Sheet pan Salmon and Broccoli

The best part about this meal is that from start to finish, it took about 30 minutes.

Not counting the overnight thaw/marinade.

If you're interested, here's what you do.

Take some salmon out of the freezer and place it into a bowl meat-side-down with the following:

2 T. maple syrup
2 T. gluten free soy sauce
1 tsp fresh ground ginger (keep a peeled knob in the freezer for instant access)
1 minced garlic clove

Let it thaw in the fridge while soaking in the marinade.

When you get hungry for dinner, preheat the oven to 375 and line a cookie sheet with foil. Spray with cooking spray.

Place the salmon on the sheet, then dump some frozen broccoli next to it.

Note: Do not pour the extra marinade onto the salmon because it will burn in the oven. Ask me how I know.

Bake it while you watch an episode of Parks and Rec, about 20 minutes or until the salmon is 145 degrees.

So delicious and easy.

this week's menu

Hi, I don't have to travel this week. My cat is thrilled!

My own bed, a full kitchen, a full fridge, and time to cook in the evenings... I am thrilled!

Here's the menu.

Breakfast- Pretty veggie-ful omelets.

I have the veggies all prepped and ready to toss in the pan to streamline these early mornings. Very grateful that my coffeemaker has a setting so that it starts brewing exactly when I push the snooze button for the first time.

Lunches- Leftovers or pretty salads

Dinners-

Monday: Chicken pot pie
Tuesday- Crock pot beef (with venison)
Wednesday- Salmon and veggies
Thursday- Veggie stir fry
Friday- Grilled steaks

Snacks- GF pretzels and larabars

Chicken pot pie

I love me some chicken pot pie. It's just so good. Savory filling with lots of veggies, a flavorful crust... yum.

I like putting seasonings into the crust for that extra layer of flavor, and I like being able to customize the filling so that everything I like is in there. Plus, unlike previous versions of this recipe, this one does not contain dairy. It also doesn't use leftover chicken, because I didn't have any.

The only thing I would change for this recipe is to use a smaller diameter pan, so that the pie is deeper and has a higher filling-to-crust ratio. I used a standard 9-inch pie plate but would use a 7-inch round cake pan next time.

Chicken pot pie

Filling:

1 chicken thigh

1/4 onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped into small pieces

olive oil

1 big handful of frozen broccoli, thawed in the microwave and chopped into smaller pieces

1/2 c. frozen peas

salt and pepper

1/2 tsp ground thyme

1 sprig of fresh rosemary, finely chopped

Put a pan over medium heat and add in the chicken, onion, and carrot. Drizzle in some olive oil and stir. Let cook, stirring every few minutes and flipping the chicken, until the veggies have gotten soft and the chicken is cooked. 

Remove the chicken, cut it into small pieces, and add back into the pan. Add in the broccoli and peas.

Splash about 1/2 c. water in the pan and gently scrape the browned bits from the bottom. 

Whisk 1 Tbsp GF flour into 1/2 c. cold almond milk. Pour it into to the pan and mix well. As it comes to a boil, the mixture will start to thicken. Reduce the heat to a simmer and let it cook until the consistency is right.

In the meantime, prepare the biscuit crust:

1 c. GF flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground thyme

1/8 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp pepper

3 T. vegan I can't believe it's not butter

1/4 c. cold almond milk

Mix the dry ingredients together and use a pastry blender to cut in the "butter" until the mixture looks like little pea-sized balls. Stir in the almond milk to make a soft dough.
Split the dough in half and press one half into the bottom of a greased pie plate. Pour the filling into the pan. Gently roll out the other half of the dough on a piece of wax paper and place it biscuit-side down on top of the filling. Slowly peel off the wax paper to leave the dough perfectly placed on top. I used a fork to roughly seal the edges together and poke holes.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Makes about 4 servings.

travel meals without a fridge or microwave

I think it's really annoying that our hotel room in Vegas didn't have a mini fridge or microwave. Sure, I could request that they clean out the mini bar for a fee, but I think that's ridiculous.

So, I adapted! I bought a cooler and filled it with ice from the ice machine. I can live like that for a couple of days.

