Cooking at Home Week

We just finished our taxes. Scary and not fun. In doing so we also had to look through lots of old credit card statements and realized we were spending waayyyyy too much money going out to eat. Plus, we both like to cook and are both reasonably good at it. So this week, all meals are at home. This has also turned out to be a great way to use up pantry and freezer items. So, meal one.

Monday night we were going back to meet with our tax person for the second time, better prepared, so it was stressful already and neither us felt like cooking. Luckily we had picked up a side of Salmon at Costco on Sunday and it was in the fridge, an easy dinner calling out to us. Normally I don't like buying meat or fish at Costco, I prefer to go to our local places and just buy what we'll need for that day, but it was a really good price and looked good and was fresh, so fine. I put on the rice cooker (an awesome thing to have, we have rice all the time, this is so easy) and cut the side of Salmon in half so I could try two different marinades.

First marinade, and the piece we had on Monday night was a simple, but awesome one. It's easy if you have a cabinet full of Asian sauces, which we do! Soy sauce, sambal (chili/garlic sauce- adds a serious punch), mirin, pepper, ginger, garlic and a little rice wine vinegar. Mix this up, pour it over the fish and wait until there are about 5 minutes left on the rice. I start the fish flesh side up under the broiler for about 3-4 minutes, but watch so it doesn't burn. Flip it and go for about 5-6 minutes, depending on how cooked you want it to be. If it starts to burn, either move it a little further away from the broiler or cover it partially with some foil.

Normally I would try to make a simple veggie side, but no time tonight. A good, light meal that took about 10 minutes of actual work!