I’m a creature of habit. It’s not by choice, and it’s not always a good thing.
Every weekday morning, my alarm goes off at the exact same time. And then it goes off again, nine minutes later. And then again.
Is it annoying to have my alarm go off over and over again every morning? Absolutely. But in order to break the habit, I would have to form a new, better one, and I’m not emotionally prepared to do that at the moment.
The same goes with food. I eat something. I like it. I eat it again. And again. And pretty soon, I’m going through a drive-thru every day for lunch and the fast food employees recognize my car. (Nothing is more embarrassing than the person at the window saying, “welcome back!”)
But it’s much easier to develop bad habits than to develop good ones. Good habits take time, energy and attention. Bad habits pop up like weeds.
Recently, though, I’ve been trying to build better habits when it comes to food. So far, I’ve been able to stop going to the drive-thru by packing the same thing for lunch every day. It saves money, and I’m eating way less grease.
The other change I’ve been making is finding fresh meals that are easy to cook, so they can become habits for me and my husband. And this week, I hit the jackpot with Sweet and Spicy Salmon Bowls on RecipeRunner.com.
When I saw this recipe, it seemed like the perfect slightly spicy flavor palette for my husband, while it also included protein and fresh veggies in the salsa. Plus a cook time of 7-12 minutes? I was sold.
I halved the amount of salmon, since I was just cooking for the two of us, threw the ingredients to the salsa and mayo together and popped the cubed-up and marinated salmon in the oven. Just a few minutes later, the bowls were assembled– and then scraped clean.
When he was done, Hunter asked me if we had more. Suddenly, I regretted halving the recipe.
“We don’t have any more salmon, but we do have extra salsa and sriracha mayo,” I said. “I could hold onto it and just throw the same thing together again tomorrow?”
He adamantly agreed. And so, the next day, I picked up more salmon from the grocery store, made more marinade and threw it in the oven again. Even though the salsa and sriracha mayo had been in the fridge overnight, it was even more delicious the second time around.
Sitting here thinking about the flavor– I already want to cook them again. And again. Which means maybe, just maybe, a good habit is on its way. But I’ll still be snoozing my alarm nine times tomorrow morning.
SWEET AND SPICY SALMON BOWLS
Ingredients
Cucumber avocado salsa
1 English cucumber (seeded and diced)
1 avocado (peeled and diced)
1/2 of a jalapeño (seeded and finely chopped)
1 Tablespoon rice vinegar
1 Tablespoon lime juice
1/4 cup finely chopped green onions
2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro
Salt and black pepper to taste
Salmon
1 pound salmon filets, skin removed and cut into 1 inch cubes
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 Tablespoons sriracha
2 Tablespoons honey
2 Tablespoons low sodium tamari or soy sauce
1 Tablespoon lime juice
1 Tablespoon rice vinegar
1 Tablespoon chopped cilantro
Salt and black pepper to taste
Sriracha mayo
2 heaping Tablespoons mayo
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 teaspoons sriracha
2 teaspoons honey
Other ingredients
2 1/2 cups cooked rice (I like jasmine rice best.)
Green onions, cilantro, sesame seeds for garnish
Directions
■ Preheat oven to 450 degrees. While the oven heats, combine all ingredients for cucumber avocado salsa in a small bowl. Stir together. Taste for seasoning and adjust as needed.
■ Remove skin from salmon and cut into 1-inch cubes. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together olive oil, sriracha, soy sauce, honey, lime juice, rice vinegar, cilantro and salt and pepper. Add salmon and stir to coat with marinade. Then, transfer salmon to a parchment paper lined sheet pan, spreading out into a single layer.
■ Bake for 7-12 minutes, until salmon is cooked but still soft and flaky (mine was usually done closer to 7 minutes than 12). While salmon bakes, add sriracha mayo ingredients to a bowl and whisk together. Taste and adjust sriracha amount as needed.
■ To assemble, fill a bowl with desired amount of rice and top with some of the salmon, salsa, a drizzle of sriracha mayo, plus sesame seeds, green onions, and cilantro for garnish.
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 38 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
