I love corn

This is a typical dinner for us. The first dish may look like vomit (at least Chris thought so), but rest assured it TASTED fabulous. We sauteed onions, garlic and mushrooms until soft in olive or vegetable oil. Then we laid salmon fillets in the pan and seasoned everything with a tiny bit of salt, fresh ground pepper, red pepper flakes, and we tossed in some pignoli nuts (yum.) We covered the pan and waited for it to whistle, signaling it was done. (For whistling pans, check here. The are really good, heavy pans, can be great for healthy cooking and eating, and if cared for properly will last a lifetime- making up for the high cost.) When it was done we plated it over some cooked amaranth and raw baby spinach.

Chris decided he isn't a huge fan of amaranth. It kind of has the consistency of porridge if cooked too long- much better if left with a bit of crunch to it. I think I read somewhere that amaranth is related to spinach, which I could believe, because it kind of smelled like spinach when we were cooking it. You boil it and watch for the right consistency, kind of like you would with pasta or rice. It didn't come out as good as I would have liked, but I haven't given up totally on it.

The salad was simple and fresh. Just more of that baby spinach, sliced tomatoes, and uncooked corn. The corn gave it some crisp sweetness. It was frozen from a bag and thawed so I can't even imagine how much better it would have tasted if we had in season, local corn to use. After this salad I decided I love corn, even more so when it is raw. I will admit that it does not offer as much nutrition as a lot of other vegetables, like broccoli or carrots. But it does have plenty of fiber in a 1 cup serving- 17% of your daily value, and only 132 calories.

Do you like corn? What's your favorite vegetable? Do you eat a lot of fish? What kinds? :)

P.S. When using pignoli nuts, be careful not to overdo it- they are pretty high in calories (915 in 1 cup), fat (93g!), and saturated fat (6.7g!) This is not a nut you would necessarily want to snack on, like walnuts or almonds. But they have good flavor and add a lot as a garnish, or in pesto, in different pasta dishes, etc.