Here's how I survived:

Breakfast: boiled eggs, fruit, chopped veggies, and room service coffee (I won't pay the fee to use the minibar, but I will spend an absurd amount of money to have coffee delivered to my room so I can enjoy it in my bathrobe)

Lunch:
-Meat roll ups (lunchmeat, salad greens, avocado, mustard, mayo rolled up into little burritos), plus veggies and crackers

Dinner:
-Tuna salad
-Meat roll ups with hummus and veggies
-The Good Kitchen frozen dinner (I was at my brother's apartment and was able to use a microwave.)

Snacks: GF pretzels + peanut butter, nuts, larabars, cuties, apples. Basically anything I could stuff into my purse.

As always, I brought my travel kit, tucked into my checked bag.

For reference, the grocery list:
boiled eggs
cuties
apples
salad greens
avocado
baby carrots
cucumber
individual hummus
mayo
mustard
mixed nuts
lunchmeat
pretzels
crackers
tuna salad kit
individual peanut butters
wine
water bottles
sandwich bags
cooler

Travel meals, this week.

Raise your hand if you love last-minute travel plans.

*looks around*

Actually, they're not so bad. I've gotten pretty good at adapting and packing. The hardest part of last-minute travel is planning what I'm going to eat.

(And also since I recently had Lasik, having to pull over every hour to apply eye drops.)

This week I am in a small town, in a hotel room with a mini fridge and a microwave. I decided not to bring the crock pot.

Meals have to be simple when you're in a town with a tiny Walmart grocery section and you do not have a kitchen.

Here's what I came up with:

     

Breakfast: The standard microwaved scrambled eggs bit. It's getting a little routine, and this week I looked for already-boiled eggs at the grocery store, but they didn't have any. I also picked up an apple... and a cucumber as big as my forearm. Really.

Lunch:
Tuesday- Travel day. Packed a kale + cranberry salad with some avocado and leftover chicken on top.
Wednesday- Frozen Amy's meal, heated up in the break room microwave
Thursday- A can of soup, heated up in the break room microwave
Friday- Chopped salad with ham and crackers

Dinner:
Tuesday- Frozen Amy's meal because it was a beautiful day for a drive, but it was too long to cook.
Wednesday- Tuna salad. Because it's so easy.
Thursday- Chopped salad with ham
Friday- Travel day. Chili and cornbread from the freezer.

Snacks: Orchard Valley Harvest Antioxidant mix, plus a cutie :)

Brought from home:
Travel kit

The grocery list:
eggs
kale
salad greens
ham
cuties and apples
2 amy's frozen meals
soup
tuna salad kit
gf crackers
jug of water
wine

This weekend I'm going to Vegas and there is no mini fridge or microwave in the hotel room. Should be interesting.

chopped salad with ham

I've been on kind of a salad burnout lately. Salads are so boring! I'm tired of them! So I've been trying different things.

For some reason, chopping everything into little bitty pieces has made them more appetizing.

This salad, scrounged from whatever I had in the hotel fridge, was really good!

Chop into little pieces:
3 pieces of kale, torn from the stalk
1 big handful of spinach/baby spring mix
1 little pouch of Orchard Valley Harvest antioxidant mix, pounded with the bottom of a wine bottle to get little pieces
Some of the giant cucumber I picked up at the store
2 slices of ham

Put the lid on the container, shake it all up, and you've got yourself a yummy salad. I put half of it into another container and drizzled it with olive oil for dinner and ate it with some veggie straws. I saved the other half for lunch tomorrow.

Tuna Salad Salad

This is my life now.

Tonight's gourmet meal in a hotel room is tuna salad and crackers. There's no cat asking for tuna nearby, which makes me a little sad.

A fresh salad with decent wine... I've had way worse meals while traveling.

This is actually one of my go-to travel meals because
1. Hotel rooms do not always have microwaves/refrigerators, and this requires neither if you pick up the stuff on your way home.
2. It's a well-rounded meal of protein, carbs, and veggies.

Here's what I used:

Tuna salad kit
GF crackers
Salad greens
Cucumber

Chop up the veggies. Mix up the tuna salad (throw away the crackers from the kit). Plop the tuna salad on top of the veggies. Eat it with some crackers on the side.

It's that easy. Happy GF Hump Day.