Sweet Potato Noodle Bowls with Spicy Salmon

I have another delicious, healthy recipe for you today! Much like the blueberry crisp, this one also feels like a decadent cheat meal. I guess that's the secret to get me to eat things that are good for my body - make them taste like the good stuff! 

I think the secret to the "cheat meal" feel of this dish is the creamy sauce. That's right, friends. I said creamy sauce! I creamy sauce made with full-fat coconut milk that you soften all those yummy sweet potato noodles in. It's so, so good. 

The sweet potato noodles are topped with a spicy salmon and the combination of sweet, salty, creamy, and spicy is amazingggg. Plus, this dinner comes together in 30 minutes so there really is no excuse for you to not make this. You basically HAVE to! Oh also, this is Whole30 compliant if you're into that. 

One last thing before I get to the recipe. The original recipe from Real Simple Good calls for bacon. Somehow in the meal planning every time we've made this I've forgotten to pick up bacon. How I don't know, but I have. We really love this recipe, but I think we'd love it even more with the addition of bacon. I didn't want you to miss out like we have so if you're interested in the baconized recipe check out the original post here! 

On to the delicious!

Sweet Potato Noodle Bowls with Spicy Salmon

recipe adapted from Real Simple Good

2 salmon fillets

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

2 teaspoons garlic powder

sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste

2 sweet potatoes, spiralized 

1 tablespoon olive oil

2-3 cups spinach

For the sauce:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 shallots, diced

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 cup full-fat coconut milk

sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

While the oven is preheating, place salmon on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Drizzle salmon with olive oil and sprinkle with paprika, garlic powder, and salt & pepper. Bake at 400 for 15 - 20 minutes. 

While salmon is cooking, prepare your sauce by heating olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute shallots until softened. Add in coconut milk, garlic, and salt and pepper to the coconut milk and combine. Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer until the salmon has about 5 minutes left. 

Increase to medium heat, add in sweet potato noodles, and cover while the salmon finishes. 

Remove salmon from oven. 

Add spinach to noodles and sauce, and stir until just wilted. Remove from heat.

Serve noodles topped with salmon and ENJOY!

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apple cider caramel sauce

Today we're talking happy accidents of the food variety. Last week my fabulous and trusty GPS took me to Ohio. However, it took me on all the backroads (aka Route 50) instead of the main road and, good thing for google maps, I loved every second of that drive. I saw corn fields with fruity pebble mountains in the background, prop planes splashed against a perfectly crisp fall sky, and the best thing of all, a 24-hour family owned donut shop in a little town called Londonderry that has been in existence for nearly 100 years! Talk about a happy accident! Those donuts were perfect and cheap. I got two for 98 cents. Ninety. Eight. Cents. I thought the lady was kidding me. I'm glad she wasn't. I want to move into that place. 

This caramel sauce? Also a happy accident! I was attempting to make these apple cider caramel candies and for some reason could not get them to set. The flavors were too good just to throw the caramel out, so I just warmed it up and used it as a warm sauce. This sauce is apple cider, caramelized sugar, and butter goodness. Make it right now!

Warm Apple Cider Caramel Sauce

adapted from this recipe from Dessert for Two

2 cups apple cider
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoons salt

In a small saucepan, boil cider until reduced to 1/4 cup. 

Once reduced, remove from heat and whisk in the butter, sugar, and heavy cream. Raise heat and bring mixture to 255 degrees.

Immediately stir in cinnamon and salt and pour mixture into a mason jar. Allow to cool before storing in the fridge. Serve on ice-cream, or these donuts. 

Have a great weekend everybody!