Lime Salmon

Another quick, non-heat-your-kitchen-unbearably-up, 30 minute meal (this can be a 15 minute meal if you've got instant rice). This salmon was really simple, but very flavorful and we loved it. 

I realize that fish isn't the cheapest food on the planet, but one thing I love about it is that it pairs well with very cheap foods (like rice). So even though the salmon is going to cost $6.20 to make (that's with Walmart wild caught salmon), the rice will only be about $.50 and if you add a vegetable like broccoli, there's another $1.00 (to feed about four). 

Lime Salmon

adapted from greenlitebites

Serves 4

prep time: 5 minutes

cook time: 10 minutes

Cost: $6.20

salmon: 6.00, lime: .15 (Asian store price), other stuff: .05

4 salmon fillets

2-3 Tbsp lime juice, plus a few scrapes of zest (this is about 1 lime)

1 tsp dried cilantro (or 1 Tbsp fresh; or if you don't have either of those, use 1/2 tsp ground coriander--that's what I used)

1 Tbsp honey

olive oil

pat butter

Combine  lime juice, zest, and honey. Let salmon marinate in this while you get your rice (or potatoes or whatever) cooking. 

When you're ready to cook your fish (it takes about 10 minutes), heat some olive oil in a pan. Add the salmon fillets. Cook on one side for 3-4 minutes. Flip. When you flip, pour the remaining marinade over everything. Cook another 3-4 minutes or until the salmon is flaky and has some color from the cooking and the marinade. During the last minutes of cooking, add a tiny bit of butter to each filet.

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5-Minute Meal: Beans, Salsa, Chips (with optional really quick homemade salsa)

You guys know I occasionally rant about the idea of "fast" food, especially if it is considered "cheap" food. So, lucky you, I'm not going to rant today. But I will tell you this: This meal is every every bit as fast as any line or drive through I've ever waited in. And it's way better. And it's way cheaper. And it fills that need for fresh, yummy, quick, cool foods that I have in the summer. Because, let me tell you, in the summer I definitely get all food lazy. I won't say I don't want to cook because I still do sometimes. But I don't want to cook as often or as hot or as long. And when I eat I don't crave heavy foods (well, not too often).

 This meal is not, admittedly, entirely whole--at least not in its 5-minute form. I bought tortilla chips from the grocery store. Certainly if you wanted to you could whip up some homemade tortillas and go from there. But I didn't (see above about quick and cool). You can use salsa and re-fried beans from a can if you wish as well. They're still quite healthy. However. If you want, you can still make beans and homemade salsa very very quickly (well, with the beans--they're quick, but have to be done that morning). The beans are done in the crock pot, the salsa in the blender. Badabing, badabam.

And it gets even better (by which I mean, more adaptable).

The salsa can be made from fresh ingredients if you've got them lying about Or if you fail to think about dinner until 1/2 hour before and have no fresh veggies lying about, you can still make a very respectable (and better than store-bought) salsa using canned tomatoes.

And as one final smiley (personal) note about this meal. You guys know that my kids (mostly my oldest son) are super picky. So for this I got some ranch chips, which he loves, but I got a generic variety. And I made salsa (which he also loves if it's not chunky--smooth tomatoes are on his very short list of edibles). Only when I opened those generic chips, I'll be darned if they didn't taste EXACTLY like plain tortilla chips. And then I accidentally put in Hot Rotel instead of mild, and--oh boy--it was hot. And then I was sad. I thought that dinner was doomed to inconsolable bouts of whining and belly-aching. And then from the miraculous wells of miracle miracle-y-ness, my child absolutely loved that hot salsa, and liked the chips too. His sisters followed suite and soon everyone was porking out on hot salsa with swigs of milk in between. And then for the next week when we had friends over, my son would say, "You just have to try the salsa. It's awesome." Which I'm not sure has ever happened over a non-sweet item that I have made. And then he asked if we could buy a hot pepper plant for the garden. Moral of the story: We should go to the wells of miracle miracle-y-ness more often. And it was nice.

You'll need:
1 bag tortilla chips of some sort ($2.00)
1 can re-fried beans (or some homemade) ($.50--generic)
cheddar cheese ($.50)--we put this on the beans and then warm them
1 jar salsa (or homemade; see below) $2.00
we also had mangoes, which were cooling and delicious, but hardly essential $1.00 each

Which makes this a $6 meal. Except that we had tons of leftovers and ate them for at least 3 more lunches that week. And we still have some salsa left which I plan to use in some crock pot chicken. So it's probably closer to a $3 or 4 meal. To feed 6 people. Not bad. 

Potentially Pantry Salsa
makes about 26 oz.
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cost: $2.65
tomatoes: 1.00, Rotel: 1.00, cilantro: .50, lime: .15

Note: We made this again tonight. My son helped me. Which made me realize how versatile this is--his system of measurement is a little, um, free form. So it got extra vinegar and less garlic and coriander instead of cilantro. And it was just awesome. So experiment away. Or feel free to mess it up a little. It'll be fine.

