Monday again already? How did that happen? Both Kelly and I have had a lovely weekend and we hope you have too! Today I am delighted to welcome back Becky to the Blog with the final instalment on the 6 part series of healthy dinners. Becky has already been on the blog talking about healthy breakfasts and healthy lunches. So far in this dinner series she has looked at Green Smoothies, Frittata, Roast Chicken and Roasted Vegetables,Fish, Rice and Greens and last week Slow Cooked Casserole. This weeks healthy dinner is Salmon/Chicken, salad and spicy sweet potato wedges.

Both Kelly and I would like to thank Becky for all her delicious recipes she has been sharing over the past 6 weeks. I am going to try this recipe myself this week!

I’ll pass you over to Becky……….

Salmon or chicken with salad and spicy sweet potato wedges

This is another favourite and it only takes about 10 minute maximum preparation time and 30 minutes cooking time. I prefer to use salmon as I think it goes really well with the spiced wedges, and it is full of good fats. However for those who prefer chicken, I’d suggest chicken fillets, or for vegans and vegetarians, this would go really well with a bean burger, either in or out of a bun.

Salmon/Chicken, Salad and Spicy Potato Wedges

Ingredients:

Sweet Potatoes – 1 per person
Salmon fillet/chicken fillet/bean burger – 1 per person.
Bag of seasonal green leaves – e.g. rocket, spinach, lambs, mixed, or gem/romaine lettuce
¼ of a cucumber per person
Optional: Tomatoes, spring onions, avocado
Olive Oil
Cajun Spice / salt / pepper / Fresh Herbs such as parsley/basil/chives
Mayonnaise to serve
Lemon to Serve

Instructions:

STEP1) The first job is to quickly peel and chop the sweet potatoes into wedges. Sweet Potatoes are full of goodness and only take 2-3 minutes to prepare. Pop wedges in a bowl, add a dash of olive oil and Cajun spice mix, season with salt and pepper, stir, add to a baking tray (with a lip) and cook in oven (on about 200-220) for 25-30 minutes.

STEP 2) Whilst these are cooking prepare a green salad in a bowl or on the sides of plates. All you need is to prepare a couple of handful of seasonal green leaves or chopped green lettuce with about ¼ of chopped cucumber per person. If you have more time, you may like to add tomatoes and /or chopped spring onions and/or peeled and chopped avocado (more great fats!!).

STEP 3) Finally, ten 10 minutes before the wedges are ready, pop your fish into the oven (15 minutes if using chicken or a bean burger). First add a little oil, ground black pepper and slices of fresh lemon on top of the salmon to stop it drying out. If cooking chicken or fish try and use a stone baking tray with a lip as it will retain moisture better than traditional metal baking trays – these are worth investing in for fish and chicken as they do reduce the moisture loss. Make sure you check after 10 minutes, whichever option you are cooking, to ensure it doesn’t over cook.

Voila! Thirty or so minutes after you get in you will have a delicious, very healthy dinner, cooked from raw ingredients! I sometimes stir some lemon juice, pepper and chives/parsley/basil into some mayonnaise for a lemon mayo sauce to dip my wedges into, or you can just add a wedge of lemon and a squirt of mayo on the side and your dinner guests can mix their own!

I hope you have enjoyed this short series of tasty healthy dinner ideas. And above all I hope you have tried a few of the ideas. The more you experiment, the better a cook you will become! Next weekend don’t follow an exact recipe – take an idea from a recipe book and see if you can create something similar that works for you, DONT following the recipe line by line, glance over the ingredient list, close the book, and get CREATIVE!