Simple Salmon

My kids love fish, especially Salmon.  Here's how I keep it easy, quick, and delicious and they gobble it up every time.

For my family, I usually buy about a pound and a half and it's never enough... (guess I should get more huh?)  Salmon can be pricey so I look for sales.  I do not, however, like frozen Salmon.

This is such a simple dish, there really isn't even a recipe. Here's what I do:

1. Squeeze lemon juice on the top and bottom (also, I almost always have the skin removed- fish skin grosses me out!)

2. Pour olive oil on the top and bottom and rub into the fish.

3.  Generously sprinkle Fox Point Seasoning from Penzey's Spices http://www.penzeys.com/ on the top and bottom and rub into the fish. *Fox Point is a combination of salt, shallots, chives, garlic, onion, and green peppercorn. It is great on pretty much everything (great on veggies and really tasty with eggs!)  It is such a simple way to add flavor to anything really quickly and it's pretty much foolproof!

4.  Cook on a hot grill, flipping to grill both sides, until it flakes easily with a fork and looks "done" in the middle.

That's it, and I'm telling you my kids gobble it up every time.

So... if your kids are picky eaters, at this point you're probably saying, "Ok, but my kids won't even try it."  And, if your kids are picky eaters, at this point you're probably right.  I'm new to blogging and struggling with what to post when and I have so much I want to talk about, but I don't know where to stop or start (and I tend to be wordy as it is!).  So for now, if you're wondering how I got my kids to eat salmon, I'll tell you that they probably first had it at about 9 months old.  They started early, which helps a lot!  If you have a baby, I highly suggest that you start with real food like fish early- don't grind it up or make it into baby food, just serve little pieces when you're eating it. If you're kids are older and already think they don't like fish, or won't try anything new, the process will be a little more difficult and I'll get to that. For now, I posted about the salmon to give you some idea about how my family eats.

We actually had this fish for dinner tonight which is what made me think of it.  I did vary it slightly.  I've been following a lot of money saving and couponing blogs lately (current favorites are Hip2Save and Moneysavingmom) so I did "Salmon" on a budget.  What we actually ate was called "White Salmon" and isn't really salmon at all aparently.  A pound and a half of fresh, wild caught, White Salmon was only a little over $7.  As a side I served Uncle Ben's broccoli cheese whole grain white rice (Only $0.50 after using the coupon on the box) to which I added extra broccoli.  So, all said, the dinner was under $9 and was healthy and delicious!

Kid Hint:  I have found that my kids approach a meal better if it feels familiar.  Since they know they like Salmon, I made sure that I called it Salmon and cooked it the way I usually cook salmon.  The broccoli rice was new so we talked about all of the ingredients that they were familiar with. "Well, you love rice, cheese, and broccoli, so I'm sure you'll like this.  I loved cheesy broccoli rice as a kid."

Real Life:  My daughter and the baby loved the broccoli rice, my middle son did not.  He likes cheese, broccoli, and rice but (at least tonight) this combination was not his thing.  I encouraged him to eat a little more but did not make it a big deal. I have learned from experience that he will likely eat it the next time, but if I force it, he may start deciding that he doesn't like broccoli, or rice.  He ate tons of fish, so I was happy!