Mustard Crusted Salmon

Break up with mundane bariatric meals! Easy, quick & tasty Mustard Crusted Salmon transforms boring weeknight meals into bold, fresh & exciting WLS friendly entrees in less than 15 minutes. Can you say French bistro? Course you can!

Food Apathy & Food Aversion Following Bariatric Weight Loss Surgery

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It’s fairly common and extremely easy to fall into food ruts during active weight loss mode (WLM), following your weight loss surgery. I hear it all the time from our online community, “What can I eat? I’m so sick of x, y, z.”

Next time you ask this question, go out and grab a salmon fillet and a jar of Grey Poupon Country Style Dijon, and give Bari Healthy Life’s mustardy, crusty, semi-blackened salmon recipe a try! G’bye boring food! You’re welcome!

So, after weight loss surgery, a common scenario seems to be that we develop food ambivalence or even food aversion, because our new sleeve (VSG) or pouch (RNY) is so tiny and has such restriction we eat tiny amounts. And that can lead to experiencing an aversion to eating. We know we need to eat, but we can’t think of anything that sounds or tastes exciting and nothing appeals. And, we don’t want to spend time in the kitchen making a big heavy meal only to end up eating about 5 bites of something that holds no appeal, right?

That’s why Bari Healthy Life exists! We created this online bariatric resource for recipes, meal plans, and living a bari healthy life following weight loss surgery. We can give you fresh ideas, food for thought, and walk beside you throughout your weight loss journey.

Do You Take Short Cuts & Subsist on Pre-sweetened, Pre-packaged Yogurt?

Because weight loss surgery post-op patients eat so little, the temptation is strong to take short cuts with our meals — especially in the early days. Many resort to pre-made meals from the grocery (sometimes hard to find without lots of hidden processed chemicals, lots of sodium, hidden sugars and thickeners), or we make the same thing night after night.

Many fall into the habit of eating bunches of yogurt, cottage cheese, string cheese, and processed sausage sticks or jerky just to have fast, no-brainer meals! Yuk! A steady diet of any of those would bore us silly—which sets us up for cheatin’—and cheating really derails weight loss and can take you out of weight maintenance in a heartbeat.

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And still others continue to eat the same fattening (high fat, high carb, calorie-dense, highly-hedonic) “budget,” convenient comfort foods the rest of the family eats, knowing that it is the very same food that contributed to our invitation to the Obesity Ball in the first place. They believe in the myths Dr. Matthew Weiner, bariatric expert and noted bariatric surgeon, talks about in this YouTube video addressing the myths of restriction and malabsorption. And many fail to reach goal the first time, or experience partial or total regain because they believe they can count on WLS continuing to limit their portions or provide malabsorption.

Consequently, the Fluffys came up with a solution to a bari patients’ boring, short-cut, food dilemma: How do we ditch food apathy but keep cooking time to a minimum, make flavor-packed meals, and keep little Susie’s tiny pouch filled with nutritious lean, dense protein, crisp veggies, and healthy fats from whole foods? We knew we didn’t want to start eating craptons of highly processed, pre-package “food.” By the way? We use that term (food) loosely when describing pre-made, pre-packaged meals! Healthy pre-packaged food in that context is almost an oxymoron with limited exceptions.

Lucky Leftovers To The Rescue!

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Truly, our bariatric salvation lay in developing a dietary system of “cook once, eat two-to-four times,” or as we like to call it: Lucky Leftovers. We actively and intentionally plan to have leftovers during the week. And we make simple “basics” or base recipes that can be morphed into many different meal experiences every time we sit down to the table. It’s a system of “Garanimals” for bariatric meals.

Mustard Crusted Salmon: We Call Them Bariatric Meal Garanimals!

Mustard Crusted Salmon makes an outstanding bariatric meal Garanimal! You can take a portion, and mix and match it with different toppings, ingredients, delivery styles and completely change it up. It will feel like a whole new outfit, oops, we mean “meal.”

