Spring and summer are my favorite times of the year. I love fresh seasonal vegetables and meals seem to be inherently lighter. A quick easy dinner that we like to throw together are baked salmon packets. The are easy and literally your entire meal is baked all together in a little parchment paper pouch. I really try to buy wild caught salmon whenever I can get it on sale and our local Earth Fare had it on sale for $8.99/lb the other day, yay! You can use any combination of vegetables but our favorite is a combination of carrots, zucchini and asparagus (of course these are missing zucchini because I forgot to buy it on my shopping trip).
The most difficult part about making this meal is keeping my 5 year old from eating all the veggies as I cut them. Seriously, these are such a simple, yet satisfying meal…perfect for busy summer nights. I was actually prepping these before my son’s baseball game so that I could just throw them in the oven when we got home.
Salmon and Veggie Packets
Recipe Type: Main Dish
Author: The Sprouted Life
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
1 lb wild caught salmon (cut into 4 equal pieces)
4 – carrots
2 – medium zucchini
1 – bunch of asparagus
(or any combination of fresh vegetables, sugar snap peas, green beans and yellow squash work well also)
olive oil
lemon pepper seasoning (I use Simply Organic)
salt & pepper
Instructions
Julienne cut all your vegetables and divide into four servings.
Place each serving of the vegetables on a parchment paper square, and drizzle with a little olive oil and a little salt & pepper.
Place each fresh piece of salmon on top of the vegetables and drizzle with a little more olive oil and lemon pepper seasoning.
seal the parchment paper into packets and staple shut.
back at 400 degrees for approx. 15 mins. (can vary depending on thickness of the salmon)
enjoy!
*Vegetables will still be a little crunchy, so if you like your vegetables cooked more, I would suggest blanching them for 2-3 minutes prior to baking
A few weeks ago we had dinner with some good friends, Nate & Amanda (that we don’t see often enough). Amanda loves discovering new foods was telling me about one of her favorite food blogs, called My New Roots. She loves the Chocolate buckwheat granola recipe and said that I had to try it.
So of course the next day I decided that I had to make it…Problem, I had no whole buckwheat and no hazelnuts (two key ingredients). But I did have Gluten free oats, coconut and chia seeds, so I decided to take the basic recipe idea and make my own variation. I am certain that the flavor profile is pretty different than the original (especially since buckwheat has a pretty strong nutty flavor), but that being said…I love how the original recipe can be easily altered with ingredients that you have on hand and still taste fantastic. This granola make the perfect snack, especially if you wanted something just a little sweet. We also served in on top of our favorite local yogurt from Traderspoint Creamery.
Literally, every item is this recipe I keep on hand at all times in my pantry… except the coconut sugar. Which ironically, I had just picked up a bag at our local Earth Fare because it was on sale and I wanted to try cooking with it. I love the combination of coconut sugar and maple sugar. It is probably one of my favorite sweetener combinations in baking/cooking.
Gluten-Free Chocolate Granola
Recipe Type: snack
Author: The Sprouted Life (inspired by and adapted from My New Roots)
Ingredients
3 cups gluten-free rolled oats (I use Bod Red Mill’s)
2 cups shredded coconut (flakes work also)
1 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup chia seeds
1/3 cup ground flax seed
pinch of sea salt
½ cup organic cocoa powder
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup maple syrup
¼ cup coconut sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325
Combine the rolled oats, pecans, shredded coconut, chia seeds, flax seeds and sea salt in a large bowl.
In a saucepan over low to medium heat add the coconut oil, maple syrup, coconut sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla. Whisk until liquid mixture is smooth.
Pour the chocolate mixture into the dry ingredients and fold them together until well coated.
Spread the granola mixture onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and press firmly to stick granola together.
Bake for about 30 minutes, stirring every 5-10 mins until everything is lightly toasted.
