Had plenty of veggies that needed to be cooked up, so I thought I'd fry up the bok choy and bean sprouts (yum)

Ingredients:

• bok choy, cut into pieces
• bag of bean sprouts
• onion, diced
• garlic, diced

Stir frying was pretty straightforward: fry up onions and garlic, add bean sprouts, then bok choy shortly thereafter. Season with a dash of soy sauce, lemon pepper, and herb seasoning.

For protein, I steamed fish (Swai fillet). Simply cut the big pieces in half (so they'd fit in the steamer), and piled them all in. I had put the pieces in and already started cooking when I realized I'd forgotten to season the fish, so I simply opened the lid and sprinkled a generous helping of lemon pepper on top of each fish fillet.

Red rice cooked on the side.

I was afraid the fish was overdone, and under-seasoned, but it actually turned out pretty well!

I also thought the bean sprouts were overdone, as I'd underestimated the time it takes to cook the stalk portions of the bok choy, and had to cook them longer. But they still turned out great, as evidenced by the fact that my son wolfed it down like there was no tomorrow!

One last note: the veggie stir fry would have been REALLY good with spinach. So, remember next time: add spinach to the mix! :-9

Has it really been 2 months since I've posted on here? Well, a week or two ago I blogged on SparkPeople about the crazy amount of sodium in people's diets, and how it can creep up on you if you're not watching. Read more about why I'm now watching sodium here: http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=3638411

So, one of the things I bought at a recent trip to the grocery store was seasoning alternatives to salt. One was lemon pepper and another was a mix of spices. The lemon pepper did have a little bit of salt, but still only a fraction of the sodium in pure table salt. The "zesty seasoning blend" had onion, black pepper, parsley, celery seed, basil, bay, marjoram, oregano, thyme, cayenne pepper, coriander, cumin, mustard, rosemary, garlic, carrot, orange peel and tomato.

Tonight I cooked an ordinary meal and substituted the seasonings where I would normally use salt, or worse yet, soy sauce.

• Pollock fillets seasoned with lemon pepper
• Spinach, seasoned with the zesty seasoning blend (instead of the usual soy sauce)
• Butternut squash, plain

The fillets were fried as usual, and then I cooked the spinach in the same frying pan. Butternut squash, which was already cubed, was popped into the microwave and heated for 4 minutes, coming out perfectly cooked.

All in all, each dinner had less than 100mg of sodium, allowing Allan to remain well below his daily limit of 1500. Unfortunately, I hadn't estimated the portions correctly. Everything shrunk a lot more than I thought it would, but what we did end up with was pretty delicious! And healthful-- not only for the low sodium, but for the vitamins :-)

Wow, has it really been that long since I've tried something new in the kitchen? Funny how there should, in theory, be more free time sans Todd in the house, and yet we've actually done LESS cooking than when he's here. Maybe having a kid around motivates us to try to eat more healthfully.

Tonight I cooked up a few items I picked up on sale at Ralph's earlier this week. Manager's specials, as always, rock! :-)

Swordfish, cut into cubes
Tomatoes, also cubed
Sliced mushrooms
Rice
Onions

Did the usual stir-fry with onions, then added the fish and mushrooms, and finally, the tomato. It took a little while to cook because the pre-sliced mushrooms were so large, and a lot of liquid ended up in the pot. So I liquefied a large tablespoonful of flour (no starch onhand!), added it to the mix to thicken, and voila! A tasty sauce!

The picture isn't the greatest, and the layout isn't very appealing, but there you go-- simple stir-fry served with rice:

Total cost?
Swordfish fillet = $1.64
Mushrooms = $1.49
Tomatoes (3) = ~$1.50
Rice = ~$0.25

Grand total = $4.88 for two meals... there's enough leftover for a full meal for tomorrow's dinner! :-9

Yesterday I posted about making a nice mixed veggie soup. Very versatile, great for leftovers, too.

Today I got home with not a lot of time to think about what to cook, much less go out to the store to buy ingredients if I did think of something. Had to make do with what we had.

Rice in the cooker, and then frozen tilapia fillets in a sink of warm water to thaw. Leftover veggie soup comes in handy, but it isn't enough for the three of us.

So, I stir-fried 8 oz of baby spinach in a wok with olive oil and soy sauce. Set the spinach aside in a dish to keep warm.

Then I cut up the thawed tilapia into large chunks, and fried it with the last of the bagged cole slaw in the same wok with a bit more oil and a bit more soy sauce.

Voila! Fish and rice = basic staples. Veggie soup, plus cabbage from the cole slaw, plus spinach = a nice variety of healthful vegetables.

Ingredients:

• Swai fillet
• Broccoli
• Sliced mushrooms
• Onion or garlic
• Basil

Steam broccoli, cook rice, set aside.
Chop a handful of onion, and fry in oil in pan. Add basil (fresh is best, but dried also works well)
Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of swai fillet.
Fry swai fillets in the onion/basil oil, 3 minutes each side.

Take out swai fillets and set aside.
Add sliced mushrooms to pan, season with soy sauce, and sautee until cooked.

Serve swai with rice and broccoli on the side, and coated with mushroom and remaining sauce from pan.

Total cost?
almost 1 pound broccoli = 77 cents
1 package sliced mushrooms = 99 cents
swai fillets @ $1/fillet = $3
rice for all of us = 25 cents

Grand total = $5.01 for 3 meals at dinner plus Todd's lunch the next day.

Ingredients:

• Salmon
• Cole slaw
• Eggs
• Spinach

Stir-fry spinach with oil and soy sauce. Add a dash of lemon. Set aside.

Stir-fry cole slaw with mushroom sauce to taste.
Boil salmon and shred (save the water for soup-- see next day)
Crack egg into bowl, add soy sauce, beat, and mix in slaw and salmon bits
Fry as a pancake

Serve individual cakes with spinach and rice on the side.

Ingredients:

• 2 tomatoes
• 2 zucchinis
• 3 carrots
• pasta
• salmon

Bring pot of water to boil.
Cook carrots, zucchini and pasta for ~10 minutes.
Add tomatoes and cook a few more minutes.
Also added Trader Joe's chicken broth packet for extra flavor.

Cook salmon separately.


Ladel soup into bowls. Cut cooked salmon portions into pieces and add to soup.