Salmon, take me away!

You know, a la the Calgon commercials? ha ha.

*cricket*

Anyway, after a not so fun work day, I came home ready to prepare REC(ession)IPES's Salmon Cakes with Lemon-y Tzatziki Sauce. Jamie so kindly chopped up some celery and set all the ingredients out for me. :) I'm going to spare you my crazy math and jump right into the food!
AH HAAA you're thinking, that doesn't look like tzatziki sauce...and it's not (clearly)...more on that later.

So I prepared all the ingredients according to the recipe, and got a little freaked out when it came to the celery and onions. I ended up using about half of what the recipe called for each and it turned out just fine.

Here are the li'l cakes before they went into the freezer (I also failed to read that these had to be chilled for 2 hours, so they went into the freezer for 15 minutes):
My first batch of cakes didn't turn out so pretty, so here's a picture of the second batch, all golden brown and crispy:
For the sauce, I wanted something that I could use lime in (I think we're down to just 3 limes now, phew!), so I set out to make a Cilantro-Lime Aioli. However, my inability to stick to a recipe came through once again as I threw together some freak combination of cilantro, garlic, lime, mayo and lime juice. I think I totally made something reminiscent of El Pollo Rico's Green Sauce (which, btw, I tried and failed to make on last week after I had searched for a recipe). HA! I win :)

Note: this was the first time I looked up the El Pollo Rico website...I can't believe it's www.ilovethischicken.com. AWESOME.

Cilantro Lime Sauce
1 small clove garlic
1/4 jalapeno pepper, seeded
1 c cilantro, coarsely chopped
2-3 tbsp light mayonnaise
juice of one juicy lime

Puree all ingredients together and serve.

Here's dinner all served up:
It didn't occur to me that I needed a side dish until I was done cooking the salmon cakes so I started searching through the freezer for a quick side. First I grabbed the steak fries and then realized that would take too long, but I stuck them in the toaster anyway because they would be GREAT with the sauce.

Next victim - frozen cauliflower! I like keeping random frozen veggies on hand since they don't really go bad. My standard freezer veggies - cauliflower, brussels sprouts, soybeans, mixed veggies, peas and corn. I quickly steamed the cauliflower in the microwave and sprinkled some chili powder on it (it also got dipped in the sauce).

The salmon cakes were fantastic over the greens. They were nice and crisp on the outside and creamy on the inside! It (strangely) reminded me of when I get a tuna or chicken salad salad - the topping is rich, creamy and meaty enough that it's like insta-dressing on greens. I think it's a great combo!

Overall, I'd say this was a successful dinner experiment! :)

For dessert, Jamie insisted that I try the Strawberry Ice Cream he made last night (well, he made the base on Sunday and made the actual ice cream last night) so I had 2 spoonfulls of this:
As always, Jamie did good in the world of ice cream! I was really surprised at the fantastic color (this picture doesn't even do it justice!)...I thought it was going to be a pale pale pink. Guess we just got some super ripe strawberries!

Okaaay, I know I've been doing a TON of food-heavy posts over the past few days. What can I say, there just hasn't been much excitement in my running world lately (aside from my random burst of Marine Corps excitement). I'll probably have more fun things to report next weekend when Jamie and I run the Baltimore 10-Miler (a first for both of us) and once I finalize my 'official' marathon training schedule, I'll get all nerdy and gush about it. Til then, I hope everyone enjoys the tasty posts!! :)