Teriyaki Salmon with Soba Veggie Noodles

This past weekend was the second weekend I’ve had off, but the first one where I had no plans at all.  And it was perfect.  The weather was back to winter, it was cold, overcast on Saturday and super windy on Sunday.  The kadults worked all day Saturday and Sunday so I had the house to myself.

I was up at 7:00 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday. I have no idea how I’ve turned into a morning person these last few years, but I like it.  It also helps that I am going to bed pretty much the same time on Friday and Saturday as I do during the week – between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m.  I sleep like the dead, so I think 8 hour of sleep is plenty. 

I woke up Saturday morning so hungry.  I am trying to limit my in between snacks, even if its fruit, and especially not snacking after dinner, which means I may need to eat a few more points at breakfast and lunch so I still get my 30 points in every day.  At 7:30 on Saturday morning I ate this plate:  light English muffin (2), 2 ounces avocado with Tajin (3), and fruit.

I fully expected this to be breakfast #1, because it was only 5 smart points, but that kept me full for hours.  So much so that I left to run errands at 12:30 and never gave a thought to lunch.  Until I was at the grocery store and those damn chicken fingers smelled so good!  But I went to the prepared foods by the deli and picked up (an unphotographed) cooked grilled pork chop and ate that while I shopped (4) and had about 4 points of tastes at Sam’s Club while I shopped there.   I love the cut fruit at Sam’s Club – especially the mango and pineapple, because no matter how many youtube videos I watch, or see the Chef’s at The Chopping Block cut those fruits, I am like a kindergartner using a plastic knife for the first time – and have so much waste.  But the mango and pineapple alone are $13.  I couldn’t decide if it was worth the money to get them, or should I try buying the cheaper whole fruit and cutting it myself, when I glanced behind me and saw the wine and liquor section.  And suddenly, like a punch in the face, I realized when I drank wine on the regular, I wouldn’t flinch at spending $13 on a bottle of wine (or two or three!) so I bought the damn fruit.   Strawberries were on sale for .69 cents a container (I should have bought more!) and the kiwi was 4/$1 and bananas were .39 cents a pound at my local grocery store.

The left receipt is my local grocery store.  I actually spent $25.26 there, but had a $5 off coupon.  The receipt on the right is the Fresh Market where I bought my salmon.  So with the $13 spent at Sam’s Club for the fruit, my weekly grocery shop came in at $44.35.

I haven’t really followed my meal plans as of late, but I still do them anyway.  I don’t mind changing it up during the week, and it’s nice to have options if I don’t feel like something that I’ve planned:

Breakfasts:

• Spinach Waffle Sammies:  That was my breakfast yesterday, and I’ll do a recipe post later this week for these.  Those two came in at 8 smart points and were super delicious and filling.
• Steel Cut oats and fruit (probably 2 times this week – love it!)
• Sweet Potato Toast with Peanut Butter (PB2) and Blueberries and Banana
• Hashbrowns with Spinach and Carrot with Hardboiled Egg and Fruit

Lunches:

• out to lunch today with co-workers (burger at Blackie’s!)
• creamy potato soup made with unsweetened cashew milk (x2) (recipe coming later this week!)
• lasagna soup
• open faced pastrami sandwich with apple/red cabbage slaw on homemade marble rye bread (recipe coming later this week!)

Dinners:

• Taco Salad with ground beef
• Stuffed shells with my zero point marinara
• steak/mushrooms/parmesan zucchini
• lasagna soup
• Nancy Silverman’s pizza dough pizza (my pics of the dough and quick steps will be a blog post later this week)  you will want to make this pizza dough!

When I was meal planning Friday night, I stumbled upon Gordon Ramsey’s recipe videos that he does with his kids.  I watched several of them and there pretty much wasn’t a recipe that I would make.  I have the Cooking Club to thank for me trying AND liking seafood.  I tried Tina’s halibut en papillote, (check out her blog – it has amazing recipes!), I’ve tried Julie’s ceviche with tilapia, I’ve tried Catherine’s lemon garlic shrimp,  and this last Cooking Club, Donna’s Salmon Salmon with Hearts of Palm with Goat Cheese.  Who knew I even liked that much seafood other than shrimp!  So while I loved all those dishes, I don’t cook seafood all that much at home.  Usually because seafood is expensive, and if I mess up, that’s just money wasted.  I can’t remember if I ever bought salmon for Tony other than packaged smoked salmon for his bagels on Sunday mornings, so I really had no idea how much it was going to cost.  Well, turns out on that receipt above from The Fresh Market, only $6!  The episode that caught my eye though was the teriyaki salmon with soba noodles.

