I wish I was an expert

I've said before that I am no expert. Today I wish I was. I wish I was a parenting expert. I know how easy it is to paint a perfect picture on the Internet, and only let people see the good. The other night I was soo happy that things seemed to be so wonderful with my family bonding. Then this morning happened. Again, I found myself in no mood to do any cooking. Fortunately, I had planned out the week to have David cook tonight. He's not only a rock star, he's my rock in times like this. Not to try to paint another perfect picture, but we have our moments, and this was definitely one of our better moments.

Tonight's dinner was pretty easy, and therefore not really a recipe to go with it. I will post a different recipe for you though. Tonight, we had smoked sausage and mashed potatoes. We used to do smoked sausage, and fried potatoes, but we like mashed better with this dish. AND I can make my favorite, mashed cauliflower, and have that while the family has mashed potatoes. I didn't have any cauliflower on hand, so it was mashed potatoes for me as well. When I cook with ham or sausage I prefer to use meat from either Applegate farms, or Niman Ranch. Their meats are free of antibiotics, hormones, and nitrates. Their products are a bit more expensive, but for me it's worth it. They even make deli lunch meat, so I will buy the kids turkey for their school lunches.

The recipe below is one of my very favorites. I haven't made it in a while, and have jotted it down to make an appearance on the next 3 week block of menus - which is still about 4 weeks away. I found this recipe on www.paleochix.com

Macadamia Crusted Salmon with Citrus Steamed Vegetables
2 pieces of salmon
2 handfuls of macadamia nuts
1 clove minced garlic
1 birdseye chili
1/2 leek chopped roughly
1 orange/lemon
1 lime
handful of spinach chopped roughly
bunch of Chinese broccoli chopped roughly
chunk of cabbage chopped roughly

1.  Crush macadamia nuts (either with a mortar and pestle or in a food processor) until they are finely chopped. Coat salmon pieces with the macadamia nuts. Press firmly as they tend to fall off pretty easily.

2. In a wok heat up a little bit of olive oil, add garlic and chili and stir for a minute. Add leeks and cook until translucent, like you would with an onion. During this time heat your skillet up to medium with a little oil. Put your fish in (You want to make sure you don't burn the macadamia nuts, which will happen very easily, keep an eye out and make sure that your pan isn't too hot).

3. Add vegetables and orange and lime juice mixture to wok. Toss and put lid on. Let it steam until the juice evaporates and the Chinese broccoli is tender but still crisp. Flip your fish, cook it for a minute or two - once you take it off it should still have enough heat in it to keep it going and it also depends really on how you like your fish, it should still be fairly pink, but deliciously flaky.

So I've written the recipe just as I found it on the site. I know that the ingredients aren't exact, so I guess just eyeball it. The hubs doesn't like cabbage, so I leave that out, and I add things like sliced red bell pepper and snow peas. Whatever I want to make it like a stir fry.

Enjoy, and feel free to post any of your favorite recipes in the comments.