Asian Salmon and Vegetables

Sometimes we all just crave some Asian food. Savory, salty, delicious Asian food. However, if you decide to go out to eat, your choices are usually expensive sit-down restaurants, or greasy take out. In both cases, you are looking at at least 45 minutes til you get your food.

Why not make it yourself? All it takes is an Asian baby in a hamburger costume!




I'M JUST KEEDING!!

But fo real, it's really easy, fast, and a lot healthier to make your own Asian food. Enjoy!


Ingredients:

• 1 salmon filet. See? Sometimes I do branch out from tilapia!

• 1 small can lite mandarin orange segments in juice. These add a delicious sweet burst to the salmon. Also, you can use the juice in the marinade.

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• 1 tbsp lite soy sauce

• 1.5 tbsp mandarin orange juice. Don't buy this-- reserve it from your can of mandarin oranges! Make your ingredients do double duty for you.

• 1.5 tsp sesame oil. If you like making Asian food and stir fries, this stuff is worth buying. One sniff of the bottle tells you that this is the magic flavor bullet in most Asian dishes.

• 1.5 tsp brown sugar. This adds nice sweetness to the fish and also creates a caramelized crust.

• 1 tsp minced garlic

• 1 tbsp minced onions. The kind in the container, not real onion.

• 1/2 package frozen stir fry vegetables. Most grocery stores already have a nice combo of veggies available.

Public Service Announcement: Studies have shown that frozen vegetables are often MORE nutritious than fresh! They are frozen right after they are picked, locking in the nutrients, whereas fresh vegetables have to travel all the way from the farm to the grocery store to your fridge to your plate.

Save money, save time, save nutrients: buy frozen!

This message brought to you by the fine people at Birdseye.

Anyways. This recipe is unbelievably healthy, flavorful, and idiot-proof. Feel free to serve over rice if you'd like!


Directions:

In a small bowl, whisk together your olive oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, mandarin orange juice, brown sugar, garlic, and onion.




Put the salmon in a Ziploc bag and pour the marinade in the bag, squishing it around to coat the salmon. CLOSE THE BAG!

The salmon should marinate in the fridge for at least half an hour, but the longer the better (that's what she said?)




Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Then cover a baking sheet with foil (do not skip this step cause the sauce tends to get all crusty in the oven and would be a bitch to have to clean) and some nonstick cooking spray.

Put the salmon on the pan and top with some mandarin orange segments. Bake for fifteen minutes!




In the meanwhile, you can whip up your veggies real quick. Rather than throw out that delicious marinade, use it as a sauce!

Note: Any time you re-use marinade, you must cook it thoroughly, as it has been soaking in raw meat. As long as it comes up to a boil (which it will while cooking these vegetables) you are fine.

Pour the remaining marinade into a sautee pan heated to medium high.




Once the marinade is nice and hot, pour in your frozen veggies. Stir to coat them in the sauce, and let everything cook together while you wait for your salmon to bake. You might wanna put the heat down to low at this point.





Once the salmon is done, pour your veggies onto a plate and top with the salmon. Dig in!