Salmon with Tuscany Beans and Heirloom Tomatoes

Last night for dinner, I made a delicious Salmon recipe from the July/August edition of Clean Eating Magazine, my new FAVORITE cooking magazine. I have already made 3 recipes from this issue alone. This is unheard of for me, usually I buy cooking magazines a couple at a time (I have a cooking magazine habit) and then I will read them, drool over the pictures, chose a few that I want to make, then throw the magazine in a pile and never make the recipes. So when I find a magazine like this, that is actually worth the $6.99 cover price, I might actually subscribe!

This salmon was delicious. Marco ate it all up, he loved the bean salad, and was cajoled into eating the salmon with the lure of a chocolate covered jube jube from Candy Mountain (does that make me a bad mother? Hey, he ate the salmon! That's good for him right?). Unfortunately, Claire, at the mature age of 10 is no longer susceptible to such cajoling and would eat nothing on her plate. She went to bed hungry, I'm sure.

Will this prevent me from making this dinner again? Not a chance. My kids eat what they're served (or not), but I refuse to cater to their finickiness. Besides, my theory is that you will never LEARN to like something if you never eat any of it...


Salmon with Tuscany Beans and Heirloom Tomatoes
Serves 4

1 15oz can of white kidney beans
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1 large red pepper, chopped
4 salmon filets
1/2 cup fresh dill, minced
cooking spray
2 large heirloom tomatoes, chopped (I used about 400g)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 shallots, minced (I used 1/4 cup chives - that's what I had)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2oz capers, drained and rinsed (I didn't have any on hand)
salt and pepper to taste

1. To make the marinade, mix the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, shallots, garlic, and capers.

2. Pour half of the marinade over the salmon and sprinkle with the dill. Let the salmon sit for about 30 minutes (or up to a full day in the fridge).

3. In a bowl mix the beans (rinsed well) with the onion, and red pepper and toss with the remaining marinade. Let sit. Right before you are ready to serve, toss in the chopped tomatoes and season with salt and pepper to taste.

4. In a non stick pan, misted with cooking spray, cook the salmon (5-7 minutes per side depending on the thickness) until it is cooked through.

5. Serve with bean salad.

Camping Chocolate Orange Cakes

This is not a great picture, because it was taken in the dark, but I just really wanted to share this recipe. It was great.

We were camping last weekend, and my daughter's 10th birthday fell on the Saturday so I made these campfire cakes for everyone. The cake was cooked inside an orange peel and it just gave such a yummy refreshing orange flavour to the cake. I served the cake with a little bit of whipped cream. It was also fun to scoop your cake out of the orange peel with a spoon. You could also make this in the oven at home, and I intend to try that sometime (it was too good to save only for camping).

Campfire Chocolate Orange Cakes

1 package Devil's Food Chocolate Cake mix (enough for a one layer cake)
egg, oil and water etc (whatever is needed to prepare the cake according to the directions
8 medium size navel oranges (thick skinned are best)
Tin Foil
Whipped Cream

1. Slice the top off of each orange and scoop out all the flesh (a grapefruit knife and grapefruit spoon worked well). Keep the lids matched up with their respective orange peels. Don't throw all that great orange flesh out. I saved it in a ziploc bag and made orange creamsicles for the kids when we got home.

2. Prepare the cake mix according to the package and spoon it into the orange peels. Don't fill them more than about 2/3 full. (Hint: Set the oranges in plastic cups so they stand up while you fill them, muffin tins would work too).

3. Replace the lid and wrap the orange in tinfoil.

4. Place on the barbeque for 25 minutes. You could also put the foil wrapped orange right in the coals of the campfire. This gives off a fabulous orange aroma.

5. Wait a few minutes for the cakes to become less scorching hot and top with whipped cream.

Huevos Rancheros

This isn't really much of a recipe and it's probably not all that authentic, but I wanted to post it anyway, due to it's deliciousness...

I made this for dinner the other night because I had to throw something together quickly for myself before Mario and the kids ate... I didn't have high expectations, having had scrumptious huevos rancheros at a local restaurant called George's Kitchen in Belize...

BUT... it was pretty darned good and very healthy. You can use homemade salsa with fresh tomatoes (if you want to feel more like you actually made a recipe) but mine was good with bottled salsa...

Huevos Rancheros
Serves 1

1 flour tortilla
2 eggs
1/4 cup grated Monterrey Jack Cheese (about 15g)
1/2 cup salsa
chopped fresh cilantro
cooking spray
salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat your oven to 300F, put the tortilla on a dinner plate and throw it in to warm up both the plate and the wrap...

2. Heat up the salsa (in the microwave if you want... gasp!)

3. Fry the eggs in a non-stick pan coated with cooking spray. I did mine sunnyside up (season with salt and pepper).

4. Remove the plate and tortilla from the oven (put on oven mitts first - OUCH) and slide the eggs onto the tortilla. Spoon the hot salsa around the eggs, and sprinkle with cheese and cilantro.