NOTE TO SELF: Consider that we might need to add a new acronym to our BHL Lexicon!

BMG=Bariatric Meal Garanimal

BARI HEALTHY LIFE

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We might get four to five meals from a salmon fillet that weighs a tiny bit over a pound, skinless. (We buy 1 1/2 pounds of fish because it’s weighed prior to skinning it. After the skin is removed, the new skinless salmon will weigh a little over a pound.) And each of those four meals could be different! Susie Fluffy loves leftover Mustard Crusted Salmon and makes so many different variations with the mustardy salmon as the star of the show. Some of her best Lucky Mustard Crusted Salmon Leftovers include:

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• Creamy Salmon Scrambled Eggs
• Salmon Breakfast Tacos
• Confetti Salad & Mustard Glazed Salmon in Sesame Ginger Dressing
• Salmon Street Tacos
• Cheater Lox and Bagels Chaffle
• Mediterranean Salmon Salad with Cucumber and Mint
• Healthy Salmon Benedict Chaffle
• Cheater Salmon Sushi Stacks
• Salmon Croquettes
• Spring Salmon Primavera (made with zoodles=zucchini noodles)

And remember, these are leftovers! LEFTOVERS! Am I screaming? ‘Cuz I feel like I am. Lucky Leftovers are recipes ready from fridge to table in 10 minutes or less! Hallelujah! Can I get an, “Amen?” Post it in the comments!

Here’s How To Make Mustard Crusted Salmon

There’s no trick to making tasty Mustard Crusted Salmon. It’s so simple, it almost qualifies as a non-recipe. Have your fish guy cut your fish portion from the biggest, thickest end of the salmon fillet, and remove the skin. (It will save you time.) Ask him if he’s de-boned it and if he hasn’t, get him to do it. (It saves you more time.) Then bring it home and prepare to go to Flava-town!

We wash our salmon under cool water to remove any potential exterior bacteria and remove scales and “stuff.” Then dry it with paper towels and while we do this we inspect it. We look for missed bones, shiny silver skin that might need a bit of trimming, grey skin that tastes fishy when cooked, and we also look for evidence of parasites (worms). I hate to mention this, but all raw fish can have them. And the solution is to cook it to the proper temperature, and inspect before cooking. It’s also one reason we don’t eat raw fish any longer. The risk is real.

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Quickly smear the salmon with grainy mustard. We adore Grey Poupon Country Style Mustard. It has a great tang, a tiny hint of wine in the background, and has great balance. Season with Redmond Real Salt or kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, granulated garlic, cayenne, and dried parsley flakes. Then simply use your oil mister and spritz the pretty side (top side) of the fillets with extra virgin olive oil. I still love my Pampered Chef Oil Mister.

Time To Learn A New Cooking Skill!

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Bam, salmon seasoned! Done! Now you’re ready for the pan work. But first, preheat the oven to 400º. Heat a non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Make sure the pan feels HOT! Don’t add any oil to the pan. Add fillets to the pan with the pretty side down and cook for two minutes.

Spray the second side of the salmon with your olive oil mister. Flip the salmon fillets to the second side and cook one minute on the stove top. Then pop the whole pan in the preheated oven and close the door! Now, walk away! Don’t peek! Set the time and go make your side dish!

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How Long To Cook Mustard Crusted Salmon & Check For Doneness?

You will check the salmon for doneness after about 3-4 minutes. Timing is important when cooking meat or seafood. And the time is apportioned relative to the thickness of the protein or for larger portions of protein, relative to weight. And, as a general guide for cooking fish, it usually takes about 10 minutes per inch of fish thickness to cook fish to the proper temperature. So we estimated about 6-7 minutes for this wild caught sockeye salmon which includes the total stove top time + oven time.

OLD SCHOOL TEST FOR FISH DONENESS!

