On the Menu

Now that we're both home for a few weeks, I'm trying to plan out our week's dinner menu on Monday. I'm trying my best to keep our meals diverse and healthy (a good balance of meat, fish, veggies and carbs), cost-effective (only one meal that requires a lot of specialty ingredients) and creative (tasty and using up ingredients we have).

Monday - Wednesday (ravioli)

Monday's chicken lettuce wraps were our specialty meal for the week. I tend to shy away from cooking Asian food at home because I can never commit to buying the ingredients needed that I don't use on an everyday basis. Since I didn't have to buy too many other things for the rest of our meals this week, I bit the bullet and kind of splurged on buying everything needed for Monday's meal, which included rice vinegar, chili garlic sauce, mirin, hot Chinese mustard and rice sticks. I should have gone without the rice sticks because they really don't add too much to the already delicious chicken lettuce wraps recipe (I used this copycat version of P.F. Chang's beloved appetizer). The recipe turned out great, and now that we've committed to all of the ingredients needed, I'm sure this will become a regular in our recipe arsenal. All those ingredients also allow us to expand into other new-to-us dishes, which is always fun.

Wednesday's salmon is one of Real Simple's 10 ideas for salmon recipes. I add parsnips because, well, I just love parsnips, and I also want to use up the last few we have in our fridge. For those that shy away from fish because it seems daunting to cook, I encourage you to try this recipe. It really couldn't be any more simple and low stress.

Salmon with Fennel and Carrots (and Parsnips!)

from Real Simple

1 sliced bulb fennel

1 large carrot

1 parsnip

1 sliced shallot

1/4 white wine

2 fillets of salmon

1 sliced lemon

salt and pepper

In a baking dish, toss fennel bulb, carrot, parsnip, shallot and white wine. Top with salmon; season with salt and pepper and top with lemon slices. Cover with foil and roast at 400 degrees until salmon is opaque, 30—35 minutes.