Easy Lemon Parmesan Baked Salmon

We're quickly approaching the >200 day mark on the wedding countdown. And since I've purchased my dress, I've really been trying to be good. That means eating better and staying active (averaging 12,000+ steps a day. Thanks, FitBit!). Of course, there are days that you just need some french fries or a slice of pizza, or three, but other days, I'm mostly all business. I even look ahead at a restaurant menu if I know we'll be eating out that night in an effort to make a healthier choice. It's easier to turn down that fried chicken finger platter when you go in knowing you'd be consuming 1,380 calories and 78 grams of fat.  On nights that I cook, I try to find a healthy meal that we'll both enjoy.

Friday was a cold, rainy day with a fog that never seemed to lift before the sun began to set again. When Zach and I discussed dinner plans that day I suggested we just stay in because, after all, does anyone really want to leave the house in that weather if they don't have to? Not to mention I took a nap later in the afternoon (the power was out!!) and didn't feel like doing my hair and makeup after I finally showered. I think every girl understands that reasoning. I told him we had some salmon I could cook and he requested lemon parmesan salmon. So, I did what I always do when I don't have a recipe for something. I went to Pinterest! I found a recipe we had everything for and that was that!

This salmon turned out SO good! It was super easy and even Zach said, "That was easily the best piece of salmon I've ever eaten." So, if you're a salmon fan and want a super easy, quick and healthy dinner, give this one a try! I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Ingredients:
(adapted from A Palatable Pastime)

6-8oz salmon fillets
2 tablespoons olive oil
juice from a whole lemon
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
sea salt
black pepper

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 425 F/broil
-In a small rectangular baking dish, pour oil and the juice from the lemon.
-Coat both sides of the fish in the oil/juice; season fish with salt, pepper, and garlic powder
-Place the parmesan on a plate and press the fish down into the parmesan (not the skin), then place the fish, skin down, in the baking dish. (I found it easier to just pat the cheese on after putting the fish in the dish)
-Broil (on top rack) for 10-12 minutes, or until fish flakes easily

The cheese came out a nice golden brown with a nice crispy texture while the fish remained perfectly moist. We had sugar snap peas and garlic and herb quinoa to round out the meal and this is definitely something we'll repeat...probably often!

Do you have any favorite salmon recipes?

Time Flies When You're....Planning a Wedding

The cutest personal wedding dress shopper around! 

The title of this post is a little misleading. Time does fly, but it really doesn't feel like it's flying right now. Yes, it feels like Christmas (aka engagement day) was yesterday, but for the most part, I feel like time is dragging! You see, I'm not one to enjoy waiting. But then again, who does? I'm ready to be done with the planning, but mostly I'm ready to be married and on my honeymoon! The first two weeks were, in my mind, a wedding planning nightmare. We had picked a date, venues, and a photographer just to have the reception venue rent two different dates out from under us. At that point, we didn't feel comfortable with them having anything to do with our wedding day so we ended up going back to our original date and switching venues...that is after going back and forth with our ceremony venue and photographer multiple times to make sure they were still available, bless them. Ask my loving fiance and he'll tell you everything has been a breeze, but ya know, I was the one making all of those back and forth calls/emails to those previously mentioned venues and photographer ;)

After those first few stressful weeks, I was over the whole planning process....with 10 months left to go. So, I took a break. Now I'm back into it. I've looked over so many wedding invitations, it's not even funny. I think we've narrowed it down to the one we want, it just needs a few tweaks  Also, paper is expensive! Two weekends ago we booked our honeymoon! We'll be sailing around the Southern Caribbean for 7 days and I couldn't be more excited about it. This past weekend I booked my hairdresser for the wedding day and we discussed wedding hair trials (which won't be until September, boo!). Oh, and I bought a wedding dress!
   

                  

Did you think I was going to actually show you THE dress?! ;)

So I guess it's safe to say that we are back on track. I've gotten some suggestions on wedding cake bakers so we'll be making an appointment in the next few weeks to figure out exactly what we want and to try allllll the cake, duh!! I know what I want to do for flowers, I just need to go talk to florists, but I'm dreading that, because guess what? Flowers are expensive, too! Also, all the wedding checklists say that I need to be registering for gifts this month. So, I guess we'll just add that to the ever growing list! 

And that's where we are, folks! When October rolls around and I'm a panicking bride asking where the time went, please feel free to refer me back to this post where I said time was dragging and I was ready for all the planning to be over ;)