Crispy Skin Salmon with Fiery Asian Slaw

I'm back! My absence was due to something very exciting: purchasing and moving into our first house. I'll take pictures of the kitchen once it's a little more set up, but it's got a lot more counter and cabinet space than the house we were renting. The downside is that I'm back to using an electric range instead of gas. We also were without internet for about a week, so I actually had to draw on my cooking magazines and cookbooks for meal planning, which ended up being an unexpected boon and something I hope to do more often.

Cooking Light recently re-designed their magazine, and it looks amazing. I love the changes, and this month's issue has a bunch of recipes that I look forward to trying. This one was very fast and full of flavor. The slaw was quite spicy, and if you are sensitive to spicy foods, decrease the amount of Sriracha. I made the full amount of slaw and served it with the next night's dinner. It makes a lot though.

Crispy Skin Salmon with Fiery Asian Slaw
source: Cooking Light, September 2009
Yield 4 servings

Ingredients

• 4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets
• 3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• Cooking spray
• 1/4 cup fresh orange juice
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons Sriracha (hot chile sauce)
• 1 teaspoon bottled ground fresh ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon honey
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 (16-ounce) package cabbage-and-carrot coleslaw
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

Preparation

1. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Sprinkle 1/4 tsp salt and pepper over salmon fillets. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add salmon, skin-side down, to pan and cook 4 minutes. Turn salmon and cook an additional 3 minutes. Add orange juice to the pan, cooking until it almost evaporates and fish flakes easily with a fork.
2. Meanwhile, combine rice vinegar and next 5 ingredients in a large bowl, and stir with a whisk. Add remaining salt, cilantro, and coleslaw, tossing well to coat. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
3. Serve salmon with slaw.

Curry Lentil Soup

Ahh, November. A new month, no more Daylight Savings Time, and a new rotation for Joe. My oven is still broken (no, I'm not finished griping about it yet), but I had this soup on the meal schedule anyway. I've figured I can sneak things that I like (vegetarian soups! lentils!) by Joe as long as they are strongly flavored. I see a lighter meal. Joe sees Indian food. It all works out.

Lentils are great because they cook quickly unlike some other beans, making this a doable weeknight meal. I found myself wishing for some naan or raita though, either which would make an appropriate companion for this soup.

Curry Lentil Soup
adapted from SparkRecipes

Ingredients

3 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp cumin

1 tbsp curry powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tsp chili (or cayenne) powder (less if you don't like the heat)

1 qt, vegetable broth

2 cups water

1 cup lentils

1 large carrot, chopped

Instructions

1. In a large pot, heat 3 tablespoons oil over high heat until hot and shimmering. Add onion and garlic, and sauté until golden, about 4 minutes.

2. Stir in tomato paste, cumin, salt, black pepper and chili powder or cayenne, and sauté for 2 minutes longer.

3. Add broth, 2 cups water, lentils and carrot. Bring to a simmer, then partially cover pot and turn heat to medium-low. Simmer until lentils are soft, about 30 minutes. Taste and add salt if necessary.

4. Using an immersion or regular blender or a food processor, purée half the soup then add it back to pot. Soup should be somewhat chunky. Reheat soup if necessary.

Optional: stir in 1/2 a lemon's worth of juice and 3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro. Serve soup drizzled with good olive oil and dusted lightly with chili powder if desired.

Yield: 4 servings.

Nutritional Info:

Calories: 201.2
Total Fat: 10.7 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 1,059.5 mg
Total Carbs: 21.7 g
Dietary Fiber: 5.9 g
Protein: 5.9 g

Healthy Pumpkin Raisin Muffins

Everyone on my cooking board has really worked themselves into a frenzy over fall baking and pumpkin. Other than pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie, I hadn't really used pumpkin much in my own cooking and baking. Enter these delicious-sounding muffins from Elly at Elly Says Opa. In honor of the first day of fall, I made these the other day.

These muffins are impossibly moist. If I didn't know better, I would think they were made with several sticks of butter. And I love raisins and the way the add a little bit of sweetness. I might add up to 1/2 cup next time I make these. I can never have too many raisins!

Healthy Pumpkin Raisin Muffins
source: Elly Says Opa

Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1 egg
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (or vegetable oil, if you're not calorie counting)
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped walnuts (I omitted.)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 and grease a 12-cup muffin tin. Sift together flours, baking powder and soda, salt and spices.
In a seprarate bowl, beat egg with brown sugar until well combined. Stir in vanilla, buttermilk, applesauce and pumpkin puree.
Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in nuts and raisins.
Pour mixture into muffin cups and bake approximately 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Nutrition Info, per muffin: Calories: 143 / Fat: 3g / Carbs: 27g / Dietary Fiber: 2.4g / Sugar: 2.2g / Protein: 3.8g

EDIT:
This post has been submitted to the Marvelous Muffins event held by Joelen over at Joelen's Culinary Adventures!

Healthy Oatmeal Raisin Muffins

When I got home from school and work yesterday, I had a bit of time before going out to dinner with Joe at Tin Angel for Nashville Originals Restaurant Week. I've been itching to make these pumpkin raisin muffins, but since it's been in the 80s, it just hasn't quite felt enough like fall to make them. So I did a little searching and found this recipe for oatmeal raisin muffins. I love anything oatmeal raisin, and I love muffins so I figured this would be something nice and quick to whip up.

They did make the house smell amazing, almost like cookies. I was a little concerned because the dough was very thick, again, almost like a cookie batter. And when I took the muffins out, they looked like little oatmeal raisin muffin-shaped rocks. These are definitely not fluffy buttery muffins, but I had one this morning and it wasn't too bad. It would've been better microwaved for a few seconds and spread with some butter or margarine, but it will be a wonderful healthy snack for Joe and I when we're on the go. It definitely tastes healthy, if you know what I mean, but there is a lot of sweetness from the raisins.

I might find a different recipe for this type of thing or replace 1/2 of the whole-wheat flour with AP flour for a less "wheaty" taste. I did swap out applesauce for the oil, so my version is even lighter than the recipe shown.

Healthy Oatmeal Raisin Muffins
source: RecipeZaar

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup oil (or applesauce)
1 egg
1/2 cup raisins

Instructions:

Heat oven to 400-degrees. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan. In mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients (except raisins); mix well. In a large mixing bowl, combine all wet ingredients; mix well. Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients, just until moistened. Stir in raisins. Spoon batter evenly into 12 cups of a muffin pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Nutrition Info (with oil):
Serving size, 1 muffin
Calories: 170
Total Fat: 5.9 g
Total Carb: 27 g
Total Protein: 4.3 g