If you don't like this salad, I will come to your house and eat it myself.

Alternate title consideration for this post:

• My basil plant has an enemy.

I was originally planning to use basil on my salmon tonight from my basil plant in my window.

(I think buying the plant versus just a package is totally worth the couple bucks it costs, and it is not hard to keep alive. And trust me, I'm good at killing plants. If you use a lot of basil, you should definitely grow it yourself.)

But my poor basil plant has had a rough time lately. It has a natural enemy in our apartment. A fuzzy, four-legged enemy....

and she likes to knock it over every chance she gets. Apparently ferrets hate when you grow basil. Who knew? So I decided to leave the basil alone today because it's looking pretty beat up. But the salmon was still delicious without it. I think you'll like it.

So, enough chit chat! Tonight I made citrus-herb salmon, super lowfat shrimp scampi, and israeli couscous salad. It was delicious. Low carb and low fat, with tons of protein, flavor and good stuff. My kind of meal! When I bought a pound of salmon last, they gave me three pieces, which is a really annoying number when there are only two of us. The last piece wasn't enough on it's own to make a meal for two, so I split it between us and made shrimp scampi as the rest of our protein. The salad turned out delicious. I ended up making enough for four servings at least, and I am thrilled to have leftovers, because I will definitely want to eat it again. 

Citrus-herb salmon:

• 4.5 ounces wild-caught salmon
• 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 lime
• 4 sprigs dill - ends finely chopped
• 8 chives - diced
• Salt and pepper

This salmon is super simple. Take a cookie sheet, line it with foil, spray it with cooking spray, and put salmon on skin down. Squeeze enough lemon juice and lime juice on to cover fish generously. For me, it was about half the juice from each. Add the dill and the scallions. Salt and pepper to your liking.

Broil until fish flakes with a fork and is cooked through. This took about 8 minutes for this piece, but it depends on the thickness. Add fresh squeezed lemon at the end if desired.

Lowfat shrimp scampi: (Serves 2)

• 28 small shrimp, raw, frozen, cleaned and deveined
• 1/2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 green onion - diced
• 1 large garlic clove - minced
• 1 stalk lemongrass sliced lengthwise
• 1/4 tsp. garlic salt
• 3 tbsp. low sodium chicken broth
• 1 tbsp. butter buds (you can find these in the spice aisle at the grocery store)
• 1/4 tsp. cornstarch
• fresh lemon juice (as desired)

Thaw the shrimp in cold water and remove shells from shrimp. Heat oil in skillet on stove over medium heat. Add green onion and saute until opaque. Add garlic and lemongrass and cook for 1 minute. Add shrimp and garlic salt, and cook just until shrimp is pink. Don't overcook or it will get rubbery. (If liquid dries up when cooking shrimp, add lemon juice, broth, or white wine to keep moist.) As soon as shrimp is cooked, turn heat to low and add chicken broth, butter buds, and cornstarch. Simmer 3-4 minutes until sauce thickens. Remove lemongrass before serving. Squeeze fresh lemon juice on after plating as desired.

 Israeli-couscous salad: (Serves 4)

• 7/8 cup low sodium-chicken broth
• 2/3 cup Israeli couscous
• 3-4 drops olive oil
• 1 cup curly parsley - chopped
• 1 cup cucumber - diced
• 1 cup tomatoes (I used one red tomato and one heirloom tomato for color) - diced
• 1/2 cup avocado - diced
• 1 green onion (green only) - chopped
• 1 1/2 tbsp. fresh mint leaves - chopped
• 1/4 cup reduced-fat crumbled blue cheese
• juice from 1/4 navel orange
• juice from 1/4 lemon
• Salt (to taste)

You can also use traditional couscous or quinoa if you prefer, but to me the texture of israeli couscous really works perfectly in this salad. Cook 2 servings of the couscous according to package label, but using chicken broth in place of water. I boiled 7/8 cup chicken broth, added 2/3 cup israeli couscous, turned to low heat, and simmered, covered for 10 minutes.

Once it is cooked, let it cool to room temperature. Add a few drops of olive oil so when it cools it doesn't stick together. You can also make this ahead of time and keep it in the fridge to make prep time of the salad much quicker.

Cut up all veggies and put them in a large bowl.

Add room temperature couscous, blue cheese, orange juice, and lemon juice. Salt as desired. 

This made four good servings for us. It is a low-carb and low-fat side with tons of veggies. And it's super yummy.

So this was everything! This meal had tons of great flavors. I hope you like it! :)