My First ★★★★★ Dinner!

Tonight I cooked my third meal of the week: Teriyaki Salmon with Mushrooms, Orange-Ginger Sugar Snap Peas, both from the new Cooking Light Cookbook (page 199). I also made more of my Asian Slaw because I bought too much slaw mix yesterday and had to use it up.

This one was supposed to take 20 minutes, and it took 60.

So I'm improving. Plus I didn't injure myself on any produce.

And I got to use the Salmon that Michael caught on Saturday, so this was FRESH! I feel like we could live off the land!

Okay, just kidding.

But I did learn that because salmon is a fatty fish, you don't need to cook it in oil or anything. And you can get a really nice sear in a pan, and it only takes about 10 minutes. And apparently it's hard to screw up. Because even though Michael was 15 minutes late, it was somehow still cooked perfectly! Seriously. The sauce was AMAZING too. We both gave it 5 stars. I might use a tad less sherry next time, but it was seriously good. And easy. I swear. If I can do it, you can too.

In fact, I recommend it so highly, that I'll include the recipe at the bottom of this post. Someone else already posted it online, so I figure it's probably okay. But I encourage you to buy the cookbook anyway.

The sugar snap peas were only a 3 or so. I don't love orange zest in my veggies apparently. And they were a little oily because when I first put the ginger in the hot oil, it splattered so much that I couldn't get near the pan to keep cooking. So I added more oil. Live and learn.

Anyway, this was even more successful than the Ahi Burgers...and I did it totally myself! In fact, it's funny, because I was beginning to think that I only liked cooking as a social experience. My mom helped with the prep work for the Ahi Burgers, and Gina and I chattered away for the two or so hours it took to cook and eat last night's meal. On both occasions, it felt like half the fun was just the shared experience of being together in the kitchen.

But today, I was totally alone. I cranked up some Melissa Etheridge, and got to work. I cleaned as I went, which made me extra impressed with myself. I managed to finish everything at the same time. I felt accomplished. And I wasn't thinking about work or anything really. I was very in the moment. Thich Nhat Hanh would have been proud. I was. And it was just as much fun by myself.

Teriyaki Salmon with Mushrooms (Cooking Light/page 199)

Ingredients

1/4 cup dry sherry
1/4 cup of teriyaki sauce
2 TBS light brown sugar
1 tsp canola oil
8 oz pkg of sliced baby portobello mushrooms
4 - 6oz salmon fillets (I only used two, and I thought the rest still worked out fine as toppings. More mushrooms for me!)

Directions

• Combine first 3 ingredients in a bowl and stir to disolve sugar.
• Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over med-high add mushroom and saute 4 min or until tender.
• Add 1/3 cup of the sherry mixture to the mushrooms. Reduce heat and simmer 2 min or until liquid almost evaporates. Spoon mushroom mixture into a bowl and set aside.
• Heat pan over med-high heat add fish. Cook 3-4 min each side until browned. Add mushrooms and remaining sherry mixture to pan, cook 2 min, and transfer fish to a plate and top with mushrooms.

Number of Servings: 4 (*2 the way I made it)

In their version: 335 calories, 14.3 grams of fat, 1 gram of fiber.