Some (many?) weeks when you’re putting together the grocery list you struggle for inspiration. My family could probably tell you the precise number of weeks in the past few years we’ve defaulted to the ground beef tacos-pasta-burgers line-up. That’s not a bad thing – I make great ground beef tacos and pasta and burgers, each of which I can quickly adapt for myself to keep it keto, so to speak. But when the groans from my family became audible on announcing the week’s menu, I knew it was time to think outside of my very tiny box for ideas.

According to the Disney website, WDW has 385 restaurants. Some of those are bars with limited or no food, some are “experiences” rather than restaurants, and some are (mostly) useless (see, e.g., Beaches & Cream Soda Shop – short of some miracle of science, the Kitchen Sink will never be keto-friendly).

That leaves us with hundreds of restaurants with thousands of menu items. But where to start…

How about a trip around the world? No, not for drinking around the world, although I have done that – for eating around the world! We’re going to try to go 11 for 11. And like any sane person, when we leave Japan, we head to France.

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Ingredients:

4 8oz salmon fillets

1/3 cup white wine

1/3 cup olive oil

3 tbsp lemon juice

3 tsp lemon rind

1 packet Splenda

1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary

1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme

2 cloves minced garlic

1 tsp kosher salt

1 Bunch asparagus

1/2 cup champagne

2 tbsp champagne vinegar

1 minced shallot

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 stick butter, chopped into smallish pieces

Salt and pepper

Instructions:

I’m going to go lean on the instructions since the point here is to find sources of inspiration for your meals, not layout precise instructions for cooking.

Combine the white wine, olive oil, lemon juice, lemon rind, Splenda, rosemary, thyme, garlic, and kosher salt, and stir to mix evenly. Place the salmon in a Ziploc bag and pour the marinade over it. Marinate in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Salmon is a firm fish, so it can handle 2 hours of marinating, but any longer can result in acids in the marinade cooking the fish, and ceviche is not what we’re going for here!

My 3 keys to grilling salmon are: 1) Start with very hot (clean) grill grates – after I’ve scraped any residue off the grates, I crank the burners on my gas grill up to high. 2) Oil the fish, not the grill – I dab both sides of the salmon with plenty of canola oil. 3) Grill skin side down first for 5 minutes, flipping once and allowing the meat side to cook for another 5 minutes.

Throw the asparagus in a grill pan sprayed with Canola oil, and grill alongside the salmon for 10 minutes.

After 5 minutes per side, the salmon is at about 125 degrees Fahrenheit, which is when I like to pull it off and let it rest uncovered for about 5 minutes, during which time it will come up to at least 145 degrees Fahrenheit. If you don’t cook salmon often, use a fish thermometer to check your temps.

Add the champagne, champagne vinegar, and shallot to a sauce pan and cook over medium heat for about five minutes until it reduces by about a quarter. Add the heavy cream and stir over the heat for another five minutes until it thickens. Reduce the heat to low and add the butter, stirring in a few pieces at a time until melted. Season with salt and pepper. You probably don’t want pieces of shallot in your sauce, so use a narrow slotted spoon or strainer to remove the shallot pieces.

Prepare the riced cauliflower according to the instructions.

Plate the salmon (skin on), asparagus, and riced cauliflower and top with champagne sauce.

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KTK Pro Tip: This might seem like a lot of steps and ingredients, but the whole process really goes quickly and it is absolutely worth the effort. Maybe save this recipe for a night when you don’t have to get the kids out the door to sports practice. Or just whip it up for the adults on date night in.

Belle and Beast never ate like this, so be our guest. Keep Ketoing The Kingdom, Kids!