I tell you what, this Nutrition internship is throwing me for a loop. I genuinely enjoy my work at the hospital–performing nutrition assessments and follow-ups, charting on interactions with patients, observing other nutritionists teach classes on healthy eating for various disease states, etc. But when you’ve been home raising kids for over 8 years, even going back to work for two 8-hour days a week is a real game changer. I told my husband I feel like I enter a time warp Monday night and get spat out Thursday morning rubbing my eyes going, “Oh yeah, this is my regular life.” Is this how all working moms feel? If they do (and even if they don’t), moms who work full-time certainly have my respect. I can only imagine myself as a hot mess of nervous breakdown when I ponder the possibility of adding even one more shift to my schedule. I know, I’m a big baby.
The operative concept on the days I do work is to make things at home as easy as possible, and that means quick and easy meals. If I want our family to continue to eat well and not fall into bad habits (like those delicious but terrible Costco cheeseburgers in my freezer–have you seen these? It’s an ENTIRE microwaveable cheeseburger, bun and all! Why did I buy these frozen temptations???), I’m discovering I have to be extremely strategic and intentional about planning workday dinners. If it takes longer than 45 minutes from prep to table, it’s out. Which leads me to this wonderfully quick, totally tasty, so-simple-a-cat-could-make-it pesto salmon. With only three ingredients, it’s really more of a dinner idea than an actual recipe, so you’ll have to forgive me for that, but in the end, you might also thank me–for a weeknight meal that saves your bacon when the going gets tough and you need something whole-food healthy that comes together fast.
Pesto Tomato Salmon
A Love Letter to Food Original
Ingredients:
1 lb. salmon, filleted into four pieces
1/4 c. purchased or homemade basil-based pesto
1-2 Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Coat the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
- Place salmon fillets in baking dish. Spread 1 Tbsp. pesto over each fillet and top with sliced tomatoes.
- Bake 20 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.
Serves 4.
