Honey Dijon Salmon and Stuffed Mushrooms

So I made these awesome banana chocolate muffins and put chocolate ganache over the top. They were freaking delicious. I was going to post about them and then I lost the recipe. I've looked everywhere and can't find it. It threw me off my groove! Here's a picture of them and I swear if I ever find the recipe I'll post about them because I will immediately make them again. Until then, I'll just be sad about it.

In the meantime, last week I made honey dijon salmon and stuffed mushrooms. The salmon got an A plus plus plus plus except my salmon portions were too big. I got a couple of fillets from Indigo Farms Seafood and was in a hurry and just asked for whatever they had. Next time I'll get smaller portions for sure. The mushrooms need tweaking but were okay.

The salmon:

 

8 tablespoons honey

4 tablespoons dijon mustard

4 tablespoons warm water

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 teaspoons low sodium soy sauce

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Combine the above and whisk together. Easy peasy.

Grill the fillets skin side up first and then when you flip brush them with the sauce. Grill for 5 minutes on each side or until reaches 140-145 degrees.. This makes enough for 2-4 fillets. You will have extra sauce. Keep it for drizzling over the top when it's done.

Then I made the mushrooms:

 1 cup spinach leaves, chopped with stems removed
8 mushrooms
olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped very fine
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1 tablespoon parmesan cheese
salt and pepper

Wash the mushrooms well and set out to dry.

 Then wash spinach and chop pretty fine. Shake any excess water off but don't dry.

 Cook the spinach in a pot for a few minutes, just until wilted down. I then took a paper towel and got some of the excess water off the top.

 Cut the center stem out of the mushrooms. My mushrooms weren't the greatest looking mushrooms in the world and then they got mangled when I cut out the center. Cutting skills, I don't have them.

 Then chop the stems really fine. Take the garlic cloves and chop them fine as well. I didn't chop mine fine enough and that was a big mistake.

 Saute the garlic and mushrooms in a pan with a little olive oil for a 1-2 minutes.

 Then add the spinach and cook another minute.

 Add half the parmesan cheese and the ricotta cheese.

 Mix it all up.

 I also forgot the salt and pepper. Please add the salt and pepper because they needed it. I have a serious problem forgetting to salt stuff. Stuff the mushrooms.

 I baked at 400 degrees for about 8 minutes. In the meantime I was grilling the salmon and made a box of couscous to go along with it. Couscous is seriously easy to make but my Fooducate App gave it a C-. Apparently I shouldn't be eating it but it's so yummy.

 Went to check on the salmon and on my way back in found two cats extremely interested in the fish smell wafting into the house.

 Pull the mushrooms out. They released a lot of their water but were still watery. They were best eaten with a fork.

 I put down the couscous and put some of the honey dijon sauce on the top.

 Then added the salmon and more sauce. Again, you can see how  big the salmon portions were. I couldn't eat it all but it was really good. The mushrooms needed to have the garlic chopped finer and salt and pepper.

Garlic Lime Chicken and Honey Roasted Potatoes

When Jon cooks dinner he likes to put lots of effort into it. Yesterday I had to cook supper since he was working and I wanted to put as little effort as possible into it. So I made this in between old episodes of The X-Files.


Garlic Lime Chicken:

This is a Taste of Home recipe. I love Taste of Home. My mom always got it when I was a kid and I always found the hidden toothpick. Always. Taste of Home rocks.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup of lite soy sauce
1/4 cup lime juice
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce.
2 garlic cloves minced ( I used 1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic instead.)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4-6 chicken breasts (I used thin sliced. I love the thin sliced!)

 

So combine the first four ingredients. Take out about 1/3 cup and set to the side in a different container.  Add the chicken. Marinate at least 30 minutes. You're suppose to sprinkle with pepper before grilling but I was thinking about X-Files plot holes and forgot. It was fine so I consider the pepper to be optional. Grill 4-7 minutes on each side or until chicken reaches 165 degrees. The extra marinade is for drizzling over the chicken when it's done.

Honey Roasted Potatoes:

Got this recipe off the potato bag. You can chop an onion to go with the potatoes but I didn't have an onion. I used:

11 small red potatoes (You can use more. The recipe is suppose to be for 1 1/2 pounds plus onion)
3 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon dried mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

Chop the potatoes. I halved the small ones and quartered the larger ones.

 Melt your butter.

 Add the rest of the ingredients and whisk together.

Drizzle potatoes with sauce. Since I used less potatoes than the recipe called for I was pretty liberal with my sauce drizzling. I still had some left over.

 Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes. Stir about half way through.

Then I made a bag of boil in the bag rice. Put the chicken on top and drizzled with the extra marinade that I had set aside. This meal was delicious. The potatoes were basically candied and sooo yummy. It looks a little bland on the plate but it was seriously good.

Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins

 

I got this recipe from this website. I made two batches with both semi-sweet chips and dark chocolate. Jon says it's his new favorite and he's been bugging me to put it on here. I used:

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1.5 tablespoons orange zest
1/4 cup butter melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup orange juice
3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips ( I used regular size in the muffins and mini chips sprinkled on top)

2 tablespoons flour

It's really, really easy. Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a big bowl.

 Melt the butter in a medium bowl. Then add orange zest, vanilla, sour cream, orange juice, and eggs.

 In  measuring cup I put in the chocolate chips and two tablespoons of flour and mixed them together.

 Then just mix the liquid ingredients into the dry just until moist.

 Fold in chocolate chips and then put in muffin tin. I sprinkled the mini chips on top. I've been wanting to try it with white chocolate chips but Jon says he doesn't like white chocolate. Boo.

 Bake 18-20 minutes on 375. I think they are average but Jon loves them and thinks they are awesome.

Mini Quiche

I needed to do a little therapeutic cooking. I dug through the fridge and drug out some ingredients that were getting ready to go bad and decided to see what I could do with them.

I chopped up a cup and a half of mushrooms and added one chopped shallot.

Then I sauteed them in a pan for about 3 minutes with a tablespoon of olive oil. Just enough to make them a little tender.

 Then I got out 5 eggs. Don't they look cool? The Circle of Eggs. Like the Circle of Life but with more cholesterol and less Elton John.

 I put the mushroom/shallot mixture in muffin tins. I only had enough for 7.

 Then I whisk the eggs with 1/3 whipping cream. I added about 3 pinches of parsley and a teaspoon of minced garlic. I should have added salt and pepper but I totally forgot about it.

 A little sharp cheddar and feta went on top of the mushrooms and shallots.

 Then the egg mixture went over the top of that.

 I put them in the oven at 350 for 25 minutes. During this time I read People magazine. Selena Gomez went to the hospital for malnourishment. Hey Bieber, get your girlfriend a hamburger or 10. As I was reading this I remembered the salt and pepper and sprinkled some over the top.

They really only needed to cook for about 20 minutes. 

 They were a little hard to get out of the pan. Also really could have used some salt and pepper mixed in. I enjoyed them though for a light dinner.

Steak Diane and Red Roasted Potatoes

This weekend Jon made his version of steak diane and I made red roasted potatoes. It was pretty delicious.

For the steaks you need:

2 steaks (we got top sirloin about 4.5 ounces each)
olive oil
sliced mushrooms
1 1/2 tablespoons parsley
1 1/2 tablespoons green onions
2 tablespoons butter
1 1.2 tablespoons shallots
2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt to taste
pepper to taste
red wine / cognac (optional)

For the potatoes we used:

4 red potatoes
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon garlic salt
2 teaspoons rosemary
olive oil

 So first of all I greased the bottom of a pan with olive oil and mixed up about a tablespoon of minced garlic, teaspoon of garlic salt, and two teaspoons of rosemary. I like a lot of garlic though. Then I cut four red potatoes in half and then halved again. Rinsed them off, tossed them in the spices and put them in the pan. I set the oven to 400 degrees. I popped them in and set the timer to 35 minutes. I was suppose to check them periodically and toss them. I totally forgot to do that until about 5 minutes before they were done. They got a little too done on one side so try to remember to check them.

 Jon chopped up about a tablespoon and a half each of parsley, shallots, and the tops of green onions. We had almost a cup of mushrooms. In retrospect, add more mushrooms. The mushrooms turned out awesome. Go crazy with the mushrooms.

 He took two steaks and seasoned them lightly with salt and pepper.

 We added a tablespoon of butter to the pan. When it was melted he added the steaks and cooked them for 2 minutes on each side. He says "Don't move the steaks while they are cooking!"

 Then he stuck them in the fridge.

 While they were in the fridge (so they didn't overcook) he added another tablespoon of butter to the pan and then threw in the green onions, shallots, and mushrooms.

 He cooked them for around a minute and then added 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce and a teaspoon of dijon mustard.

 He tried to get all fancy and flip the mushrooms in the pan. It went mostly well.

 Then he added a few more mushrooms to make up for the lost ones.  Then added the steaks back into the pan and cooked to desired doneness. Our steaks got a little too done.

 Then he added a tablespoon of lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of cream. Then he put in a tablespoon of wine and really wanted it to catch on fire. It would not. Oh well. Maybe next time. He had intended to use cognac and make flames for the coolness factor but it's Sunday and the liquor store was closed.

 So I finally remembered I had potatoes in the oven and turned them and added a little more olive oil and cooked them for the last 5 minutes. Then we pulled everything off, topped it with the parsley, ate it and it was delicious.