Baked Salmon & Asparagus (Gluten Free and Dairy Free!)

I've started attempting to cook and I'm going to start sharing recipes!

I usually cook at night so I don't normally have natural lighting on my side, so my picture may not be the best. And since I'm not used to blogging my recipes I have to start remembering to take pictures of the cooking process (this one only has 2, sorry!).

Also, John has a wheat and cow's milk allergy so most of my recipes will be gluten free and dairy free. His particular allergy isn't life threatening, it's more of an inconvenience and annoyance so we don't worry too much about butter (because butter makes everything amazing!) but if you are sticking to a dairy free diet you can always switch out regular butter for dairy free butter.

With the exception of this post, my intro to "Gracey is cooking?!" posts, I'm going to try not to write a novel before we get down to the recipe, because I know when I'm searching for a recipe I really am not interested at all in what is being said above it (sorry if I'm offending, I get angry when I'm hungry).

Umm what else...I've given thought to the Keto diet because of my epilepsy but I haven't had a chance to talk to my doctor about it yet. I'd like to give it a shot in combination with my medication if he thinks it's a good idea, and if that's the case then there will be some Keto recipes coming up!

Anyway, my recipe inspiration came from a few different salmon recipes I mashed together from Pinterest, but here is the main one.

I'm hesitant to put a prep time because it takes me AGES to prep because I still suck at everything, so I'm going to kind of take my prep time estimate what a normal person prep time would be.

Note: This was before it was cooked. I am a dingus and didn't take any after pictures because I got excited and ate it. I didn't even think about it because I'm not used to taking pictures of my food before I eat it. Sorry! I'll hopefully get better. 

Baked Salmon & Asparagus (Gluten Free and Dairy Free)

Prep time: 10 minutes 

Cook time: 25 minutes 

Ingredients

4 (6oz) skinless salmon fillets
1 lb asparagus
1 shallot, sliced into thin rings
4 cups spinach
1 lemon thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
Salt & black pepper
Thyme sprigs

Instructions 

1. Preheat oven to 400°F
2. Cut 4 sheets of aluminum foil about 14 inches long
3. Place 1 cup of spinach in the center of each sheet of foil *
4. Divide asparagus equally and place in the center length of foil (about 6-8 pieces per sheet) on top of spinach 
5. Thinly slice shallot into rings and scatter on top of the portions of asparagus
6. Mix together garlic and oil in a bowl, and drizzle 1 tsp over each group of asparagus and shallots. Season each group with salt and pepper. 
7. Rinse salmon and season the bottoms with salt and pepper, then lay each fillet over asparagus. 
8. Drizzle tops of salmon with 1 tsp olive oil and garlic mixture and season with salt and pepper. 
9. Place 2 thin lemon slices and 1 thyme sprig over tops of fillets 
10. Enclose the salmon in the foil by wrapping the sides inward and folding the tops and bottoms in. 
11. Place in single layer on baking sheet in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes. 

*I did not do this, but we had leftover spinach and I thought about it and when I brought it up with John after he said I totally should've done it. I'm 99% sure it would be delicious. 

Again, I'm sorry for the lack of "after" pictures, this one was taken before it was cooked. I got too excited and ate before I even thought about taking a picture. 

I think this is the perfect thing to make if you need to get yo green on. John is obsessed with this spinach and goat cheese stuffed meatloaf that I make, and even though I use way more spinach than the recipe calls for, we are left with a boatload of spinach that I have to find a use for. As I said earlier, I totally should've put a bed of spinach underneath the asparagus. 

He has discovered that he really likes spinach chips though, so I guess that solves that problem. 

Anyway, I need feedback on my recipe post formatting please! I'm horrible at giving directions so let me know if these are unclear, as I'm sure they are. I'll try to fix them if they are. 

Do you have a favorite way to eat salmon? I'm on the hunt for new salmon recipes! 

Color Crush: Plum

Good morning everyone! I hope everyone has had a lovely start to their week. I was browsing Pinterest the other day (avoiding studying), and I realized that I have a new color obsession: plum. My fall colors usually consist of black, grey, sometimes dark green or dark blue, boring, boring, boring. But I think I'm going to give in to my color crush and find some cute plum merch.

See what I mean? That scarf needs to be MINE. I'd rock some plum colored nail polish too, but I don't think I'm brave enough to try the lipstick. It looks fabulous but my lips are too dry to pull it off. Your chapped lips could be seen across the room if you're wearing dark lipstick. Exfoliating and moisturizing sometimes just doesn't cut it unfortunately. 

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I'm all about a lace dress or scarf in this color though. Totally perfect for fall, and it will transfer seamlessly into the winter months as well. 

Just a side note, as I was writing this I realized I've never actually eaten a plum (I may have, actually. I just don't remember). But I'm intrigued now, it's just not something I think to get when I'm at the grocery store. Maybe I'll try to make a plum pie or a plum mojito or...barbecue plum sauce...I'm looking at you, Pinterest. 

So, what do you think? What is your favorite fall color right now? Also, feel free to leave any plum recipes you have. 

Have a Little Cinco de Mayo Get Together!

Cinco de Mayo is in 2 days! I've never had a big party for Cinco de Mayo, but a little get together with your best friend tequila and the rest of your group sounds more like fun. I imagine having a big party and lots of tequila could go very wrong very fast.

Everything you need is easy to get last minute. 

Something you should consider getting this summer: an underwater camera! I really like pool pictures, if you can get your hair to cooperate they look awesome. 

Of course you can't have Cinco de Mayo without margaritas and nachos! Rosemary lemon margaritas are delicious. The girls over at The Sequin Notebook put the idea of a DIY nacho bar in my head. Why have I never thought of that before? 

