Freezer to plate are words I don’t usually shout from the rooftops, but when you’re talking about wild seafood I’m all for it! Until lately, I never knew that you could just throw a frozen piece of fish in the oven and cook it in a relatively short time with good outcomes.  Alaska Seafood has organized a beautiful campaign to teach us this simple Cook It Frozen technique and I’ve been asked to test it out along with the Cook It Frozen website, and Cook It Frozen iPhone app.

With their commitment to wild sustainable fishing practices not only does Alaska Seafood care about providing healthy fresh seafood, they understand that a quick and easy meal can sometimes be a parents best asset in raising their family. Their Cook It Frozen (CIF) campaign basically teaches a fast technique to cooking seafood without defrosting through the CIF website and iPhone app.

The CIF technique is simple. When you are ready to cook a piece of frozen Wild Alaska Seafood, remove it from the packaging, rinse fish under cold water to remove the ice glaze and then use one of the CIF techniques to saute, roast, broil, grill, steam or poach. The website and iPhone app have all of the information and recipes needed for every technique for many types of fish. To give this a good try I tried out the CIF technique with Wild Alaska Salmon, Halibut, and Cod and cooked them all using different CIF techniques and recipes. Our favorite was the Thai Green Curry Alaska Salmon. Here’s a little walk through:

Alaska Seafood MKTG Institute

1. I downloaded the Cook It Frozen App for my iPhone.

2. Found the fish I wanted to cook, salmon. Then I clicked how I wanted to cook it, poached. And then picked through many recipes and choose Thai Green Curry Alaska Salmon.

3. I Followed the recipe and had a delicious 20 minute meal without having to spend the time thawing a piece of fish.

cookitfrozen.com

We also tried these recipes Alaska Cod and Smoked Salmon Chowder and Greek Baked Halibut In A Pouch and found them and the techniques very simple and delicious.

All in all the Cook it frozen techniques easy and simple to use. They saved the time to defrost and I was especially thankful because I didn’t have to remember to take something out of the freezer hours in advance. The recipes were easy to follow and turned out beautifully but I did find the sauteing technique to have a little drier outcome than the other techniques. The CIF website was incredibly simple to use and found it to be a lot easier than the iPhone app. The CIF iPhone app was simple to use as well but almost contained to much information as it ran slow on my iPhone and was a little harder to navigate than the website but I still enjoyed having the CIF app on my phone. Both the website and iPhone app contained exact recipes, mouthwatering pictures and wonderfully helpful videos that were great to get started with.

Seafood has so many amazing health benifits, that I am glad that I was introduced to the cook it frozen technique. I have found myself running to the freezer to grab a fish more often when that age old question arises, “What’s for dinner?” Unfortunately, I can no longer use the excuse, “Uh..I didn’t defrost any fish or meat for dinner so we’ll have to go out.” with the husband.I would definitely recomend you check out Alaska Seafood’s Cook It Frozen Technique at cookitfrozen.com or downloading the free iPhone or  iPad apps.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received the product mentioned above for free for review purposes from Alaska Seafood. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. FTC 16 CFR, Part 255

New Year, New Me…that’s what we all say, right? These past couple of years have been an up and down journey and I feel that finally this year I’m coming back to myself. I have to admit, I totally put my family’s health before mine and ignored the 40 or so pounds I put on in two years. That’s right I said it, 4-0, 40! And that’s just since Mia was born. In my college days I was a skinny minny. Then came Tim and being with a musician leaves you with bar food at night and whatever gas station stop you find on the road. This usually meant day old burritos in the desert and a beer as the morning coffee…blek! A far cry from the egg white omelets I was used to. Years down the line when Mia came I didn’t have a chance to gain weight or even pop a cute preggers belly since she was born so soon. But what I did do is live off hospital cafeteria food every meal everyday for 5 months. Then the stress of being a new mom to a tiny baby with health issues packed on the pounds. Now with Mia healthy and the holidays behind me, it’s finally time to get back to my old self. And to do this I’ve joined the classic Weight Watchers plan to help me get back on it. So far, it’s pretty awesome and doing it on-line frees me from finding a babysitter for meetings (because in Waco there is not a family friendly meeting…uh, hum).

I strive to always post fresh and healthy recipes but for the next couple of months I will be trying to post leaner family friendly meals, including the WW point value if applicable. Food Blogger on a diet is such an oxymoron but we’ll see just how far we can take it. Happy New Year to you all!

Ginger Orange Roasted Salmon serves 4

• 1/4 cup fresh orange juice (about 2 oranges)
• 1 Tbs soy sauce
• 1 Tbs balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbs honey
• 1 1/2 Tbs fresh grated ginger
• 1/2 Tbs orange zest
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 1/2 pounds Wild Atlantic Salmon

*WW points = 6 per serving, serve with 1/2 cup brown rice and steamed vegetables for a 9 point meal

In a small bowl, whisk the first 8 ingredients together.

Place the salmon in a glass dish and pour the marinade over the salmon, coating it completely. Cover with plastic wrap or foil and place in the refrigerator for 45 minutes to an hour, flipping the fillet halfway through the marinating time.

Once marinated, remove the salmon from the marinade and place the fillet on a baking sheet. I cover my pan because fish always sticks and I hate, no despise clean-up.

Place in a 425° oven for 10 to 12 minuets. Serve!

This is so simple and brings a delicate orange and ginger flavor to the salmon. If you would like a stronger sweeter flavor you can reserve the leftover marinade, place it in a sauce pan, and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes or until it has reduced by half. Spoon a teaspoon or so over the salmon when serving.

So far this is Mia’s favorite salmon dish!

Mom, this one’s for you. It’s all here when you need the recipe for one of your book clubs! Just remember that fish doesn’t need to cook for an hour.

Rosemary and garlic roasted salmon is a quick, simple and oh my word delicious way to cook salmon. Healthy, light and bursting with flavor, this is our favorite way to eat the delectable fish! Cook it along with some fresh summer green beans and you have a meal in 10 minutes. Even Mia enjoys it. No lie. She stuffs it in her mouth. We’re still working on those table manners.

Rosemary and Garlic Roasted Salmon serves 4

• 3 garlic cloves
• 2 fresh rosemary sprigs, about 1 Tbs chopped
• 1 1/2 to 2 lbs salmon fillet (I used sockeye)
• 1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 2 pinches of sea salt
• pinch of pepper

Preheat oven to 425°. Peel and chop garlic. Set aside.

Chop the rosemary. Set aside.

Place salmon on a baking sheet (I cover mine with foil because it’s just easier to clean). Distribute olive oil evenly on salmon. Add salt and pepper over the fillet. Next, add the rosemary and garlic and lightly press into salmon.

Place in oven. At this time I also throw in some fresh green beans lightly coated in extra virgin olive oil and a dash of salt. Roast for 10 to 12 minutes until the salmon is flaky and green beans are tender.

Serve and enjoy! Before hand, I roasted a sweet potato pierced with a fork and wrapped in foil in a 400° oven for 45 minutes until tender. You can also cover a pierced potato with a wet paper towel wrapped in plastic wrap and place in the microwave for 6 minutes. A quick and easy meal that’s one of our favorites!

Stuffs it in her face I tell you!!!