Pistachio Garlic Dill Salmon & Spicy Baby Bok Choy

Oh my goodness I'm so happy right now I could pee myself! And I'm not even jumping! I received an email from the university where I'll be doing my masters and I HAVE HOMEWORK!!!!!!!!!!! SOOOO MUCH READING. I. am. so. pumped. I have been going absolutely stir crazy not having anything really to do. I yearn for my days at the library huddled up in a corner cubby on the quiet floor, reading with highlighter in hand, getting nervous butterflies about whatever exam I'm studying for or because I truly enjoy the sh*t that I read. Yeah, I get butterflies from reading. That's how you know you're doing/pursuing/studying the right thing. When you literally could well up in tears just from talking about the subject you are so passionate about. I get this way with a lot of things. It's something I had to train myself to do. You can either look at life and your studies like everything sucks or is boring or just necessary and just go through the motions, idly living an essentially meaningless life, OR you could truly live in all senses of the word and approach life with unending curiosity, passion, and excitement. It's an attitude thing. Change the way you see things and the things around you change. I promise you this. This applies to everything in life too, not just your job. One of my main men Einstein said in his brief essay, The World How I See It: 

The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.

Follow your bliss. - Joseph Campbell
Another one of my main (possibly favoritest) men. 

Make sure that, above all, you stay true to yourself and you constantly strive to be the highest individual you can be. You are, in fact, an individual, despite the pressures that society places on us to conform to the herd. Be weird. Embrace your weirdness, your passions, your curiosity, because those things are going to be what makes you, you. And trust me, feeling that you are truly yourself and not the product of something trivial and outside your control is the most enlightening feeling in the world. It's scary to think that people may look at you like you're some freak for blogging way too much about your personal life and recipes, or losing all ties to the crazy party life you had before, or being super into tough, gut-wrenching workouts and the pursuit of optimum nutrition and athletic performance, but who cares? If you stay true to you, the opinions of others won't matter, and in fact, they'll reinforce your perception of you and make you stronger and inspire you to work harder.

In an era dominated by superfluous amounts of information, both valid and absurd - yet, not always distinguishable - be sure to look upon the world with an insatiable curiosity, a critical eye, and constantly question everything. Even yourself. That's my rant on life. Sorry everyone, I'm just super giddy right now and I haven't felt like this in a while. I just don't want to see you all become sheeple. I want people to feel the invigorating sense of individuality that I feel on an almost daily basis. Sure, we all become preoccupied with negativity and insecurity and falter with that sense of individuality, but we must push through it and constantly try to have a good attitude. Attitude is key. That's all I'll say on that. Again, I apologize for the ramblings.

Gah, I got so worked up about all this I can't think of a recipe to post. I did, however, remember that I wanted to comment on my night last night. So for once in my life, I had a significant amount of energy post 8pm. Because it was Allyson's birthday the night before I wanted to go out and celebrate with her. We ended up going to TOTS, a bar I typically try to steer clear from because I'm awkward at small talk and I tend to see way too many people I know there from like eight years back. That's an exaggeration, I'm not that old. Also, they have a big night on Tuesday and I knew I was going to be the most soberific person there. Fact. I cannot even begin to explain to you how many couples I saw gettin' ALL up in each others faces/mouths/etc. Gross. Seriously, cut it with the PDA. Y'all are drunk and nasty, and although you provide me some entertainment, it gets kind of nauseating after 17 minutes of straight sloppy mouth devouring. Bleghhh.

I WAS going to drink one glass of red wine, but fail. TOTS does not have wine. Rude, TOTS, rude. I think I'm probably the ONLY person who's ever asked for wine at a crowded, cluster-f*ck of a get-wasted bar, so yeah, that's cool. But I was going to ask if the bar tender could put it in a normal glass so I didn't look like such a pretentious f*ck. Oh well, water with lemon it was. At least I looked like I was drinking to the untrained eye. I wanted to white-girl dance. I suck at dancing. All those years of dancing way back when sure as hell did not help out my club dancing skill. I end up looking drunk. But not in the good way. People kept playin' sh*t ass music for karaoke and I couldn't get my groove on. Not to mention the gentleman who did a vocal guitar rendition of some popular, 90's bar song and literally wreaked havoc upon my ear drums. I like country music SOMETIMES. Sometimes being when I'm super obliterated at a country concert and the weather is nice outside and I pee in gravel parking lots. Classy. That was certainly not the case last night, so please people, keep the terrible renditions of country songs during karaoke night to a minimum and let's get some Ke$ha or other trashy - yet often catchy - pop songs up in thurr. Like Katy Perry. Her tatas are fabulous. Sorry, had to say it.

I meant to post this all (above) yesterday but then I got sucked in to watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Holy crap Huntington, West Virginia is large and in charge. I totally support his idea, although maybe not stuffin' those chunkers full of pastas and whole grains, but at LEAST it's a step in the right direction. It makes me hate local, state, and federal government bullsh*t red tape even more though. Our "food pyramid" is f*cked. That's all on that. Here's the recipe finally...

Pistachio Garlic Dill Salmon & Sautéed Spicy Baby Bok Choy
Makes 4 servings
Salmon: 

• 4 6-8 ounce Salmon Filets (skin on & wild caught)
• 1/2 of a lemon, juiced (about 4-5 tablespoons)
• 2-3 teaspoons dill, finely minced
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning
• 3-4 tablespoons ghee/butter/fat of choice (I used ghee)
• 2 tablespoons crushed pistachios - I used Everybody's Nuts Salt & Pepper 'stachies
• 1/4 cup red wine

1. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. 

2. Melt the fat of choice and stir in lemon juice, dill, garlic, seasonings, and pistachios. Brush the mixture over the salmon filets and pour remained over the filets evenly to get the large chunks of the pistachios on.

3. Place a 1/4 cup of red wine at the bottom of a baking dish and place the salmon filets on top. 

4. Roast for about 12-15 minutes depending on the thickness of your filet. 

Spicy Baby Bok Choy: 

• 4 heads of Baby Bok Choy, diced
• 1 1/2 tablespoon Toasted Sesame Oil
• 2 Garlic cloves, sliced
• 1/4 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper
• 1 tablespoon Tamari or Coconut Aminos

1. Heat oil over medium heat in a large soup pot. Add garlic and cook stirring constantly until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
2. Add bok choy and stir to coat in oil, cover and cook about 3 minutes. Uncover, add crushed red pepper and tamari, stir in and cover and cook 2-3 minutes more. 

3. Uncover and continue to cook 3-4 more minutes until stalks of the bok choy are soft to the touch. 

4. Serve hot alongside the salmon filets!