An easy, quick weeknight meal can be a nutrition dynamo
Want to make a fabulous weeknight meal and provide your family with vitamins A, B and D? Choose salmon. Not only does it contain these vitamins, but it is also far and away one of the best sources of omega-3 fatty acid (DHA) you can serve your family.
DHA is all kinds of good news for our brains - boosting memory, improving cognitive functioning and staving off depression. How it works is actually very cool - the DHA strengthens synaptic plasticity, reinforcing communication pathways in our brains for learning and memory. It helps us produce neurotransmitters, telling our cells how to work. In nonscientific terms: serving salmon makes you smart, y'all!
This recipe tops the honor roll with its sweet-and-spicy marinade. This recipe is dairy-free, gluten-free, low-calorie, nu-free and vegetarian. The prep time of five minutes keeps things quick. And after 20 minutes in the oven, it's done.
My No. 1 tip here: Use a timer! This salmon will be A+ perfect after baking for 20 minutes on the dot. The "20 minutes on the dot" is serious business. Let's say, just as the 20-minute timer beeps, you hear your children screaming from the basement, "Mom! Mom! (your potty training son) is peeing on the carpet!" What would you do? (A) Pause, take out the salmon or (B) deal with the basement piddling STAT? It's a no-brainer: You take the salmon out. True story, friends. True story.
• Karen Nochimowski, the mom behind MommaChef.com, has loved cooking for as long as she can remember. After friends and family begged to be let in on her culinary secrets, she decided to create a blog featuring the easy, quick recipes that everyone loved. All Momma Chef recipes are made with six ingredients or less and under six minutes of prep time. The goal of the Momma Chef blog is to help busy moms serve fabulous meals with little effort and few ingredients to their families. Karen also started and runs Momma Chef's Soup Kitchen and Momma Chef's Little Free Pantry, which provides food at no cost to those in the Chicago community.
Lemon-Herb Salmon
1½- to 2-pound salmon fillet
1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar (optional)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon chili powder
¼ cup Mediterranean-style herb marinade, such as Lawry's Mediterranean Herb and White Wine Marinade
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with cooking spray and place the salmon skin-side down in the dish.
In a bowl, whisk together the brown sugar (if using), salt and chili powder. Rub the spice mixture all over the top of the salmon.
Pour the marinade evenly over the salmon. Bake, uncovered until the salmon is cooked through, 20 minutes. Serve warm.
Tips: If you want to add extra zip - and a nice presentation - cut a lemon into wedges and serve on the side.
If you can't find the Mediterranean Marinade, you can make your own using ¼ cup olive oil, 1 teaspoon dried basil and a tablespoon of lemon juice.
My favorite trick when squeezing lemons is to cut them in half and warm them in the microwave for 30 seconds (or until they are warm). Lemons are much easier to squeeze when they are warm.
I suggest keeping the marinade stocked in your refrigerator. If you don't like salmon, you can substitute another meaty white fish, such as halibut or swordfish.
Serves 4 to 6
Karen Nochimowski