Can't believe I finished all of this...

pan seared salmon with a side of vegetable lentils

Let me start by saying that I am not a huge fish person.  I usually stick with tilapia and have to drown it in butter and lemon juice so that I do not taste a *hint* of anything fishy.  I grew up in Chicago...what can I say?!  I have tried salmon before, numerous times, hoping that my taste buds would change and that I would all of a sudden enjoy the fish flavor.
While I can't say that I will confidently order salmon off the menu the next time we go out, I can say that this salmon was yummmmmy (I did squeeze lemon all over it) and I loved the lentils! Woohoo! 

Delicious Alaskan Salmon

Ingredients

• 2 wild-caught Alaskan salmon fillets
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 lemon, juiced

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Season both fillets with salt and pepper.
3. Saute salmon in a hot pan for 4-5 minutes.
4. Place salmon into the preheated oven and bake for 10-15 minutes.
5. Squeeze fresh lemon juice over before serving.

Makes 2 servings

Vegetable Lentils

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1 medium carrots, peeled and diced
• 2 ribs celery, diced
• 2 cups lentils, rinsed
• 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tbsp Herbes de Provence

Cooking Directions

1. Saute onions, carrots, and celery in a hot medium pot for 3-5 minutes, until onions are translucent.
2. Stir in lentils. Pour in broth and add garlic and Herbes de Provence.
3. Cover with a lid and simmer for 30 minutes, until lentils are soft.

Makes 4-5 servings

season salmon with salt and pepper

pan sear for 4-5 minutes

transfer to baking dish

dice veggies for lentils

diced celery, onion, and carrots

saute veggies

add seasoning

yum!

Out of town.

I'm home (Chicago) for the week and don't have any recipes to share, any tips about healthy eating, or any cute pictures.  Yet.
However, I do have a picture from my phone (not an iphone) of this amazingly cheesy, deliciously wonderful pizza.  It's the one I have dreams about.  It's also the one that I was referring to when I answered, "Chicago pizza" while living in Japan and asked what was the 1 thing I missed most about home.  Oops, sorry family and friends!!!

Side note: The fact that there is a Giordano's box and McDonald's bag side-by-side on our kitchen table is nothing unusual.

Double side note: Here is a conversation I had with my 17 year old brother, who was only half paying attention to me because he's playing Battlefield 3 on xbox 360:

Me: Matt, what kinds of food do you find in the fridge from fast food places on most days?

Matt: Um, I don't know, meat.

Me: Meat? What kind of meat?

Matt: BEEF

Me: What?! I'm talking about fast food places.

Matt: Oh! In our fridge? Oh um, chicken nuggets from McDonalds, hotdogs from the Dugout, Oh a headshot! This guy is so good with knifing, burgers from Les Brothers, I find a lot of salads from McDonalds in there. Ha my friend joined the game and I'm wrecking him, he only has 8 kills.  I have 70 kills.  He should be ashamed.

On that note.

Chewy chocolate chip coconut cookies

I meet a lot of couples where one person loves sweets but the other person does not have quite the sweet tooth.  This seems like a great balance--I wish Ben and I had that balance.  Or any balance.
We both love chocolate.  We crave chocolate. We used to order a dessert almost every time we went out to eat (which was just about every Friday and Saturday night).
Trying to cut out toxins from our diets has drastically changed our 'eating out' schedule, as well as how often we order desserts.  But don't be mistaken--we still eat desserts! And we even sometimes still order desserts from restaurants..usually for a special occasion, like a friend's birthday. 

yummy chocolate caramel brownies with ice-cream for a friend's birthday

The way that we usually continue to get our chocolate fix is through baking desserts at home.  There is so much more that you can control when making your own desserts (not including quantity eaten).  Take the recipe below that I found on the back of a bag of Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips.  I switched out the type of flour, decreased the amount of sugar, added unsweetened shredded coconut, and the cookies came out tasting amazing, but also much healthier!
So while it's still not healthy to eat a bunch of these everyday, it is much healthier to eat 1 or 2 of these when having a chocolate craving rather than eating a store bought or box dessert.
I made a bunch of these for Ben to bring to the guys/gals on their last day at the shooting range and from what I hear, everyone loved them! 

Have you made any 'healthy' desserts lately that are worth sharing?

Chewy Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies
modified from bag of Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F.  Mix flour with baking soda and set aside.  
2. Beat butter with sugar and brown sugar at medium speed until creamy.  Add vanilla and eggs, mixing on low speed until incorporated.
3. Gradually blend dry mixture into creamed mixture.
4. Stir in chocolate chips and coconut.  Drop by tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheets (I used a Silpat mat).
5. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until golden brown.

mix dry ingredients

mix wet ingredients

nice and fluffy

stir in chocolate chips and coconut

perfection

best time to eat

ready to go to the range

dunking is not a choice, it's a must