I’m not afraid to admit this: dinner around here can get kind of boring sometimes.
It’s true – this food blogger can easily get stuck in a rut with her meals. Hey, I’m only human, right?
See by the end of my fun-filled days of playing with my adorable baby, working out and working I can either be tired or lazy or both…and so dinner suffers. That, plus working with a budget at the grocery store can put a damper on things sometimes. I know what we like, I know what things cost, and so we do the usual meals fairly consistently.
Enter Cooking Light‘s most recent issue that’s ALL ABOUT COOKING HEALTHY ON A BUDGET. Can we say dream come true? I knew the moment I pulled it out of the mailbox that I was going to be making pretty much every recipe in there, especially if last night’s dinner is any indication of the rest of the magazine. And since I like to share recipes and everything with you guys – especially fail-proof ones that I really really love – I’m going to need you to go ahead and make this dinner ASAP.
Here’s the one thing though: the recipe was for crab cakes, and my grocery store was OUT of fresh crab. And in the spirit of laziness I wasn’t going to run around town searching for fresh crab meat, so I made them with salmon instead. Here’s a little list of the few things I changed:
- used salmon instead of crab;
- used dill pickles instead of sweet pickles (I can’t stand sweet pickles…sorry!);
- instead of following the directions I just chopped and mixed the veggies/spices/yogurt/mayo/mustard in the food processor and then folded it into the salmon and quinoa. Worked like a charm and I cut down a lot of the work!
And even though I think you guys already know the verdict, they were delicious. Would they have been better with crab? Probably – it IS crab after all – but these were good enough to make both of us want seconds and for Nate to take the leftovers for lunch today. That, my friends, in and of itself shows they were delicious.
Want the recipe? Check it out here: Cajun Crab and Quinoa Cakes
I grew up on salmon croquettes… did you ever have those in the South?? This looks much tastier!! btw… I too am on a very slim grocery budget, one that would amaze most average folks 🙂
honestly we never had salmon anything until i was in high school…something about my dad got food poisoning from it once and couldn’t stomach it until much later in life.
food budgets aren’t super fun but it’s nice to know we can still eat great food!
I love Cooking Light recipes…this one looks so good. I love that you used salmon instead of the crab!
I absolutely love Cooking Light! My mom and I both always get it and share what we make out of the issues! 🙂
I have a deep love for Cooking Light. I have one of their annual “Best of” cookbooks (I think it’s 2008?) and when I was really teaching myself how to cook healthfully, I made their recipes ALL the time. And hey, I’ll take inspiration where I can get it! These cakes look excellent- good sub in with the salmon, too!
I love when you get inspiration like that from a magazine! That’s how I feel after every issue of Food Network. Great recipe!
I love crab cakes and I am so grateful you shared a “healthier” version. We have a very difficult time finding crab meat in Northern Colorado as well so I might have to follow your lead and try the recipe with salmon.
I get in awful ruts, too. I need to cook more with with quinoa…I love it, and forget about it!
Unfortunately, I’m allergic with crabs. But it’s seems to be good.
PS : I’m a mother of 2 (older than your baby boy) and I understand TOTALLY what you say about being too tired or lazy, to cook, believe me 😉 !