Baked Salmon Dinner Suggestion

I have always rolled my eyes whenever i see someone that is trying to control their weight (either for health or for vanity) and in the same breathe that they tell you "i am trying to lose weight", they are gobbling down a chunk of junk. This is even more obvious during the holy month of Ramadan when the local Pasar Ramadan starts to sell enough food to feed a battalion of army. Just look around, apart from looking good, these food are potentially bad for your system! 

Grilled Squids on not sure what sauce

Popiah or Springroll. Noticed how messy? By the way, take note of the woman on the far end, the same hand that takes the food into the box, takes money and gives you change...Hygiene much?

Ayam Percik - Looked decent enough, but is that blue container...new? If not, what was it used for before?

Deep fried mushrooms in different flavouring. Seen the oil?

The case that stores the sauce, looked like one of those casing i use at home to store things in the store room. I hope that did not come out of her store room...

Do you know chicken wings are 70% skin (aka fats), 20% bones and balance 10%...meat...if you are lucky

I used to be like everyone else eating everything and anything that looked delicious, never mind if it was bathed in oil or deep fried in 3 days old cooking oil. Much has changed and with almost a year of healthy clean eating together with sustainable eating habit, My health could not be any better. Saved for the recent blood iron dip which i attribute to work stress and travelling with runs-in-jet-lagged mode almost everyday, Salmon is rich in Omega 3 and 6 which is essential for a healthy cardiovascular health. This is even more evident if you are an active person that exercises and watches what you eat.

"My man boobs will power me through 3 Ironman, yours?"

Hands up if you had overbought and overindulged in the month that called for moderation. Along with the Holy Month, most offices, if not all, allows the Muslim to go home early - some as early as 4pm. I supposed the reason for this is to allow them to go home to rest and prepare for the buka puasa or breaking of fast. With almost 3.5hours between 4pm to 7.30pm; taking away the time that most would get stuck in the traffic (1hour), rest (1hour) and finally cook (another 1:30), there should be no reasons why there is a need to buy food from outside, isn't it? 
Today, I will share a simple way to cook for dinner that will take less than 45minutes to prepare. There is no need to "taste" the food as the items used will be fresh (which you can spend 1hour at the supermarket to buy instead of 1hour to rest) and packed with nutrition to allow you to maintain the weight that was lost since Day 1 of Ramadan. 
This is  Baked Salmon served with homemade salad. The recipe is simple enough that you do not actually require a recipe. You will need:
For the Baked Salmon
1. 1 slice of Salmon fish, about 3/4 inch thick (typical) per person
2. Salt and pepper
3. Butter for baking (and to avoid the fish from sticking to the aluminium foil
4. Aluminium foil for wrapping

First, place some butter at the bottom of the foil. We use SCS or Tatura

Then rub some salt onto the fish

followed by awesome black pepper - Sarawak variant, no less

Wrap it up, no special way or skills

Set the oven (any type will do as long as it is an oven, you can also cook in microwave with convection function) to about 160 degree C and let it sit in there for about 30minutes

Place in Pan

Reasons for the baking in Aluminium foil are two-pronged. Firstly, to REDUCE WASHING, which is not something what everyone love to do after cooking. Secondly, to lock the fish flavour in without overdrying the fish out. Salmon is a very oily fish, when you grill or fries it, it will produce oil and will mess up the grill or pan. The oil is super rich in Omega 3 and 6 and that is the very same thing that you want to eat. Baking them in aluminium foil will help to preserves these, apart from reducing washing time. After 30minutes, open the Aluminium foil a little to check on the fish. It should be done. Wrap it up back again until when you want to eat it.
The Salad
What you need (or rather, what we had)
1. Zuchinni
2. Tomato
3. Lettuce
4. Carrot
5. Avocado
6. Olive Oil
7. Walnut or any nuts for dressing and extra crunchiness

There is no hard and fast rules about preparing a salad other than avoiding those high-caloric dressing. Avoid those thousand islands or any creamy type of dressing as it defeats the whole purpose of eating healthy. Just go with olive oil in balsamic vinegar(if you have) or alternatively, you can get a bottle of Soma dressing, which is actually made from sesame seeds puree in light soya oil. Cut the vegetables up in strips and mixes them up in a bowl with dressing.

Yummeh!

The time it took to prepare the above from zero to serving was about 50minutes. Me and wifey went for a run while the fish was being cooked n the oven and she sliced the salad while i had bath. While waiting for the salad to chill and settle (salad taste better if you allow it to soak in the dressing for a while), she had her bath and within an hour, Dinner was served. Complete the meal with one hard boil egg - just because you can.

Enjoy the Baked Salmon with Salad for your buka. No chances of overeating and no reasons to binge. Healthy eating is for life.

You can see the oil of the fish, the specks of pepper and the still moist salmon skin with the wonderful salad on the plate

With about a week more for Puasa, perhaps it is high time to reconsider eating those bad food being sold at Pasar Ramadan and start eating clean. By the time the next Ramadan happens, you will be so in tune that breaking fast everyday will be based on good healthy food such as these.