As January draws to a close, this past month began not only a new year, but also a new semester. Some Hoyas vow to study harder, spend more time helping others or spend less money, but overwhelmingly we resolve to go to Yates more often.

Of course, by now many of us have already fallen back into an exercise-less routine. Especially at Georgetown, where grueling classes, jobs, internships, friends and family all compete for your time and attention, it’s hard to find an extra hour or two to hit up the gym — especially when the gym looks like a nuclear bomb shelter and is located at the top of a steep, snow-covered hill.

Luckily, diet is the other half of the diet-and-exercise regime, and it doesn’t take much longer to prepare a healthy snack than it does to order a Chicken Madness from Wisey’s. And while exercise isn’t everyone’s favorite activity, cooking is fun and delicious.

For this healthy meal, I adapted a one-pot salmon, rice and snap pea recipe from Real Simple that’s become one of my go-to favorites. It cooks up in about a half hour, tastes great and is super good for you.

The original recipe called for brown sugar and sugar snap peas, but it tastes just as good with white sugar and any other veggies (yellow squash, broccoli and thinly-sliced carrots would be great if you have them). You can use frozen salmon, which is cheaper and tastes about the same — just make sure it’s completely defrosted before you cook it.

After you’ve eaten dinner, you might be inspired to continue the trend of simple and healthy cooking with fresh pineapple or mango for dessert. If you’re feeling indulgent, though, bananas sauteed in butter and brown sugar would also go great with this dish — flambe them if you have rum on hand.

And really, those bananas would taste best over ice cream … you can always go to Yates again tomorrow!

Ingredients:

1/3 cup soy sauce

2 T rice vinegar

1 T minced ginger

1 T sugar (white or brown)

1 T Scallions (optional)

1 cup rice (brown or white: if you’re using brown rice, use two cups of water per cup of rice and for white, use 1.5 cups of water)

1 salmon filet (half a filet per person)

½ cup of vegetables (snap peas, yellow squash, broccoli and/or carrots)

For Dessert: pineapple, mango or bananas, butter, brown sugar and ice cream

Start to Finish: 30-50 minutes depending on what rice you choose, plus 5-10 minutes to make dessert

Directions:

1. Mix together the soy sauce with the rice vinegar, the minced ginger and 1 T sugar in a small bowl. (Skip the hassle of dicing fresh ginger and buy a jar of minced ginger to keep in the fridge.)  If you have scallions, chop a few up and add them in. Set this sauce aside.

2. Add rice and water to a saucepan, bring it to a boil, and reduce the heat to low.

Cover the pot and let the rice steam (10 minutes for white rice, 30 for brown).

3. While the rice is cooking, cut the skin off your salmon filet and then slice the fish diagonally into inch-thick pieces. Season them with salt and pepper, then place them atop the rice and cover and cook for another five minutes.

4. Add vegetables to the pot. Cover and cook until the veggies are tender and the salmon is opaque (about five minutes). Spoon the sauce over the salmon, rice and veggies and serve.

5. Drain the pasta and add it to the pot or serve the chicken and veggies over the rice once it’s done.

Kitt Wolfenden is a junior in the School of Foreign Service. She can be reached at [email protected]. Kitt’s Kitchen appears every other Friday in the guide.