Who said a new momma can’t cook delicious dinners?
I had this expectation that once I had a baby, I would never cook. I pictured us ordering in a lot, making a lot of frozen salmon burgers and I figured my husband, Mike would be preparing a lot of our weeknight meals.
But, I have found that towards the late afternoon/evening when I can put June down for a nap, or even a series of 15 minute “cat” naps, I can get a lot done and create a nutritious meal for Mike and I. I find it’s all about getting the majority of the work done early, so that way once it’s dinner time I have salmon/chicken/tofu/etc prepped on a pan and ready to just pop in the oven once Mike comes home. In one 15 minute nap I can trim and blanch all of my green beans, put up a pot of quinoa or put together a quick marinade for some chicken, for example. It might sound stressful to some, but for me it allows me to enjoy my time in the kitchen again and feel successful when I can use my time well and create something maybe not as complex as I was cooking pre-baby, but delicious none the less.
Tonight on the menu is baked wild salmon and green beans with an almond-parsley-caper gremolata and roasted dijon potatoes. (Thanks Randie for making me remember those potatoes and for giving me the craving to make them :))
I have my salmon cut in 2 portions on a pan, ready to pop in the oven, my potatoes have been boiled and combined with some garlic, also ready to bake on the same sheet as the salmon. My green beans are blanched and I’ve made my gremolata sauce. The gremolata is the “fanciest” thing I think I’ve made since having June, even though it took me all of 5 minutes to pull together. It felt nice to get a little creative for once though :) And the end result was delicious. I really love sauces like this - salty, acidic, herby with a garlicky punch - in the end I served it atop the green beans but sort of ate it with everything on the plate. Everything probably took me a total of 15-20 minutes to make - plus 12 minutes oven time for the salmon and potatoes. And June was hard to get into a solid nap this evening, so I would go into the kitchen, boil my potatoes, then come out and nurse. Then go chop some garlic and then come out and soothe her back to sleep. It may not be the type of cooking I’m used to, but it’s totally doable! Now eating is another story since it usually falls in her “witching hour,” so I’ve come to realize that it may not be feasible to eat together for a while, but if we take turns at least we can still eat well!
Baked Salmon:
-2 pieces salmon
-olive oil
-salt & pepper
-Put salmon skin side down on a greased sheet pan, season with salt and pepper and bake @ 450 for 12 minutes
Green beans:
-cook for 4 minutes in boiling salted water, cool in ice water bath or drain and run under cold water to stop cooking/preserve green color
Potatoes:
-cut yukon gold potatoes into big chunks - quarters or eighths depending
-boil in salted water until tender (this got done when i had to nurse her and therefore cooked longer than i originally intended until they were VERY cooked, but i actually liked the final result a lot after this)
-drain potatoes and shake around in colander - this creates some nice texture once they’re baked and gives some nice crispy bits on the potato
-combine potatoes with a clove of minced garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and a squirt of dijon and bake @ 450 for 12 minutes (I did this with the salmon)
Parsley-caper-almond sauce (gremolata):
(I wasn’t measuring things out so this is approximated)
-2 tablespoons blanched and toasted almonds, finely chopped
-1 tsp whole grain mustard
-2 tablespoons chopped parsley
-1 tablespoon chopped capers
-1 small garlic clove, finely crushed with salt to a paste
-2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
-2 teaspoons olive oil
-salt & pepper
And because I am not perfect, I never did get a chance to photograph the food. But Miss June is way more delicious.
xx, Randie
waitin for septemeber dinner
ReplyDeleteCompletely delicious! The food, too.
ReplyDelete