With three little boys in our family, fish is not always a dinner favorite. So I am always looking for other ways to get fish into our weekly food rotation. I remember my mom making traditional salmon patties when I was little and with a little modification we came up with a gluten-free (and paleo version) that my whole family loves.
I started adding zucchini, first to stretch the salmon further for our budget, but also discovered that it adds nice texture, depth of flavor and helps bind them. During the month of March, our local Earth Fare has been having fish Fridays, where they offer a different fish deal at the end of each week. I couldn’t wait for the salmon week to come up because we were craving these!
my beautiful fresh salmon & zucchini from Earth Fare (yay! for Fish Fridays)
I prefer to use fresh salmon when I can get it on sale, but these also work well with canned or frozen salmon. I bake my salmon for about 7 minutes, so that it is partially cooked and easier to shred and mash up.
These salmon patties are a quick and easy to make and I served them with cumin coleslaw, baked sweet potato rounds and a lemon-mustard-mayo-dill sauce.
zucchini salmon patties (gluten-free & paleo)
Recipe Type: main course
Author: the sprouted life
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
1 lb. of fresh salmon
1 large zucchini or 2 small (grated)
1 egg
1 cup almond flour
2 Tbps. grated onion
salt & pepper to taste
2 Tbsp. coconut oil for pan browning
optional: 2-3 Tbsp. tapioca starch
Instructions
place fresh salmon on a baking sheet and bake for about 7 minutes at 375 degrees until, partially cooked through.
using a fork, shred the salmon and place in a large bowl.
finely grate your zucchini and place in a colander and press out some of the water.
add grated zucchini, grated onion, egg and almond flour and a pinch of salt & pepper into the bowl with the salmon and mix together.
heat up a skillet with coconut oil on medium-high (oil should coat the bottom of the skillet)
form patties with the mixture and place in the skillet to brown (approx. 10 mins)
optional: If you feel like your batter is too wet (depends on how well you squeezed out the zucchini). adding a few Tbps. of tapioca starch will help in the binding and also give you a little extra crisp on the outside of the patties. *(tapioca starch is a commonly debated paleo ingredient)
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The lemon-mayo-mustard-dill sauce on top of the salmon patties is a quick concoction. It contains a spoonful of mayo & dijon mustard, juice of half a lemon, ½ tsp. of dried dill and a pinch of sea salt (a tsp. of honey is optional if you want to have a sweeter sauce).
Disclaimer: I received a small gift card to blog about a recipe using ingredients that I bought from Earth Fare.
The other day I asked my husband if he wanted spaghetti squash, butternut squash or cabbage as a side dish. He looked at me with the look of “If I eat another winter squash…” Yeah, it has been a long brutal winter here in Indiana (and yes, I am aware that Indiana’s winters don’t even compare to many places…I have visited Alaska), but that being said, we are all more than ready for spring. I am so ready for sun on my face as I plant my little garden and my kids are so ready to just play outside and dig in the dirt. I am also ready for the food variety that increases in the spring and summer months. So in celebration of a warm up that appears to be on the way…I set aside my “in season, on sale” winter squashes and decided to do a quick marinade on some yummy veggies to toss on the grill. Unfortunately that “warm up” did not happen last night and I was grilling outside in 20 degrees and a brisk wind…but oh, well…dinner was yummy. I served the grilled vegetables with grilled chicken and some fresh strawberries.
This is my go to, when I want a quick grilled vegetable medley. This combination is sliced zucchini, peppers and onions (I usually add in portabella mushrooms, but I didn’t have any on hand)…tossed in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, worcestershire sauce and some spices.
today’s dish used:
EarthFare Organic olive oil (a main oil staple in our house)
We love Penzey’s spices and the Chicago Steak Seasoning is mainly used on meats…but I have found that just a little bit of it, is a perfect compliment to grilled vegetables. Also, a note on Balsamic Vinegar…we keep two types at all times in our pantry. We use the EarthFare Organic or Bionaturae Organic for most of our marinades but then we also keep a bottle of 18 year aged balsamic from Artisano’s (a cute little oil & vinegar place here in Indy). We use the Artisano’s mainly for salad dressing and fresh applications. Our “marinade” balsamic…is still really really good…and would be great on salads also, it’s just not as thick or sweet as the oil we buy specifically for salads.
