To start fulfilling our New Year's resolution...

So how many of you took the plunge and made a resolution this year? Brandon and I did in hopes of being swimsuit ready when we take our trip to St. Thomas in February. To help with this, we fixed this DELICIOUS meal!

--Baked Salmon
Brandon preheated the oven to 400 and made an aluminum foil pouch for our fresh salmon filets. The filets were covered with chopped onion, cayenne pepper, garlic salt and slices of oranges fresh from Florida courtesy of Brandon's crew member, Adrian (thank you!!!). After 15 minutes of baking, the salmon filets made their debut and oh, were they ever tasty!

--Asparagus Bundles (Courtesy of Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood, pg. 127)

     2lbs fresh asparagus, ends trimmed
     12 slices of bacon (I have found thin sliced works better than thick cut)
     1/2 cup light brown sugar
     1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
     1 tablespoon soy sauce
     1/2 tsp garlic salt
     1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Divide the asparagus spears into 12 bundles (for me this averaged out to be about 4 spears per bundle). Carefully wrap 1 piece of bacon around each bundle, starting about 1/2 inch from the bottom of the tips. Secure the bacon-wrapped spears with a toothpick (I didn't have any toothpicks and it still worked just fine). Lay the bundles in a low-sided casserole dish.

In a medium saucepan, combine the brown sugar, butter, soy sauce, garlic salt and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil. Pour the hot sugar mixture over the asparagus bundles. Transfer the dish to the oven and roast for 25 minutes, or until the spears have begun to wilt and the bacon looks fully cook. Remove the toothpicks (if you used them! :)) before serving.

Give this a try for a healthy option for dinner. Hope you enjoy and I would love to hear what you think! Have other healthy recipe ideas? I'd love to hear them!

Until next time... :)