Recipe #7: Salmon cakes with quinoa salad

The month of July is full of celebrations in our household - the girls' birthday, John's birthday, our anniversary. Celebrations = delicious, sweet, goodness. This goodness has come to us in the form of peach and blueberry pie (courtesy of Grammy), key lime cupcake (courtesy of Cupcake A La Mode), lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting, and now homemade ice cream. For our anniversary, we declared our love for one another with the gift that just keeps giving, and it's first offering was blackberry ice cream made with the berries that we had picked. So... very... good. (Insert pause here as I run for a small bowl to inspire this post).

All of that being said, my overall feeling of "ugh" from the calories consumed recently, meant that tonight's dinner needed to be fresh, clean, and free of sugar and cream. :) It was all of the above! Whew!

Salmon cakes:

1. Bake wild Alaskan salmon according to package directions (we often keep this in our freezer because it's a quick and easy meal)
2. Shred fully cooked salmon with fork (I used 3 pieces of salmon)
3. Add to salmon:

• Bread crumbs (about 1/2 cup)
• Finely chopped chives
• Zest of one lemon
• Chopped green pepper
• Splash of worcestershire sauce
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup cheese

1. This mixture can be made ahead and refrigerated
2. Form salmon cakes with hands
3. Cook on stovetop in pan with olive oil, flipping once (approximately 10 minutes)

Quinoa Salad

Make 1 cup dry quinoa (I boiled 1 cup quinoa in 2 cups chicken broth for 10 minutes; then removed, drained, and steamed over 2 inches of water for 10 minutes). Do a google search for cooking quinoa - there are quite a few different methods, some easier than others.

For dressing:

• melt 1 1/2 tablespoons butter
• mix with 2 T. olive oil
• zest of one lemon
• juice from one lemon
• 1 tsp sugar
• salt and pepper

1. Combine cooked quinoa with dressing; chill at this point and add remainder right before serving
2. Add 1 can rinsed beans (I used cannellini but would have used black beans if we'd had them)
3. Add chopped tomatoes, avocado, and finely chopped basil