This nifty little test for fish doneness is old school, based on time and touch. After the allotted time per inch of thickness of the largest piece of fish, lightly press down in the center of the thickest fillet. Use your finger or the back of a spoon or the flat of a chef knife. If it starts to easily break and flake in an organized manner, it’s done. Use a VERY light touch—don’t goober it up! If it starts to break along the line (chevron), pull it from the oven, and remove the fish from the hot pan immediately to prevent over cooking! Top it with a wedge of lemon or lime and enjoy the first meal!

BARI HEALTHY LIFE

But Why Use a Thermometer in Cooking?

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Cooking food to proper internal temperature helps ensure we’re killing bad beasty bugs which can transmit food-borne illnesses. And these days, raw food carries plenty of pathogens ready to knock us out! It behooves us to cook everything to safe temperatures to minimize this risk.

So, can we just go back to subject of thermometers for a second, please?

(Psst…If you’re bored with the whole temperature convo, you can just skip to the recipe.)

Jump to Recipe

But, you should trust us; we’ve been cooking for like a million years, between us. And, you can buy a cheap instant read thermometer online and make your life in the kitchen so easy peasy lemon squeezy, it’s silly.

Instant read thermometers remove the guess work from cooking. Salmon is done at 145º. And an instant read thermometer can reassure you, that you’ve reached sufficient temps to kill any bug hangin’ around inside or on top of it without “moiderizing” that beautiful pink flesh with overcooking.

Instant read thermometers can also tell you if a casserole dish is fully hot in the middle, or if your low carb, low fat, cake or custard is done! It gives you a snapshot into the interior of a casserole or complex recipe—even lets you know the temp of sauces! We use an instant read thermometer almost daily and have two styles we heart!

This one is the ThermoPro and it’s pretty inexpensive. We like that it folds up and is so portable.

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And this ThermoPop lollipop is more expensive but we love the super tiny probe. And, the smaller the pierce, the less juice drips out of your meat or seafood.

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Both models are accurate to the tenths, and reflect the other model’s temperature readings. It’s really up to you to decide which type of thermometer you need. Sometimes, less is more. Ok, so I guess that’s enough. We highly endorse both models of instant read thermometers!

And so this concludes, your lecture on food safety and the importance of prophylactic temperature monitoring during cooking. Thanks for reading! Ha Ha! You’re welcome. Now back to Mustard Glazed Salmon!

What’s An Easy Bariatric Side Dish?

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While you’re hangin’ out waiting for the salmon to finish in the oven, it’s time to nuke or steam a side of asparagus, broccoli, or some other low glycemic veggie, and go set the table! We love having a little steamed al dente veg with our Mustard Crusted Salmon — honestly, with any protein.

Sliced avocado and grape tomato make a super bari healthy addition to the meal and round it out by adding healthy fat vis a vis, the avocado. A small side salad with leafy greens, grape tomato, and purple onion would also add nutritional variety while keeping things light, lean, and quick!

These types of bariatric side dishes are perfect because they are nutritionally dense, and light in calories, low fat, and very low in fast acting carbs. Plus did we mention they’re easy and fast?! And, if you don’t want the avocado, add a tiny bit of healthy fat to the veggies and you’ve got a side dish ready in 2 minutes! Now that’s easy!

Store Lucky Mustard Crusted Salmon Leftovers For Tomorrow!

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Don’t forget to wrap Mustard Crusted Salmon in plastic wrap or use an airtight glass storage container. Make sure it’s cooled to room temperature, first! Now, prepare for Lucky Leftovers! (Oh, those recipes are coming…fair warning!)

How Many Times Per Week Should We Eat Fish?

Fish such as wild caught salmon, tuna, sardines, herring, and cod are excellent sources of omega 3-fatty acids, an essential group of fats we must take in through diet. Our body does not synthesize omega 3 fatty acids. But, we’ll talk more about the importance of a balanced ratio of fatty acids later, in the portion of the blog dealing with Mind, Body & Spirit. But per the USDA Choose My Plate initiative, and the American Heart Association, we are encouraged to have fish and shellfish two times per week and one of those servings should be from oily fish like wild caught salmon.

