If you're looking for an easy weeknight meal with 30+ grams of protein and some quick, healthy sides, try this maple mustard salmon recipe!

We've been making this recipe on repeat for probably over a month now. Every Wednesday night has somehow become salmon night! It is probably (without a doubt?) one of the fastest meals to prepare on my blog, but tastes like it took much longer to prepare.

I like dependable meals. Meals that you know are going to turn out perfectly every time you make them. Meals that have fairly straightforward, no fuss ingredients that are staples on hand. That's one of the reasons this recipe is perfect for us. I always have these ingredients on hand (except for the fresh thyme). And that actually has a pretty decent shelf-life, and so I can get away with buying it every two weeks... But I have actually started to have it on hand lately because we're always using it and it's good on everything!

Where do we buy our salmon? We almost always buy sockeye salmon from Costco. Typically, I buy two packages at a time, freeze one, and make the other one within one to two days of buying it. I find that buying salmon that way for our family of seven is way more cost effective than buying it weekly. If I can find a fillet that is almost two pounds, I snatch it up. Other salmon varieties I would recommend are Coho and Chinook salmon (though some Chinook is farm-raised, so you might keep an eye on that). You might also come across Copper River Salmon, from the eponymous river in Alaska. That's likely going to be some great sockeye, but could also be king or coho (also great!). But if you're at the store and you see any one of those names and wild-caught next to it, snatch those fishies up! I don't worry about fresh vs frozen - it takes a long time for frozen salmon to really begin to lose its flavor.

SKIP ATLANTIC SALMON. Just don't even buy it. It's farm-raised and while that sounds kind of nice, it's not. Farm-raised fish are raised on controlled diets of not great ingredients. They don't roam wild and they generally have a higher fat content and injections that give it a more appealing color.

Wild-Caught = YES
Farm-Raised = NO

Speaking of ounces. Did you know that in a 6 oz serving of sockeye salmon, there is about 34-36 grams of protein? And that's off of only about 200 or so calories! Hard to beat that exchange. Not only is that good for us adults as we age, but really good for our kids, too. Salmon packs a nutrient punch when you add to that amazing protein content all of those vitamins, minerals, and omega 3-fatty acids. I guess that's why they call it a super food!

To round out a delicious, slightly sweet and savory meal with this particular salmon recipe, you might ask what do I fix on the side to go with it? I'll tell you. I make huge sheet pans of vegetables. I've been buying a lot of broccoli lately, so there is usually a bunch of broccoli, potatoes (last night I used up the sweet potato and Yukons I had in the pantry), and carrots. I absolutely adore carrots as a side dish because they're so affordable and take on a lot of flavor without a lot of work. I roast the potatoes first at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes, sometimes I'll add the carrots to that pan. I drop the heat down to 400 degrees for the fish and I add the broccoli and cook the fish at 400 degrees for another 10-15 minutes.

Dinner is done! A whole, nutritious meal with sides in under 40 minutes!

If I can prep the vegetables ahead of time so I'm not rushing around at dinner time, I will. I usually already have the broccoli chopped (it lasts longer in the fridge if chopped). Potatoes...well, you kind of have to do potatoes at the last minute.

All of my kids really love this salmon - even Grace, who is not a fish lover, enjoys this recipe! It is a bit savory with the stone-ground mustard and thyme. But the maple syrup adds the tiniest hint of sweetness. Cadáin, our two-year-old, also loves this meal!

Give it a try the next time you buy salmon and let me know how you like it! Which...I promise you will! It's a fantastic weeknight meal!