Food Friday: A ‘SFET’ Late Spring/Early Summer Supper! & Some Devine Lemon Cookies!!!

Grilled Teriyaki Salmon, Sautéed Spinach, Brown Rice

When I’m planning our weekly meals I often ask K, O, M, and B for dinner requests. For a long while now, whenever I ask, Owen always requests salmon. He loves salmon, and lately it seems like he just can’t get enough of it. (See the portions in the photos above?… well, last night Owen ate two of those, and then took a third in his lunch for school today; I buy two pounds of salmon– one for Owen, and one for the rest of the family.) His favorite all winter and spring was a salmon I make with a maple-mustard glaze (recipe here). This week, when I asked for requests, he, yet again, of course, enthusiastically requested “Salmon!!” I don’t want to discourage his salmon-loving, but the dilemma for me was two-fold: 1) I have eaten enough of the maple-mustard salmon now to be officially tired of it [plus that feels like a winterish meal to me and we’re marching straight into summer right now], and 2) even though that is a very easy meal to prepare, it does take some prep to make the glaze and let the salmon marinate [plus I cook it in the oven, and this time of year with the heat rising the last thing I want to do is turn on the oven]. So, this week, I switched it up a bit and last night’s salmon supper turned out to be a Super Fast Easy and Tasty (‘SFET’) late spring/early summer supper!!!

Owen loves to order salmon at our favorite local hibachi restaurant. They serve it Japanese-style with a thick teriyaki sauce that Owen goes nuts over. Inspired by that (and not wanting to have to make a sauce from scratch), I went ahead and bought a bottle of decent teriyaki sauce at the grocery store.

Here’s a cheat sheet for this SFET dinner—–

1. Heat up grill on high for a while, letting it pre-heat so that it gets scorching hot.
2. While grill is heating, make brown rice. (I have a rice steamer, so this takes no time/thought at all. If you don’t have a rice steamer yet, get one!!!)
3. Prepare salmon for the grill by slicing a large salmon fillet into large portions, then brushing each lightly with olive oil. Let salmon come to room temperature.
4. Turn grill down to medium, and place salmon, flesh side down (i.e., skin-side up), directly on the grill grate. Close grill cover, and let the salmon get a nice dark sear on it. After about 3 minutes, flip it over. Cover each piece with a thick coat of teriyaki sauce. Close grill cover. After about 3 more minutes, salmon should be done (it should be pink and moist in the center, but seared and crispy on the outside). Take off grill, and let sit.
5. Meanwhile, heat up some garlic and olive oil in a large wok. Quickly sauté a huge batch of spinach (I buy the large 1-pound plastic container of organic spinach at our grocery store and my family easily devours the whole thing). While sautéing, sprinkle with a couple of large pinches of salt. Spinach should wilt down but still have some ‘springiness’ to it.

And voila! There you have it! Owen loved this, and says he loves it even more than the maple-glazed salmon… so we’ll probably eat it weekly (if Owen has any choice in the matter) for the rest of the summer!

Lastly, I also just have to mention these absolutely devine lemon cookies — the “Lemon Crinkle Cookies” that our blog reader, Ashley, gave the recipe for in her comments on a recent post (click here)!!! MorMor made these last week and brought them with her when she came for Meera’s birthday weekend. Last night they were the perfect dessert after our meal, but they are probably just about perfect for any time, any place, any occasion… seriously, these are soooooo good!!! Kyle, especially, loves them! {A big thank you to Ashley! …and to MorMor for making them!}