By making Mustard Crusted Salmon, not only do you get a bold and zippy meal, but you’re doing something that can potentially help heal your body while developing a new food routine, and making better bari healthy choices for life! That’s swell, isn’t it?

Learning New Cooking Techniques Help Create Bari Healthy Habits

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In conclusion, we want to underscore this new cooking skill presented in this recipe. Pan searing protein on the first side, flipping to the second and cooking briefly, then finishing to the proper temperature in a hot oven is exactly the way restaurants cook meat and seafood. It promotes beautiful color through the Maillard Effect or Maillard Reaction (that’s a fancy pants word for “browning“).

This cooking method keeps food from drying out. And it’s incredibly fast, too—in and out of the kitchen in under 15. That’s the goal. Use this method to cook any kind of chop or meat: chicken, beef, pork, lamb, veal, game, duck, turkey tenders, fish, shrimp—the sky is the limit! Now go. Do. Live!

Can Mustard Crusted Salmon Be Eaten In Earlier Bariatric Diet Stages?

Winner! Winner! Mustardy salmon dinner! But, is it appropriate for any other stage prior to Fluffy’s BFD (Bariatric Forever Diet or Bariatric Stage 4)? We think it can safely fit in a Stage 3 Bariatric Diet with a few modifications.

MAKE MUSTARD CRUSTED SALMON STAGE 3 (BARIATRIC PUREE OR MECHANICAL SOFT DIET) APPROPRIATE:

To make the Mustard Crusted Salmon suitable for a Bariatric Stage 3 Puree or Soft Diet, change the mustard from a grainy rustic Dijon to smooth Dijon. We like the original Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard. Use finely ground black pepper in place of freshly ground black pepper which is coarser, and only lightly sprinkle it over the fish. You can keep the parsley flakes, but perhaps omit the spicy cayenne until a later stage? The Dijon in the recipe is partly what identifies this as a French Bistro inspired recipe. The French use a LOT of mustard in their recipes and they like simple protein preparations.

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For Stage 3, change the cooking method from a “dry cook” to a “moist cook” method in order to keep salmon soft. Cook the salmon in a parchment or aluminum pouch (although we don’t LOVE cooking in aluminum foil every day because of the possible association between aluminum foil and degenerative brain disease). We found these really cool parchment bags and pre-cut parchment sheets from Paper Chef in the grocery store last week! Oh…the pouch meals in our future.

You can also simply cook the fish, gently at low heat, in a skillet on the stove top. Reduce heat on the stove top to medium to prevent browning. You really want to steam the fish more than pan saute it. Spray with olive oil again, and flip at 2 minutes, then immediately reduce the heat to medium low and put a lid on the pan. Cook it on the second side for about 4-5 minutes while covered. Add a couple of cubes of ice to the pan before covering to provide even greater moisture. Test for doneness, and remove to a cooling plate when internal temperature in the thickest fillet hits 145 degrees.

Then, weigh and measure your portion to your tiny plate, add your veg which should be cooked until very soft! Omit the grape tomatoes but keep the avocado and cut everything into a meeeeellllioooonnnnn tiny bites! Now chew, chew, chew, and chew some more! Chew again. Then swallow. And that’s Bari Stage 3, done!

You can also use the cooked salmon to make a mousse or a creamy salmon salad if you’re in puree stage or Bariatric Stage 3A, but that’s more complex and will require its own post. We’ll do it, soon! Swearsies!

MAKE MUSTARD CRUSTED SALMON STAGE 1 OR 2 (BARIATRIC CLEAR OR FULL LIQUIDS) APPROPRIATE:

Nope, sorry, no-can-do. You could make a salmon broth with it, but I think it would not be a great choice to have as a newbie post-op. And we completely draw the line on the use of the SNL Basso-matic with this bariatric salmon recipe!

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Here’s Your Challenge!

Challenge yourself! Go make Bari Healthy Life’s Mustard Crusted Salmon and when you do, PLEASE run back here and comment, purty please? Tell us how much you love it and how this new cooking method has changed your life!

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