1. Salmon! In California, salmon is so expensive and most of the time it's the Atlantic or farm raised variety. I'm a Pacific Northwest native, so I grew up on fresh, delicious, WILD Alaskan salmon. Well, I can't afford that in SoCal, so I buy frozen salmon, because it's affordable and comes from the PNW. Nothing like fresh, but it still tastes great.
2. Feta cheese - any variety. I like buying feta with goodies (herbs and such) already in it. This makes the dish taste a little different every time and saves me a LOT of time, trouble, and money because it already has yummy ingredients incorporated into the cheese. This time I used Trader Joe's brand crumbled feta with "Mediterranean Herbs." Next time I'll probably use something different.
3. Mayo - a generous tablespoonful should be sufficient. You can always add a little more at the end if you need to.
4. Handful of chopped spinach - baby or regular. I ALWAYS have a bag of baby spinach in my fridge. Better than lettuce for salads (SO many vitamins!) and SUPER easy to sneak into meals to increase my family's veggie intake.
5. Two mini sweet bell peppers (or 1 regular sized bell pepper). I get a bag of mini peppers from Costco for a little over $3 and use them everyday when I'm cooking. Again, another veggie that can easily be snuck into meals. I like using red to add some color to the dish.
6. Salt and pepper
Getting started:
Preheat your oven to 375F.
Chop the spinach and peppers and place in a medium-sized bowl. Dump in the feta cheese and add a tablespoon scoop of mayo (I LOVE mayo. Period. But it is especially useful when cooking salmon because the oils in the mayo help to keep the fish moist... Even if you over cook it a little. You can also use a brick of cream cheese in place of the mayo, bit it's added fat in an already rich meal. Mayo all the way!) mix until combined.
Place a piece of foil on a cookie sheet (for easy clean up later!) and place the salmon in the middle. Season with salt and pepper then smother with the feta mixture.
Make a tent out of foil to cover the salmon and bake!
Cook at 375F for 15 minutes, remove foil tent and cook an additional 10 minutes. Cooking times vary depending on your oven and on the thickness of your fish. So be attentive! Thicker pieces require longer cooking times.
To brown the cheesy topping, take the salmon out of the oven and blast it up to "broil." Taking the fish out prevents it from overcooking while the oven adjusts to the new heat setting. Once the oven has reached its broiling point, place the fish back inside and on the highest rack. Keep an eye on the cheese, you just want it to brown a little. I would probably limit the broiler time to 5 minutes or less. It's super easy to overcook the salmon at this point if you're not attentive! (My oven is ancient, so I nixed the broiler part... But trust me, it's SO worth doing!)
Serve it up with your choice of veggies and brown rice and you're good to go! So easy your hubby can make it!
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