Back to food blogging. I can’t believe it’s already Wednesday! When you don’t get home until Monday night and then you have conferences last night until 8pm, it goes quickly. I have a night off tonight and then conferences again tomorrow night until 8pm – yuck! At least they will all be done by next week, which is only a 1 1/2 day week because I have a doctor’s appt. and we get off for Thanksgiving on Tuesday!

So…. Monday night, about an hour or so after getting back from the airport, my girlfriends Kelly and Bethany came over for dinner. (I tried to take pictures of them, but they were not having it.)

Bethany brought these gorgeous flowers and some soft, yummy, gooey brownies for dessert! Kelly brought an amazing spinach artichoke dip and Stacy’s multigrain pita chips, plus wine for her and B and sparking grape juice for me! How thoughtful they both are! The sparkling grape juice was so good, I had forgotten what it tasted like! Both were very much appreciated! *Sorry Mrs. Prasser, I still have your dish! I will make sure it is safe and hold it hostage until Kelly comes back to visit!

For dinner I decided to try something new! I wanted to make salmon and I wanted to use a POM I had in the fridge so I set out to create a new recipe, which I entered in the POM recipe contest. Here are a few of the key ingredients:

Pomegranate, pumpkin butter and balsamic vinegar. The glaze I mixed up to cover the salmon was:

POM Pumpkin Butter Salmon

• 1/3 c. POM arils, crushed with back of a spoon
• 3 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• 3 tbsp. pumpkin butter
• 1 tbsp. pure maple syrup
• salt and pepper

I coated the salmon and threw it in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 450.

Then I got to work on the salad. The salad included:

• organic spring mix
• organic baby spinach
• 1/2 chopped pear
• 1/3 c. POM arils
• 1/4 c. crumbled feta
• a handful of toasted walnuts

It was super easy because I had just run to the store to load up on ingredients!

I enjoyed my wine glass full of sparkling grape juice. It was really really good! 🙂

Just in case you get a craving…you know what you are looking for…

Kelly’s amazing spinach artichoke dip

With salmon and salad I served a bowl of quinoa and baked broccoli. The broccoli was done by placing fresh broccoli on a cookie sheet with a little olive oil and salt and pepper, then baking it for about 15 min. at 450.

Sorry, these pictures are a little out of order. Here is the final salmon salad presentation. It was super easy and very flavorful! It went great with the many flavors in the salad. Let me know if you give it a try.

I think I ate my brownie so fast that I didn’t even consider taking a picture. Sorry! Can’t wait for girls night again!

Pregnancy Nutrition Tip:

Don’t eat fish more than twice a week. Make sure servings are not large and fish is on the low mercury list. Just a few types of fish that are safe to eat twice a week while pregnant: shrimp, scallops, salmon, and tilapia. For a detailed list, check out the article I wrote for the Examiner: Mercury in fish

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