Quinoa Ribboned Asparagus Salad with a side of Salmon

I love asparagus. It is one of my top three vegetable choices (what are the other two, you ask? I'm not really sure as of this moment..but I didn't want asparagus to get an ego about being labeled my fave) I love chomping on those little stalks freshly roasted with salt and lemon. Plus they make me feel fancy, and thats important.

A couple months ago, a certain member of my familia (who's identity shall remain a secret) had some blood work done. One of the tests, was an asparagine level. It was low. Me being all jokey and brilliant, told said person these levels were low because they didn't eat enough asparagus. Asparagine/Asparagus, sounds only right. Said person laughed off my comment as ridiculous and set out for a doctor visit. After said persons said doctor visit, I asked how it went.

Said persons response: "I need to eat more asparagus."

This pleased me to no end...I was right, and I get to cook more asparagus.

Just call me Dr. Bean.

So for dinner the other night, I had to fill a weekly asparagus quota, as well create a new, healthy and fresh meal.

Challenge accepted.

I have seen a few different salads floating around with ribboned asparagus. Some have quinoa, some lemon vinaigrette. Mine has all of that bizzness.

What those other cyber people did not say however, is how difficult it is to ribbon asparagus. I mean, they are super thin, and incredibly fragile. Eventually, I got it all worked out, but phew was it tough.

I mixed it up with some fresh red lettuce leaves, tossed in some quinoa and added a little avocado.

I than moved on to creating a salad dressing. Let me tell you, salad dressing making, is not one of my strong suits. Every time I see something that claims salad dressing to be the easiest thing on the planet, I want to slap them in the face. I'm just to advanced for trivial things like vinaigrettes I guess.

Anyway, the dressing I ended up with was quite yummy. It just took forever to get the ingredient portions down.

After all that was done and mixed up, I tested it out. Raw asparagus=super bitter.

So I added some mandarins to the mix, and a little more sweetness to the dressing to even it out.

Mission accomplished.

I also made some Salmon. I did it the Pioneer Women way. The super easy and delicious way as it could be called. Here it is.

I should say, I didn't actually use her recipe: I just cooked it her way: by putting salmon in cold oven and turning it to 400degrees for 25 minutes. All I put on the salmon was a little evoo, salt and pepper and a hint of garlic. 'Cause what would life be without garlic?

Once it was cooked, and ready to eat; I added some lemon-butter to the fish. Taste-ee

Here are the recipes for the salad and vinaigrette:

I also roasted some asparagus. To do that, I just laid asparagus flat on a cookie sheet and drizzled with evoo, salt, garlic powder, and a squeeze of lemon juice. I put in in a 400degree oven and cook for about 10 minutes. Until its soft, but not too flimsy.

Enjoy!