I did scale this recipe to one serving.  I also adjusted it a bit because he added generous pours of sesame oil in the soba noodles, and I made this a bit more Weight Watcher friendly.  I put this in the WW recipe builder and it came out to 11 smart points for the whole plate.

• 5 ounces salmon, raw
• 1 teaspoon ginger, fresh and sliced thin
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon mirin
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 4 ounces soba noodles*
• 1/3 cup sugar snap peas
• 1/3 cup carrots, peeled into ribbons
• 1/3 cup zucchini, chopped
• 1/2 cup kale, chopped
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sriracha

Put the ginger, garlic, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, maple syrup, mirin (rice wine vinegar) and olive oil.  Coat the salmon on the marinade and marinate for as little as 20 minutes, or two hours, or even overnight.  I marinated mine for about 3 hours.   Take the salmon out of the marinade and salt and pepper (I actually thought the marinade had plenty of salt, so I skipped this part).  Heat skillet over medium heat, add a bit of oil and when hot, add the salmon, skin side down.  Reserve the marinade.  Cook for 2 minutes, then pour the reserved marinade over the salmon**, and cook for 2 more minutes, then turn and cook an additional 3-4 minutes on the other side.

So while the salmon was cooking, I used my wok and cooked up the peas, carrots and zucchini in coconut spray and a touch of chicken stock (since I didn’t use any oil), then added the cooked soba noodles and the kale the last two minutes of cooking.  Removed that from the heat and stirred in the soy sauce and sriracha.   That process only took about 8 minutes.  Then I just plated the noodles and veggies, and topped it with the teriyaki salmon.  (Gosh I am a horrible recipe writer!).  Hopefully after watching Gordon’s video, you’ll see how easy this is to put together.

** this was my one mis-step – because I reduced the marinade to make it more WW friendly, I didn’t have a lot of sauce, and putting it on the salmon half way through, the sauce in the pan started to burn.  The flavor was still there in the salmon, but next time I’d just add the reserved marinade at the last 30 seconds of cook time.

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Teriyaki Salmon with Soba Veggie Noodles

Yield: 1

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

If you're someone like me who didn't like any type of seafood for a long time, I highly suggest you try this teriyaki salmon. It's not fishy and has a delicious sweet and savory sauce that compliments the salmon perfectly!

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Ingredients

• 5 ounces salmon, raw
• 1 teaspoon ginger, fresh and sliced thin
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon mirin
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 4 ounces soba noodles*
• 1/3 cup sugar snap peas
• 1/3 cup carrots, peeled into ribbons
• 1/3 cup zucchini, chopped
• 1/2 cup kale, chopped
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sriracha

Instructions

1. Put the ginger, garlic, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, maple syrup, mirin (rice wine vinegar) and olive oil.  Coat the salmon on the marinade and marinate for as little as 20 minutes, or two hours, or even overnight. 
2. Take the salmon out of the marinade and salt and pepper (I actually thought the marinade had plenty of salt, so I skipped this part).  Heat skillet over medium heat, add a bit of oil and when hot, add the salmon, skin side down.  Reserve the marinade. 
3. Cook for 2 minutes, then pour the reserved marinade over the salmon, and cook for 2 more minutes, then turn and cook an additional 3-4 minutes on the other side.
4. While the salmon cooks, in a wok/skillet, cook up the peas, carrots and zucchini in avocado oil spray and a touch of chicken stock (since I didn’t use any oil), then add the cooked soba noodles and the kale the last two minutes of cooking. Remove that from the heat and then stir in the soy sauce and sriracha.

Notes

Click HERE to check the points for your WW plan!

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 1 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 562Total Fat: 23gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 17gCholesterol: 89mgSodium: 1219mgCarbohydrates: 48gFiber: 5gSugar: 13gProtein: 43g

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Wish this was a prettier photograph, but this was delicious.  The salmon was flakey and the bits of teriyaki that stayed on the salmon was delicious.  I will definitely make this again!  Thanks to all my Cooking Club friends for widening my seafood repertoire! 

I am expecting another busy week at work, but after my lunch out today, hope to get in some steps with my sister this week – I think we only walked together once last week?   I cannot believe there are only a couple more days of February left – so crazy how fast 2017 is going by so far.  But I am happy with my progress so far this year.  I think I am getting a handle on this whole food thing – which will be the topic of tomorrow’s blog post – how to form Lean Habits for lifelong health.

Make it a great day!