Do you have any Cinco de Mayo plans? 

11 Websites You Need to Bookmark

Bookmarks by gracey featuring tech accessories

I have a lot of pages bookmarked for inspiration, random cool stuff, post ideas, etc. But I'm saving those for my revamped Lovely Links series (coming soon). These are websites you really really should bookmark, most of them are pretty useful in real life.

1. Chandoo.org. I was looking for some office/receptionist/personal assistant jobs recently, and EVERY one of them required that you be proficient in Excel. This has the basics, formulas, charts, and everything else you need to know. You can do a lot more with Excel than I ever thought, and it's really complicated if you don't know how to use it.

2. Allrecipes.com. Good if you are looking for a recipe or need inspiration for recipes with a specific ingredient(s). You can save recipes you like, post recipes, and even make a shopping list. This works well if you have a smart phone, because you can pull up the app while you're shopping and see what you need. I'm stuck with my dinosaur of a Blackberry and don't have that luxury, but take advantage if you have a smart phone!

3. Lookbook is great if you need some fashion inspiration. There was a girl that I found on Lookbook and I absolutely adored her style, but I cannot for the life of me remember her name. I want to say she lives in Italy, but I don't remember for sure. I'd know her if I saw her, so I'm going to go searching after this post is finished! Lesson learned: make sure you add looks that you like to a collection. Oh you can also add your pictures and looks to Lookbook as well.

4. Spreeder.com. This is a website designed to help you improve how fast you read. I haven't tried it yet but I will this week and see if there is any improvement.

5. Yogameditationhome.com is a free website with a crap ton of yoga videos. You can select your age, level, health issues, etc. AND you can favorite videos so you don't have to search for them every time. There is probably somewhere that offers yoga classes near you, and I don't know about you, but I don't want to dish out the money and be self conscious the whole time because I'm new at this.

6. Instructables.com teaches you how to make things (with you know, instructions). Learn to knit, because why not?

7. Documentaryaddict.com. I use this site when I need a break from watching House, or I'm just bored and want to watch something really interesting. You can search by category, newest, top rated, and more. Seriously, when you're bored or have time to kill, watch a documentary.

9. Ted.com. If you're not feeling the documentaries, watch/listen to a TED Talk. You can also filter by category and such. All of the talks they have turn out to be really interesting, even if I have no interest in the subject they are talking about. You really will get sucked in.

10. Wolframalpha.com helps you with anything related to math. I JUST used this a few minutes ago because for some reason I was talking about physics with my mom and I couldn't remember the quadratic formula. Now I do!

11. Polyvore.com. If these were in order of importance to me, this would be at the top. It's SO necessary for bloggers (specifically fashion and beauty bloggers). You can create really cool pictures for your blog, and even import your own pictures if it doesn't have what you are looking for (using the Polyvore Clipper).


Well now you have some sites to sift through, I just cured your boredom. You're welcome. What necessary websites do you have bookmarked? Have you ever been on any of these?

Shark Cupcakes!

My boyfriend came over last night to watch Shark Week with me, and we made shark cupcakes! Or sharkcakes as he likes to call them. We didn't wait for them to cool before we put the icing on, the icing melted on some of them. But they turned out very yummy :)

What you'll need:

Cake mix (and ingredients needed for making a cake, like eggs, oil, etc. We used red velvet)

Blue icing

Construction paper and scissors

Peach rings (or small powdered doughnuts and red fruit rollups)

Cupcake cups and a cupcake pan

When I took the picture the batter looked more like spaghetti than red velvet cake mix so I had to edit it a bit. Anyway red velvet seemed appropriate because of the bloody tint to it, plus it's delicious!

The shark fins! Boyfriend had to draw me a model shark fin because the one cut out looked like Jimmy Neutron's hair (anyone?).

We used gummy peach rings to resemble one of those life preserver floats. You could also use mini powdered doughnuts for the float and cut strips or red Fruit Rollups for the red stripes, but we figured this was easier and less messy.

Well that's it for today :) I hope you all are thoroughly enjoying Shark Week if you watch it. You can find the inspiration for the cupcakes here.

Also don't forget to enter my MAC lipstick and print giveaway! Ends August 22nd!

Sweets on a Stick

I went to Starbucks recently and noticed that they are selling cake pops now. They're so cute, so tiny, so...expensive? .99 cents for one cake pop? Or something ridiculous like that. I did get one, and it was delicious, but here are some other bite sized recipes you can make at home!

Via Bakerella, red velvet cake pops! Mmm!

Bring the camping spirit inside with s'more pops!

Now you can eat Pop Tarts on a sick!

Hope you all enjoyed this post :) I'll hopefully try out the s'more pops soon, since they seem the easiest. What are some of your favorite bite sized recipes?

Recipe: Chocolate no bake cookies

Ok, this is my first ever recipe post. Yay! These are the cookies that I made for my dad on father's day, and I have to say they are my favorite cookies ever. The recipe was introduced to me by a friend a loooong time ago. So, here we go!

Ingredients:
-2 cups sugar
-4 tablespoons cocoa
-1 stick butter
- 1/2 cup milk
-1 cup peanut butter
-1 tablespoon vanilla
-3 cups oats/oatmeal
-waxed paper

Directions:
In a saucepan, bring the sugar, cocoa, butter, and milk to a boil. Let boil for one minute, then add peanut butter, vanilla, and oatmeal. Quickly spoon out by teaspoonfuls onto the waxed paper. Cookies will harden as they cool.


1

Not very attractive cookies, but trust me, they are DELICIOUS. Anybody who I've given them to really cannot eat just one.