Sa'mon (because the L is silent)

Does anyone else hate when people say "SALL-mon"? Sort of drives me crazy.

Part of my "getting creative in the kitchen" experience includes eating more fish. I love salmon, because it's tasty and you get the added bonus of heart healthy omega 3's from this super food. (When you hear the term "super food", do you kind of feel like the salmon of the world should be swimming around with little capes on?) The only problem is that it's expensive to buy fillets all of the time. Also, I'm the only person in my home that will eat it, so it's kind of a hassle to make. I decided to figure out a way to incorporate canned salmon into my diet, because it's cheap and still healthy. What better way to do that than

Salmon Croquettes!

I made some modifications to a standard recipe to make them as healthy as possible. I rarely ever measure anything, so I just sort of dumped things in a bowl until I was satisfied with the portions.

I used one tall can of pink salmon, which you should be forewarned still contains the skin and bone. However, they have been cooked with the salmon, so they are perfectly edible. Just drain the can, dump it into a bowl and flake it so you can't see the skin anymore. Then I added about two stalks of diced celery, 1/4 red onion diced, 1/4 red bell pepper diced, and about 1/2 c. rolled oats (in place of bread crumbs). I chopped a couple of sprigs of fresh dill and threw that in, then mixed in three egg whites (instead of the whole egg) and a dash of lemon juice.

I preheated a skillet on the stove and sprayed it with a thick layer of cooking spray. Then I patted out the fish, threw it into the skillet, and browned both sides. Once both sides had cooked slightly, I reduced the heat, added a couple of TBSP water, covered the skillet and let the patties steam for about 15 minutes while monitoring them. Then I turned off the burner and LEFT THEM COVERED FOR ANOTHER 10 MINUTES. When I removed the lid, they were cooked through! I kept a couple in the fridge, and wrapped the others to freeze for a quick healthy meal.

I analyzed the nutrition facts using this online calculator and it came up with about 200 calories per patty and 20 grams of protein!

Also, I tried a new juice combo this morning, that was pretty tasty!

5 stalks and leaves of kale

2 stalks celery

handful baby carrots

2 pears

1/2 a cucumber

3 large strawberries

dash of lemon juice

I would imagine this combo is fairly high in sugar, and thus higher in calories than my usually veggie drink. But I wanted to try something new, and this was pretty pleasant. Very sweet and refreshing!

I'm currently plotting ways to get my 5 year old to drink fresh juice. I'm on the prowl for a "magic glass" that will make it an exciting endeavor for him and also hide the god awful color of freshly squeezed juice.

Juicing is not a pretty business.