Salmon Recipe, A Return To The Gym, And A Birthday

So as I mentioned earlier I´m trying to incorporate a lower carbs diet into my life. Take note of the key word there folks- lower which means some carbs not 0 carbs. I have mentioned before how important it is for me to be able to eat what I want but at the same time I am open to the fact that some foods aren´t as good for me as others and I need to eat less of them. So with this in mind I´ve entered the world of low carbs and in an effort to have some easy ideas on hand for low carb meals I got the following book:

This is a Norwegian low carb book by Annika Dahlqvist and Maria Höglund. For those of you living in Norway I highly recommend it. Lots of yummy recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and everything in between. There are also recipes for salads, sauces, and side dishes. So in my opinion a great read for we novices in the low carb world.

Tonight I decided to try a cheese filled salmon dish with a white wine sauce. The recipe calls for gorgonzola cheese but the fear of the unknown was too much for my kids so they put their food down. I was ready to try it but had to buckle under for the majority. Have you ever tried gorgonzola cheese? How would you describe it?

I decided to go with a mild blue cheese which worked just as well in my opinion. This recipe didn´t call for any other spices other then a pinch of salt but I decided to add my own with a dash of lemon pepper as well.

English translation for recipe:

4 salmon filets without bones

100-150grams gorgonzola cheese

melted butter

salt

Sauce

1 deciliter white wine (cooking wine is fine)

1 fish broth cube. (we get broth flavorings in cubes here in Norway- one cube is usually enough for a half liter liquid)

2 deciliter créme fraiche

1 deciliter finely chopped dill

1 big dash of butter

Cooking instructions in English:

Set the oven for 200C/400F

Divide the cheese into four equal parts. Make a pocket in the center of the salmon filets(you can leave the skin on the filets, no problem) Fill the pockets with the cheese and brush with melted butter and add salt. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes. I ended up kicking my oven up to about 250C/450F but watch your fish and take it out when the tops are golden and cheese is melted.

For the sauce: loosen up the fish broth cube in the white wine, add the créme fraiche and dill and butter. Whisk everything together on a low heat. It doesn´t say so in the recipe but I added a dash of gourmet salt and some lemon pepper to the sauce as well.

Into the oven my little cheese stuffed salmon babies...see you in a bit...

Voila, beautifully baked salmon....

Tender juicy salmon that melted in our mouths with a delicious sauce and side of veggies. I think I could get use to this low carb thing if it´s all this good....

So today we also headed back to the gym for the first time in forever. All three of my darling children came along and it was delightful for this mamma´s heart to see her kids doing something physical for themselves. I hope they will learn to appreciate exercise a lot quicker then ol´mamma...and perhaps if I can keep it going they will follow and being as young as they are grow a deeper love for it then even I have. I do love exercise...it´s just getting started which is my battle. Once I´m going I love it and it feels great. Problem is getting going and keeping it going indefinitely. I can be really good at exercise for short periods then something happens and I stop. I am so aware of my faults and yet they happen over and over. Will I ever learn that it is easier to keep going then stop and start all the time? UGH! What is your hurdle with exercise or are you one of the lucky ones who have no hurdles and can´t imagine a day without exercise?

Yesterday Julia had her sweet 16 birthday. Thanks for all the birthday wishes here and on my facebook wall for her, she read them all and it meant a lot to her and to me that so many wished her well on her special day..

We didn´t celebrate like the sweet 16 birthday kids on MTV celebrate (those are ridiculous) but she had a nice day I think- hope. It was bitter sweet though, as the day before she had said goodbye to her dad...he hasn´t been home for one of her birthdays since she was 8 and yes we celebrate with him before he goes out but it´s not the same for her. It´s one of the drawbacks of the profession the Captain has that he can´t always be there for special days and as an adult I understand these things but for a growing young lady it´s harder to accept, even though she claims she understands.

I also had to work on her birthday so the only ones who were home with her all day was Sarah and Thomas. They did their best to give her a great day starting by blowing up tons of balloons and putting them in her room before they woke her up. Then Sarah made Julia some french toast for her birthday breakfast and when I finally made it home she got to open her gifts from her siblings. She got money from us before her dad left...so all in all she was very pleased with how the day went. I owe a lot to Sarah for making the day special for her sister when I couldn´t be there...she is good at that kind of thing!

We were going to eat chinese in Hamar at a place Julia loves but of course the ONLY day they are closed are Tuesdays...which is what the day was yesterday...so she said she would like some beef and Sarah said there was a steak house near the Lindex in the center of town. So we headed there hoping it would be a good substitute for the chinese. Unfortunately though it was a nightmare. First, we all decided we wanted baby back ribs which was 199kr, however, the waiter quickly came back and told us they were completely out. Ok, I ordered a fajita (chicken and beef combo) and Sarah ordered a pepper steak and Thomas and Julia ordered some meat plate with lamb, chicken, and beef with rice and veggies. My dish was so incredibly spicy my tounge got numb, Thomas and Julia could barely chew through the meat they got and the rice tasted like boil-in-bag and veggies were so overcooked they looked wasted away to almost nothing. Sarah´s steak was drowning in a sauce that was anything but a classic pepper sauce and her veggies consisted of 2 broccoli heads and 2 carrot stripes! Where the hell is Gordon Ramsay or Eivind Hellstrøm?? This place desperately needed their help. Our dinner ended up costing us 1189kr (about 216 dollars) so it was an expensive lesson on where NOT to go out to eat next time..I felt so badly for Julia but my kids all did their best to stay positive. They said it was just another reminder that my food was the best! Hahaha...I love those guys!!!

I had made Dirt Desert for Julia´s birthday celebration while her dad was home, so I didn´t make anything on her actual birthday. Mostly because I was at work all day, had I been home I think I would have buckled under and baked something for my sweet girl just to make the day extra special. Instead we got an ice cream at the end of our trip to Hamar and she seemed ok with that. If you haven´t tried dirt desert- do so..you can find vanilla pudding recipes online if you can´t find vanilla pudding in your local store or you can use chocolate pudding instead of vanilla pudding. This is such a fun desert and I have surprised many Norwegians by putting a flower pot with "dirt" on the table, only to take out the plastic flowers and put a big giant spoon in the pot and say- VÆR SÅ GOD (Help yourself!)...hahahaha, I can still see their faces..so funny!!

Tonight my Captain called and said he made it safely to Brazil. The weather was 20C and blowing winds. They are going toward summer down there so I imagine his weather will only improve in the weeks ahead. Unlike here, where this morning we woke up to 3C...it did manage to warm up to about 8-9C by the afternoon but there was nothing that would really indicate it was only August...ahhh...gotta love these Scandinavian summers and those sexy blue eyes of my beloved honey bunny....hehehehe....

Sarah and I are researching vacation possibilities for when the Captain comes home. After our failed summer vacation we are hoping to be able to take a week somewhere when the Captain gets back and that it will be much more successful then our summer vacation. We are looking at the South of France, Italy (The Italian Riviera, Tuscany, and around Rome), and we´re looking a little bit at Spain. Hopefully in one of these areas in October we can experience at least Norwegian summer temperatures but we won´t be basing our entire trip around a pool and pool activities..so we want to experience historical sights, quaint markets, wine farms, beautiful nature, and other cultural curiosities these places could offer. Of the choices above, where would you go and why? I´ll let you know where we are going once I find out!!!

Have a great evening everyone....until next time...