Liz's Sweet Potato Hash with Baked Salmon

 

Today is Monday.

I tend to be healthiest and get the most accomplished on Mondays. Today I was neither healthy, nor did I accomplish my grocery shopping, as I needed to. It’s still Christmas break so I figure I get some slack.

The lack of groceries meant that I ended up having to make the gorgeous salmon I had on hand with sweet potatoes and the same Romaine side salad we had last night. Sweet potatoes don’t really go with salmon in my mind, and I hate to repeat a side two nights in a row, but I had no other green. Note on fish: I ALWAYS buy wild caught fish, from US waters. It really limits what I can find, but my husband puts his foot down on food that eats its own poop.

I made my own sweet potato hash creation:

Liz’s Sweet Potato Hash

Ingredients

Sweet potatoes Enough to feed your family…You’ll want leftovers to make with over easy eggs all week.

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Nutmeg

Cinnamon

Sage if you want it

Instructions

     1) Preheat the oven to 400°F.

     2) Peel and cube sweet potatoes. Throw in a pot of salted water to cover them. Let them boil for only 5 minutes. They should still be hard. Drain.

     3) Put them on a cookie sheet and add a few swirls of olive oil to coat them. Add salt and pepper to taste and a few shakes of cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg. If using dried sage, add a bit of that. If fresh, throw on some leaves after baking. You can’t mess it up. Omit if you don’t have it.

     4) Bake for about 15 minutes, stir them up, and put back in for another 15 minutes or so. I put the fish in when they went back in. See below.

Serve on the side of your salmon and take me seriously on serving them to yourself with eggs tomorrow.

Liz's Baked Salmon with Trader Joe's Lemon Butter

Ingredients

Salmon filets

Olive oil 

Salt & pepper

Instructions

 1) Take filet(s) out of packaging and check for bones. I have a child with a serious fear of salmon bones because I told ONE story about my old neighbor’s father-in-law swallowing a bone and having to have it surgically removed when it pierced an organ. Kids are scarred by the darndest things!

 

2) Swirl a little olive oil in a 9x13 glass pan or on a cookie sheet covered in aluminum foil. Since my husband does the dishes, I only use the foil when I’m pleased with him.

     3) Toss a little more oil on top and generously salt the fish. Add some fresh pepper too. That’s all I did for seasoning this time around because I made the butter sauce. 

     4) Bake in the oven with your potatoes for their last 15 minutes. Check for done-ness at 10 and 12 minutes, depending on the size of your filet(s). Check right in the middle of the thickest part. It should take between 12-15 minutes.

While that baked, I made Trader Joe’s Lemon Pepper Butter.

Lemon Pepper Butter for Seafood

Combine in a small bowl:

½ stick butter, soft Start keeping your butter on the counter. You’re welcome forever.

Zest of one lemon

1 T. fresh Italian parsley, chopped

¾ tsp. Trader Joe’s Lemon Pepper I just used pepper.

¼ tsp. salt to taste

Schmear it on your salmon when it’s done. I gave each portion its own dollop.

In the last minutes before the food was done, I made a lovely steamed green bean side - just kidding I made the same side salad of Romaine we had the night before with store-bought salad dressing. Whatever works for you.