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.
traveling gluten free can be interesting, tricky, scary and down right frustrating. i have been gluten free for a little over 4 years now and since then the majority of our trips have been within a few hours drive (little kids contribute a lot to our lack of big trips). the longest trip we had taken until this past december was to san diego. which honestly, is an amazing place to visit gluten free. i had so many options of restaurants to try that i never had a problem finding good food.
that being said, i haven’t travelled internationally since our dietary changes. so when the opportunity to spend 7 days in the dominican came up i was both excited and terrified. not only was i leaving the comfort zone of my kitchen, but also many times when we travel we rent a house, having full access to being able to pack and prepare foods for some meals. i knew i also would be dealing with a language barrier, my spanish is fairly pathetic at the moment…i can read it pretty well, but that’s about it.
to make everything a little more interesting, i actually found out that i was expecting our third, two weeks before we left. my pregnancies aren’t super easy and i struggle badly with morning/all day sickness. so i was definitely a little nervous about traveling.
before we made plans for an all-inclusive resort, i read a bunch of reviews, emailed resorts and tried to discern which ones were better options. (we were traveling with 2 other couples, so it wasn’t a decision that was only ours). to be honest there aren’t a ton of reviews on any of the resorts, so it did feel like a crapshoot.
the majestic colonial had said that i would meet with a concierge and a chef upon arriving and that they would have me pick my restaurants for the week and would also give me a letter to present at every restaurant. when we first arrived, it didn’t go quite as planned, (though i do have to give the disclaimer that we were staying in the new adults only section and it had only opened the week prior, so they were still working through some communication kinks.) after leaving check in, i was pretty frustrated, hungry and fearful that i might starve…but then we met elana. she was fairly fluent in english and pretty much ran the entire colonial club section. she got me set up with a letter to present to every chef and sent out a memo to every restaurant letting them know about me, my restrictions and that they needed to take extreme care.
so we headed off to our first meal with my little letter in hand.
our first night we dined at the rodeo grill (their steak house). as soon as i got there, the server took my letter back and a chef came right out to talk with me and go through the menu. i had a simple but fabulous rib eye, potato and a beautiful plate of fresh fruit. no problems. i was definitely starting to relax and feel better about my eating situation.
(photo of our meal being made at the Hibachi restaurant ma+suri)
the restaurants i ate at while at the majestic colonial:
rodeo grill – fantastic grilled meat
le gourmet – this restaurant was open during the day to colonial club members only, so it was a nice break from busy buffets. rico the head server knew me as soon as i walked in and would give me thumbs up after he put my order in and talked with the chef. their dinner and lunches were fantastic (octopus ceviche was the most unique item i ate there).
ma+suri – japanese hibachi and sushi restaurant. we dined here with a group of 10 around a hibachi grill (which can be a little nerve wracking). as soon as i arrived, they removed my sushi plate and made me salmon and shrimp only rolls (most soy sauce and artificial crab have wheat in them). they then cooked the entire hibachi meal with out adding any soy sauce and served me my plate before finishing off with sauces for the other diners. it was a fantastic presentation and meal.
supreme – was the buffet restaurant, which we visited a few mornings for breakfast. it is buffet based, which can be a gluten-free nightmare, but they had an omelet station and everything made on that grill was safe. (i ate a lot of eggs).
tres carabelas – seafood restaurant with main dishes served ala carte. they had grill stations with unmarinated meat, so i could get grilled meat safely.
i avoided the domincan/mexican resturant…almost every dish was in gravy, stews or had flavored rice.
overall, i had a fantastic experience at the majestic colonial. i never got sick and though my options were limited at a lot of the meals, i still had fantastic food. the only major area that was lacking was in the desserts. basically the options were fresh fruit plates, ice cream (which i eat very little dairy) and i had one banana flambé. needless to say i ate a lot of tropical fruit.
i would recommend the majestic colonial to gluten-free vacationers, but always do your homework before you arrive, let them know you will need accommodations and make sure to get a letter from their head staff and a memo sent out to all the restaurant chefs. our first half of the vacation in punta cana at an all-inclusive went really smoothly and i didn’t feel like the language barrier caused to many issues. i will share more on the second part of our trip in santo domingo later.
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 Earth Fare (yay! for Fish Fridays)