Here are my beautiful veggies marinating before being tossed on the grill! Here’s to hoping that spring is coming soon.
I get a lot of questions about our food budget (how we balance 3 growing boys? do we eat only organic? how do we afford clean meat? how much does an entirely gluten free house food budget cost?) etc. One of our best changes is in the quantity of food that be buy in bulk. Each month we set aside a budget for bulk buying and we then use these funds throughout the year to purchase meat from a farmer, maple syrup, coconut oil, coconut flour, almond flour, pinto beans and for canning fresh fruit, applesauce etc. I will continue to share some of these other sources too.
Our coconut products are one of the big items we buy in bulk. Our house uses coconut oil for most of our cooking, baking and skin care and if you just run into a store and buy jar, it gets really pricey. So this past weekend we spent our friday night breaking down 15 gallons of coconut oil (I know, I know, an exciting Friday night..but lets be honest, we have 3 little boys). We have been ordering 5 gallon buckets and breaking them down into mason jars for the last 2 years and love the convenience of having a 6 month to year supply on hand at all times. This time around we had a few neighbors and friends join in and we broke down 15 gallons for a few families (the mess is the exact same, whether you break down 1 bucket or 3). A 5-gallon bucket has lasted us on average for 8 months.
We purchase all our coconut oil, our coconut flakes & chips and coconut flour from Tropical Traditions. We love their expeller-pressed coconut oil for our general day to day use, love their coconut flour and also like their lotions and lip moisturizers. (And a side-note, we also love Tropical Traditions for their ethical trade practices and their commitment to Non-GMO products) To further save money, I always wait to place an order until I can get a free shipping code, which comes up about once a month or so.
If you have ever wondered…this is what 15 gallons of coconut oil, broken down into mason jars, looks like.
I have taken a huge blogging hiatus, but even if I haven’t been sharing recipes, it doesn’t mean I have stopped creating them and now I have a bunch of items to share!
Here is the main reason I have taken such a long break…meet Callen. Our 3rd boy was born in the middle of the summer. Because I suffered post-partum anxiety after the birth of our first two sons, I decided this time around to clear extra stuff off my plate so that I could spend some extra time, just bonding and enjoying life with three little boys. Here is Callen a few weeks ago on his 6 month birthday.
One thing that has definitely changed with the addition of another child and schedules that are becoming more full, is that I am trying to find ways to simplify dinner, but still keep them packed full of nutrients. A while back, we had dinner with our old neighbors and they introduced us to one of their quick go-to meals. At first they almost apologized for the simpleness, but we absolutely loved it. It’s nothing ground-breaking, but it’s quick, it’s full of good fat and is another way to get my kids to eat cabbage.
Basically, we lightly cook shredded cabbage (with 1-2 TBSP of coconut oil, salt & pepper) on medium heat for about 10 minutes (we like ours to still be a little crunchy). And then we top it with a grilled grass-fed burger and 2 eggs. half of us eat the eggs over easy and the others prefer eggs over hard. Since we were introduced to this, we have literally had it at least once a week. For me it’s a no-brainer when I am in a hurry because we have a stock of frozen grass-fed burgers in the freezer, always have eggs on hand and almost always have cabbage in our fridge. For people that don’t love red meat, I bet a sausage patty or salmon patty would be an awesome substitute. Bonus, is that it is a relatively cheap meal that we can feed and fill up growing boys on for less than $10.
Hi, I am Jennifer and I am a Functional Medicine Health Coach that is passionate about helping busy moms simplify their family & athletes’ health through clean eating & meal prep
my beautiful fresh salmon & zucchini from 
