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These blackened and bourbon glazed salmon filets pair well with any ingredients you have on hand. They are the perfect vehicle to have on hand for meals ready in under 20 minutes!

This post is sponsored by Pier 33 Gourmet, as part of my ongoing partnership to help promote sustainable seafood and healthy meal options. 

Good morning! I hope you had a great St. Patty’s Day! In addition to fun “green” holidays, March is National Nutrition Month. The theme this year is “Go Further With Food.” Each year, the theme is a little different in promoting overall healthy lifestyles so here’s what I take away from this theme:

How Can You Go Further With Food?

• Planning meals and snacks in advance can help reduce food waste
• Including a variety of foods in your lifestyle helps provide a variety of vitamins and minerals
• Check out the foods you already have on hand before grocery shopping (I can do better with this!)
• Try to include foods from all food groups
• Keep a mixture of both quick meal options as well as ingredients that you can use to cook from scratch

This last point is a big one for us, especially since I haven’t wanted to do much cooking from scratch lately. Sometimes it can be therapeutic, but more often, I’ve just gravitated towards quick and easy.

Speaking of quick meal options, today I’m sharing some meal ideas that can be put together in under 20 minutes if you have the right ingredients on hand. You should know I’m no stranger to Pier 33’s Fish, as I’ve posted about them several times. They have a great quality product and I love any way to get seafood in. Especially when it’s more cost effective! So, I’m sharing some of my favorite ways to pair their new pre-seasoned options, like Blackened and Bourbon Glazed Salmon.

Usually, I’ll buy plain fish filets and season them myself. My favorite weeknight recipe is ready in under 20 minutes. Or, if you’re more of a hands off-person and love sheetpan meals in the oven, I also love breading the salmon. Many people think that just because it’s seafood, it has to take a long time to prepare. I used to think that way too. But in fact, it’s the complete opposite. Seafood cooks so quickly and can be one of the quickest meals you can make!

While coming up with your own seasoning and marinades can be fun and creative, sometimes life calls and you want something pre-seasoned. And that’s when I turn to Pier 33’s new blackened and bourbon glazed options.

The filets are thick and flavorful, and can either be cooked in a pan, or microwaved for 4 minutes total. You don’t have to add any seasoning packets, they are all pre-seasoned for you! Huge time saver if you forget to marinade your fish the night before, like I sometimes do.

As I’ve mentioned before, fish during pregnancy has tremendous health benefits and I really try to emphasize that to my clients who are expecting. Much of pregnancy has kinda looked like mixing and matching random ingredients we have on hand to form an easy meal. While the meal may not always be what you think of as “going well together,” it’s always balanced, meaning protein, carbohydrates and fats. Because I feel much better when I get them all in together.

Once you have the protein, there are several ways to pair it with other food groups to get a complete meal. Here are some quick options.

Add a Carbohydrate:

• Throw it over a grain (cheesy herb quinoa, cous cous, rice)
• Mix it in with pasta
• Add it to toast
• Pair it with a potato or sweet potato or make a stuffed potato
• Cut it up and make a “bbq salmon salad” and throw it in a sandwich (my new favorite)

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The blackened salmon goes extremely well with a grain and some veggies, since it adds the natural flavor itself.

If you don’t like seafood or have any on hand, you can switch it out for other proteins. We usually have chicken sausage, frozen chicken breasts, or ground turkey on hand too. Eggs, beans, ground beef, lentils, tofu and tempeh can be great vegetarian options too!

Add a Veggie:

To be honest, my go-to quick vegetable option is usually a frozen bag of broccoli. But it could also look like:

• Pre-made salad mixture or spinach to throw protein on top of
• Mix of frozen vegetables
• Sauteed zucchini and/or squash
• Spaghetti squash, zoodles or spiralized carrots/beets
• Baby carrots and hummus
• Frozen edamame scrambled with some wilted spinach

All this to say that healthy meals do not need to be time consuming and you can really put a balanced meal on the table quickly. These are my go to’s when I don’t do sufficient meal prep.

I hope that next time you feel stuck for a quick dinner, you consider some of these options! To save on food waste and go further with food, it helps to have some easy convenience options on hand that are still full of flavor.

Do you prefer easy meals or cooking from scratch?

Do you cook a lDo youot of fish at home or prefer ordering it out?