"Catching" Up!

In preparation for Turkey Day, I swore off meat for the first half of last week and paid tribute to our little friends under the sea. I was inspired by a recent trip to The Chelsea Market. Aside from scrumptious bakeries, an imported Italian food market, a dairy and a butcher, the Chelsea Market is home to The Lobster Place: a seafood haven.

The second I stepped foot in the door, I immediately feel as if I was standing on Fisherman's Wharf, in San Francisco. Everything smelled so fresh, I couldn't help but get a craving salmon, shrimp and lobster. Trust me, you would have been on the same boat as me (pun intended.) Check out how amazing their selection of fresh salmon looks! YUM!

Who couldn't help but be inspired after seeing that? I definitely was so I combined two family recipes to make one tasty salmon recipe!

Salmon Recipe:

1 piece of salmon (size varies based on number of people being served)

Italian dressing (Good Season's tastes great!)

Onion

Tomato

1 clove of garlic

Salt

Pepper

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep baking pan by laying down a piece of foil, long enough to cover inside of pan, then be folded over later to cover entire dish.

2) Lightly cover salmon in dressing. (Use your best judgement, if you over do it, your salmon will be rather oily.)

3) Place on foil in baking dish.

4) Dice garlic, onions and tomatoes then spread over salmon.

5) Take the ends of the foil and fold together to create a pouch for the samlon to lay in. Bake for 20 to 40 minutes, depending on the size of the salmon.

(the salmon should be flaky when finished.)

The combination of Italian dressing, onion and tomoato add a robust flavor to the fish. It really changes up the dish, almost making you forget you're enjoying a fallen friend of the sea.

On to the next:

I was so inspired by Chelsea Market (and had already promised myself I'd stay away from meat,) so the next night I whipped up a quick shrimp stir-fry.

Shrimp Stir-Fry Recipe:

1 Small bowl of pre-cooked Shrimp

Frozen stir-fry veggies (Costco has a great (and large) bag of stir-fry veggies for only about $8)

4 tbsps Extra Virgin Olive Oil (evoo)

1 tbsp Sesame Oil

3 tbsp soy salt (low sodium is great)

Salt

Pepper

Onion Powder

1) In a medium sauce pan, heat 2 tbsps of evoo then add shrimp. Cook on medium heat until golden brown, adding a dash of salt, pepper and onion powder just before the shrimp have finished cooking. Set shrimp aside.

2) In the same sauce pan, heat 2 tbsps of evvo then add stir-fry veggies. (These can be added in frozen, or to make things quicker, defrost veggies in microwave first.) Cook veggies on medium heat until crisp. Next, add in sesame oil, soy salt then shrimp. Mix together and cook for an additional minute.

3) Plate then serve!

Both of these dishes were a great change from chicken and pasta. Although they are both seafood, the flavors were very different from one another.

Give one a try! ;)