Honey Spiced Salmon

This turned out sooo good! I picked up a large piece of boneless salmon on sale. Hubby usually doesn't like fish but he deals with it, this he actually described as delicious!

Honey Spiced Salmon
1 lb salmon, raw
1/2 tsp ginger, ground
1/2 tsp garlic powder
3 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
1/2 orange, peeled and pureed
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp sesame oil

Combine all ingredients in a ziplock storage bag. Squeeze out the air, seal and marinate 20 minutes, turning occasionally. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375. This is a good time to prep side dishes too, I made brown rice, sweet potato oven fries and sauted greens to go with. Just cook rice by package directions, it takes the same cooking time as the salmon. The sweet potato fries just cut into sticks or wedges, toss with olive oil or spray with nonstick spray and bake in a single layer on a cookie sheet at the same time as the salmon. The greens were fresh from my container garden, I washed and chopped them then tossed into a hot cast iron skillet
with a dash of canola oil for a couple minutes after removing everything else from the oven.

To cook the salmon, remove from marinade and discard leftover marinade. Wrap salmon in foil, place in a dish and bake at 375 for about 45 minutes. Yum!

This doesn't have a strong fishy flavor, it's slightly sweet, tender and has great flavor! Leftovers get more fishy but are okay for using in things like tuna casserole recipes.

Pumpkin Soup

This is just divine. Warm, lusciously creamy, sweet and laced with spices, pumpkin soup tastes like pumpkin pie - without the huge calorie count or nearly as much work! Ready in about 15 minutes. I used cooked pureed pumpkin I made previously and froze leftover, canned pumpkin turns out more orange. Fresh pumpkins are dirt cheap in the fall and early winter, so I buy several, cook them and freeze leftovers to cook with later. High in fiber, very nutritious, cheap and yummy!

Pumpkin Soup
cooked pureed pumpkin or canned pumpkin, about 2 cups
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup sugar
1 tbsp maple syrup (optional)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
pinch cloves
milk, as needed

Combine all ingredients in a heavy pot
. Add milk as needed to get the texture you want, it takes a bit more than you'd expect. Add about 1/4 cup at a time, stir through and decide if you want more, different batches of pumpkin have different moisture content so there isn't a set amount of milk needed. Heat over low or medium low until warm through.

Serve warm. Great with a couple graham crackers, or topped with a small scoop of ice cream or frozen cool whip on top.

Some people like less or more sweetness. I prefer a bit less than this, so I add the sugar a little at a time and taste it, with this much it really tastes like pie but it does have quite a bit of sugar.

Italian Turkey Stew

I made this for dinner a few days ago. Rich, hearty turkey stew with Italian herbs, served over spaghetti squash. Yum!

Italian Turkey Stew

1 lb ground lean turkey

1 can diced or stewed tomatoes, undrained

2 cups diced zucchini

1-2 cloves garlic, diced or pressed

1 small can tomato sauce or some leftover marinara

Italian seasoning or fresh herbs such as parsley and oregano, to taste

Combine all ingredients in a pot. Simmer over medium low until cooked through. I put it on low and just slow cooked it about 2 hours until dinner time, but it should work just as good to cook it higher until done through.

Spaghetti squash is easy to prepare to serve this over. I used a small one. Just wash it, place on a plate and microwave about 10 minutes. It will pop while being cooked. The shell is really hard, better to let it pop than try to stab a vent hole in it. Once it's cooked, cool enough to handle. Cut or pull it apart, scrape out the seed section in the middle and use forks to shred up the rest like spaghetti.

You could also serve it over pasta, rice, bread, in cooked tiny pumpkins or bread bowls, or just straight as a soup by adding a bit more water.