This can be made with fresh ingredients. I usually use what I have fresh and then hit the pantry for what I don't.

Note: I used Rotel, but if you'd like you can use two cans of diced tomatoes and then add 1-4 jalepenos.

1 14- oz can diced tomatoes
1 can Rotel
1 1/2 tsp vinegar
1/2- 1 1/2 tsp garlic salt or 1 clove garlic (wide range here; depends on how garlicky you like it)
1/2 tsp cumin
2 handfuls cilantro (yes, this is best fresh, but if you really really don't have it, try a few dashes of dried coriander--I used about 1/4 tsp)
juice of 1 lime (or a few squirts of the non-fresh stuff)
1/2 tsp salt (optional and you probably want to taste before you add)

Throw all in blender except cilantro. Blend. Add cilantro. Blend. (Note: The reason I don't like to blend the cilantro at first is that if it gets too blended, the salsa can get a brownish hue--tastes fine; looks weird.)

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Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars

This month for Secret Recipe Club, I got Betcha Can't Eat Just One. When I started looking on her blog to see what stuff she had, I realized that she was the source of this awesome peanut butter pie that I'd made just a week earlier and have been craving ever since. Incidentally, that peanut butter pie was the most popular post from last month's Secret Recipe Club, which was definitely well deserved. But it meant I couldn't make it again for Secret Recipe Club even though I desperately want to (and then make it again, and again). But I figured I could still go along with the whole chocolatey peanut butter unhealthy theme. Why fight it, right?

So I made these. And they were good. And less difficult than a lot of layered types of cookies. If you want to go even easier and have the same sort of effect, you could make these, which I was also sorely tempted by, but I didn't have Reese's cups and decided to exercise some cheapskate restraint and not send Kip out on a desperate errand to buy some. (Yeah, this post is all about restraint, right.)

And now in all it's unrestrained glory:

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars
adapted from Betcha Can't Eat Just One
makes 9x13 inch pan
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 20-30 minutes
Cool time: 2-3 hours
Cost: $4.40 (not as cheap as your run of the mill cookies, but still less than $.20/cookie which kicks Starbucks butt and even gives crappy boxed cookies a run for their money. And you do realize they have 2 layers of frosting, right?
butter: .25, sugar: .07, brown sugar: .13, egg: .10, flour: .05, chocolate chips: 1.00, peanut butter: 1.20, butter: .15, powdered sugar: .20, more chocolate chips: 1.00, cream: .25

Cookies bars:

1/2 C (1 stick) softened butter
1/2 C white sugar
1/2 C brown sugar (packed)
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1/2 C flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 C chocolate chips

Peanut butter layer:

Note: The original recipe called for 3/4 C PB and no butter. This made for a sort of candy layer that could be pressed on. I wanted something I could spread like a frosting and the following adjustment gave me that, though it was still a thick-ish frosting.

1 1/4-1 1/2 C smooth peanut butter
2 Tbsp melted butter
1 C powdered sugar
2 Tbsp crushed graham crackers (could probably be skipped if you don't have them, but they do add something nice if you do)

Chocolate glaze:

Note: The original recipe called for 1 C chocolate chips and 2 Tbsp peanut butter, but I wanted a sharper contrast between chocolate and peanut butter layers, so I nixed the PB and just made a thick ganache.

1 C chocolate chips
4 Tbsp cream


For Cookies:

Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs, then vanilla. Add dry ingredients, then chocolate chips. Stir.

Line a 9x13 inch pan with parchment paper (not necessary, but will make your life easier).

Cook at 325 for 20 minutes until edges are golden and center is just set. Note: I took mine out at 20 minutes and they were NOT done in the middle, but I had also made my cookie layer extra thick (by adding more cookie batter than the above recipe). Anyway, check them at 20 minutes, but be sure they're done before you take them out. I'm sorry to say that the best way to do this is to poke around in it and maybe pull out a tiny nub from the middle. The fact is if you stick a knife/cake tester in, it will probably come out clean even if it's not done (even if you stick a knife in cookie dough, it will often come out cleanish). Also, the top will be browned, which can be misleading too. So be a little invasive, pull out a little center chunk with a fork and make sure your cookie is done. You can always fill the scar with peanut butter stuff later. But if you frost it and then find out your middle is totally raw like I did, well, I hope you have raw cookie lovers about because there's no going back.

Cool this. Which takes a couple hours.

For Peanut butter layer:

Mix it all together. Then gently frost onto your cooled cookie bars.

For Chocolate glaze:

Melt in microwave at 20-30 second intervals, mixing in between until smooth and creamy. Then plop it on and gently spread it around.

Cool in refrigerator until chocolate layer has set up (or not--ours always stayed frosting-like).

Cut and eat.

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