe. No substitutions were made for the salmon.

To finish off the dish, just boil some brocolli and garnish with sliced tomatoes. The reason we used tomatoes was because they were fresh from our garden... = organic! 

I know I listed the sites where you can find the recipes, but for the sake of your convenience, I copied them here:

Japanese Carbonara Pasta: (makes approx. 2 servings; my mom made more than this)

Ingredients:
200g pasta 
Boiling water to cook the pasta in (just enough to cover the pasta in a pot)

2 eggs
150ml heavy cream (optional: substitute with 2% milk; you may use skim milk, but it may taste bland)
30g grated cheese (the lower the fat, the better!)
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil (just enough to coat the pan)
1 clove garlic (chopped)
100g bacon (substitute with onions and/or ham)

Procedure:

1) Boil a pot of water and add a pinch of salt to it. Once it comes to a rolling boil, add the pasta. 
2) Meanwhile, mix together the eggs, heavy cream/milk, cheese, and salt & pepper. Set aside.
3) Heat a pan and add the olive oil, garlic, and onions/ham. Cook until the onions soften and smell good!
4) Add the cooked pasta into the pan of onions/ham. Make sure that all the water is drained.
5) Finally, add in the egg/milk/cheese mixture you made in Step 2. 
6) Continue to cook until the sauce thickens. 

Giada's Grilled Salmon with Citrus Salsa Verde

Ingredients:

Salsa/Sauce:

• 2 large oranges
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 2 scallions, finely sliced
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves
• 2 tablespoons capers, rinsed, drained and coarsely chopped
• 2 tablespoons orange zest
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Salmon:

• Vegetable or canola oil, for oiling the grill
• 4 (4 to 5-ounce) center cut salmon fillets, skinned, each about 3-inches square
• 2 tablespoons amber agave nectar
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Procedure:

Salsa: 

1) Peel and trim the ends from each orange. Using a paring knife, cut along the membrane on both sides of each segment. Free the segments and add them to a medium bowl. 

2) Add the olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, scallions, mint, capers, orange zest, lemon zest, and red pepper flakes. 

3) Toss lightly and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Set aside.

Salmon: 

1) Put a grill pan over medium-high heat or preheat a gas or charcoal grill. Brush the grilling rack with vegetable oil to keep the salmon from sticking. 

2) Brush the salmon on both sides with the agave nectar and season with salt and pepper, to taste. 

3) Grill until the fish flakes easily and is cooked through, about 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Transfer the salmon to a platter and allow to rest for 5 minutes.

**Spoon the salsa verde on top of the salmon or serve on the side as an accompaniment.**

Homemade Granola

My friend and I decided to make sugar and oil-free granola bars since store-bought ones are usually way too sweet in general. We used Alton Brown's recipe we found on foodnetwork.com but left out all the butter and sugar. Leaving out the butter made everything hard to stick together, so it ended up being granola crumble instead of bars. Although it didn't exactly turn out as planned, it made a great hiking snack (almost like trail mix), and is also perfect for yogurt parfaits!

Ingredients

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 cup hot water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped, dried fruit (any fruit is fine; we used mangoes, cranberries, raisins)



Great for on-the-go. 

• 1/3 cup nuts, toasted or not (any nut is fine; we used toasted almonds)

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Oil a 9x9" baking pan or glass container.
3. Spread oats out onto a baking sheet and place into preheated oven for about 15 minutes, or until toasted/aromatic. If you have un-toasted nuts and want to toast them, place them into the oven along with the oats.
4. After taking out the oats, lower the oven temperature to 300 degrees F.
5. Meanwhile, combine the honey, water, and vanilla.
6. In a separate bowl, mix together the dried fruits and nuts.
7. Finally, mix everything together and pour into prepared pan. Press it down to cover the sides of the pan.
8. Bake for 25 minutes. Let it cool completely before shaking it out of the pan. If you don't, it might fall apart into even smaller pieces.



End result!

Vegan "Chocolate Bombs"

The outer layer is somewhat crisp (hence the dry look), but the inside is very moist.

The other day, my friends and I were having a sleepover and decided to bake something (like we always do whenever we hang out). We came across a chocolate muffin recipe and it turned out awesomely delicious; it was only after we finished baking that we realized it was vegan! It turned out so...normal, I bet you wouldn’t even be able to tell that it didn’t contain butter, eggs, or milk. 

 

You can cut down the sugar to half the amount or less; we added a little more than half and it still turned out way too sweet. For extra chocolatey-ness, add more cocoa powder and a bit of chocolate chips. We sprinkled chocolate chips as decoration on top of the spooned-out batter before placing them in the oven. They turned out looking like bombs, so we named our muffins, "chocolate bombs!"

 

If you are a vegan or have milk allergies, this recipe is for you!

 

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 ½ cups flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 5 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup cold water

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Grease and flour a cupcake pan or use paper cupcake liners.
3. Mix sugar, flour, salt, baking soad and cocoa powder in a large mixing bowl.
4. In a small mixing bowl, combine vanilla, white vinegar, vegetable oil and cold water.
5. Slowly add wet ingredients to the dry, using a wire whisk to beat it until well mixed.
6. Divide batter into the prepared cupcake pan.
7. Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.
8. Allow to cool completely.
9. Dust cooled cupcakes with powdered sugar or a cinnamon and sugar combination in lieu of frosting.

Taken from Suite101: Chocolate Cupcake Recipe: Dairy-Free Desert for the Lactose Intollerant | Suite101.com http://suite101.com/article/chocolate-cupcake-recipe-a86936#ixzz22vlQPF7G