Orange and Maple Grilled Salmon

I honestly don't know what I would do without Pinterest in my life.

How did I eat before it? I have no clue. But I've had some goooood eats since it has come into my life, haha.

Anywayyy ... the other day I grilled some salmon on the barbecue that had been marinated with an orange and maple glaze. I found the recipe on Pinterest (of course) and this is where the original recipe came from:

http://iowagirleats.com/2012/04/23/maple-grilled-salmon-with-skinny-rice/

I try to eat healthy most of the time. I love junk food and sometimes I just give in but for the most part,  I try to make things at least healthier.

Luckily, this recipe is pretty good for you so there was no adjusting.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of rice vinegar

3 Tbs of Maple Syrup

3 Tbs of Orange Juice

4 Salmon Fillets (I only used 2)

Dash of Salt and Pepper

What to do: 

In a bowl, combine the rice vinegar, maple syrup and orange juice. Add the mixture and the salmon to a zip lock bag and marinate in the fridge for 1-3 hours.

Once your salmon has been marinated long enough, heat up your barbie (and pretend your Australian) on high.

Pour the marinade from the Zip Lock bag into a small sauce pan and heat until the it reduces by half. I used medium heat and then turned it down a bit after it started to bubble. 

The original recipe called for spraying both sides of the salmon with non-stick spray before placing on the barbecue. I don't like using this spray so I put it on the BBQ without it.

However, this caused it to stick too much so I eventually placed it in tin foil for it to cook the rest of the way.

You're going to want to cook your salmon for about 4-6 minutes on each side (or until it's cooked all the way through .. obviously!!). The time it will take to cook the salmon will vary depending on how thick it is. Mine actually took a little bit longer.

You're also going to want to brush the salmon with the marinade (that you have reduced) every couple of minutes. When you flip it, keep marinating!

My salmon had a weird thing going on with its tail.

Once your salmon is all cooked, put 'er on a plate and season with salt and pepper to taste.

I served mine with brown rice and broccoli (that I threw in the frying pan for a couple of minutes). 

My salmon started to fall apart on the BBQ, which is why I ended up wrapping it in tin foil. It would have looked prettier otherwise, haha.

And there you have it, not too shabby for healthy food ;)

Lasagna Chicken and Spinach Rolls

Over the weekend I made delicious lasagna rolls that I stuffed with ricotta cheese, spinach and chicken. I'm horrible when it comes to measuring things. I pretty much just wing it and throw stuff together. Basically, I'm too lazy to measure.

But luckily, I haven't fooled things up too much. Yet!

So here is the best shot of the measurements that I think I used.

Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless cooked chicken breasts
1 can of Spaghetti Sauce or approx. 2 cups of home made sauce
8 lasagna noodles
1 1/2 cups Ricotta Cheese
1/4 cup of Parmesan Cheese
2 cups of spinach
Dash of salt and pepper


First you make your sauce (or use store bought - whatever works). I had some home made sauce frozen in the freezer, so I thawed that out.

You'll also want to cook your chicken at this time as well. I fried 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts that I had cut into small chucks. Shredding it would have been good, too.

Boil your lasagna noodles for about 10 minutes. I used 9 noodles (which was way to much for just me and my fiancée). Throw on some garlic bread and you can expect it will serve 3 or 4 people (depending on appetite).While your noodles are cooking, you can make the cheese mixture.

In a medium bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups of ricotta cheese, 1/4 cups of Parmesan cheese, cooked chicken breasts chunks and 2 cups of spinach. I always use fresh spinach but you could use the frozen kind too if it's thawed and drained. I added a dash of salt and pepper to this as well.

Once your lasagna noodles are cooked, remove them from the water. I used tongs to remove them individually and placed them on a baking sheet for about 10 minutes. I ran them under cold water before placing them on the sheet so they wouldn't be all starchy. You can pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees F about now.

I lined a 13x9 inch baking dish with parchment paper (because I'm lazy and hate the mess) and spooned some of the spaghetti sauce evenly on the bottom of the dish.

Once the noodles had cooled off, I spooned the cheese mixture on the bottom half of the noodle and rolled them up. You'll want to place them seam-side down into the dish and cover with the rest of your sauce.

Of course, don't forget to add some extra Parm on top!!!

Cover (with foil) and pop that baby into the oven and cook for about 20-25 minutes.

If your anything like me, you can add a little bit of extra Parmesan cheese on top and viola!

Here you have it ... delicious!