A walk and a light dinner: It's the simple things!

During the summer Tim and I take the time to enjoy the parks and wildlife preserves that the PNW has to offer.  During the winter, not so much.  However, on Tuesday I was getting antsy.  I needed to be outside!  We took the Five Mile Drive at Point Defiance, located close to our house in Tacoma, Wa.  The weather was overcast but inside the forest, it was beautiful...

...and I felt a little bit like Alice in Wonderland with all the extra large trees and fungus!

After our walk I wanted to make a fresh and easy dinner.  I like comfort food but by the time I hit the middle to end of winter sometimes I want a salad or a lighter meal.  Baked salmon with rice and lightly steamed veggies seemed the perfect thing.  Simple, delicious!

 

Simple ingredients for baked salmon:

2 salmon fillets

1/8 lemon wedge

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon of pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon dill weed
(if your fillets do not have skin on one side, double the salt, pepper, and dill weed and add these three ingredients to both sides)

I use Morton's Course Sea Salt for the salt.  The large crystals give tiny bursts of flavor while still allowing for the salmon to take center stage as the main flavor.
 

Preheat oven to 335.
 

Squeeze 1/8 lemon wedge onto defrosted salmon fillets.  Coat both sides of salmon with olive oil.  Place salmon in glass baking dish.  Sprinkle salt, pepper, and dill weed evenly across salmon.  If your salmon is skin free sprikle both sides.  Put in oven and bake for 15 - 20 min.  The key to good salmon is to not overcook it.  It should be just barely done when you pull it out of the oven, even slightly underdone because it tends to cook a little more even after pulled out of the oven.  Check the thickest part of the salmon after 15 minutes by using a fork to gently pull apart a few flakes.    

I usually prepare a simple rice dish with my salmon.  For this dish I used black rice and chopped broccoli, cauliflower, and baby carrots.  I cook the rice in a pot that is a little larger and during the last 10 minutes of rice cook time I add the vegetables on top of the rice (DO NOT STIR) and gently steam them.  It's perfect!  I don't have to dirty another dish and my veggies are slightly softened but still have crunch.  Add salt and pepper to taste and voila'!  All done!

~xoxo J.M.Riley