Honey Mustard-Mushroom Salmon, Pan-Fried Potatoes, Tomato Salad

This fast meal epitomizes the new focus of my blog extremely well. It's focused on healthy fish (and salmon to boot with its fantastic omega-3s) and vegetables, comes together in 30 minutes, and uses minimal processed ingredients (hi honey mustard). In fact, if you change the salmon's topping, you could have none at all. This meal reminds you that you can indeed have healthy, delicious dinners for your family after spending a long day at work.

The trick? Make use of the ingredients I used to shun in my pre-children days such as cleaned potatoes that microwave in a bag (don't worry, we make them tastier than that) and pre-sliced mushrooms. The downside is that these ingredients are slightly more expensive so they're not an option for everyone, but hopefully if you balance all of these pieces out it means you can at least have home-cooked meals some days of the week! After all, despite having a cooking blog, I still just pull up eat24 on a regular basis (and that's one of the things I'll miss the most if I move out of the city!)

Keep in mind, for all of these meal times, it assumes that once one thing is cooking you get started on another piece. Don't wait until one part of your meal is completely done before moving forward! But I assume you knew that.... so without further ado, let's dive right in to the fun after the jump.

Time: 30 minutes

Honey Mustard-Mushroom Salmon
Time: 20 minutes

My Mom used to make this for me growing up and it still remains one of my go-to fast favorites!

Ingredients:
2 tsp olive oil
1 lb salmon fillet
20 oz pre-sliced mushrooms (fewer is fine, but I love mushrooms and get this)
1/2 c honey mustard

Get a large pan heating over medium heat. Add the olive oil, swirling to coat. Place the salmon in the middle of the pan, skin-side down. Pour the mushrooms all around the salmon so they lay flat against the pan (you can use two smaller pans if you don't have a single one large enough for this.) Cook for 3 minutes, stirring the mushrooms once or twice so they cook evenly.

Pour the honey mustard over the salmon and mushrooms. Cook 3 minutes, stirring mushrooms once or twice again. Flip the salmon over, smooshing the mushrooms as needed so the salmon ends up touching the pan to get a nice sear. Cook 5 minutes and flip salmon back over. Either remove from heat or continue to cook until the salmon is at your desired degree of color and the mushrooms are cooked through. Enjoy!

Pan-Fried Potatoes
Time: 15 min

Pop these in the microwave as soon as the salmon is cooking on the stove!


Ingredients:
24 oz cleaned/microwaveable potatoes
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp cajun spice (or any other favorite spice)

Can't find a microwaveable package of potatoes? Don't fret, you can clean and cut your own potatoes, wrap them in parchment paper, and microwave away... it just adds a few more minutes to the recipe!

Pop the bag of the potatoes into the microwave, following the instructions to cook. In this case, if you use the same ones I do, that means microwaving for 7.5-8 minutes.

Carefully remove from the microwave and open the bag away from you to avoid getting hurt by the steam. Slice the potatoes into quarters or halves depending on the size - you want evenly sized bite-sized pieces.

Heat a pan over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil, swirling to coat. Add the cut potatoes and sprinkle on the cajun seasoning or whatever other spice you prefer to use (rosemary, garlic, black pepper all would work well here). Saute for 5 minutes, stirring just once or twice to cook evenly but leaving long enough the potatoes get a crispy, brown edge. Enjoy! You'll hardly know they were microwaved.

Fresh Tomato Salad
Time: 10 minutes

Finally, with the salmon on the stove and the potatoes in the oven, you can quickly make this! It celebrates the best summer has to offer us - tantalizingly delicious fresh tomatoes. Get them at your local farmer's market if you can.

Ingredients:
2-3 lbs heirloom tomatoes
2 tsp olive oil (I used basil flavored oil oil)
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (I used mango flavored balsamic vinegar)
1/2 tsp freshly cracked black pepper

Slice the tomatoes into wedges and put directly onto salad plates or into salad bowls. Drizzle evenly with the olive oil and balsamic. You don't have to used flavored ones, but feel free to get creative here. Crack the black pepper over the top. Simple and delicious - this only works if you buy the best tomatoes but it's the time of year to do just that.