Baked Salmon with Butternut Squash and Kale - made migraine friendly!

 As with my last post, it has been a few years! Again, lots of life changes, including another move. But most significantly for my food blogger ways is that I have embarked on a journey using the Good Days Program to find my migraine food triggers and eliminate them from my life! If you are also a migraine sufferer or have one in your life, I strongly recommend checking out the program. Their partnership with Migraine Buddy has been life-altering for me. I have been on this journey for about two months now and safely reintroduced two food chemicals that I have deemed low-risk for me personally. 

Good Days has a youtube channel that shares great recipes from the completely safe for everyone "Isa's shopping list" (included in their plan). As I am adding new safe foods to my personal shopping list, however, I am finding I need to get a little creative with adapting other recipes and I realized I wanted to come back here to have a record of the recipes that were successes. Hopefully, it will help someone out there too. ❤️

Full disclosure - I am NOT being sponsored by Good Days or Migraine Buddy! These opinions are purely my own based on the fabulous success I am having so far. They do caution that not everyone has food as a sensitivity for them, so it is possible to do the diet changes and not have results. If that is the case, you just go back to eating whatever. But many migraine sufferers have 4-5 food chemical sensitivities, and the list they have developed is based on a LOT of scientific studies and articles, and I love me some solid data. 

(If you are working the elimination diet yourself or already know your trigger chemicals, please see notes at the end regarding optional alterations.) 

So, without further babbling/proselytizing... 

Baked Salmon with Butternut Squash and Kale - made migraine friendly! 

Inspired by CookingLight and Back to the Book Nutrition, heavily modified

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups chopped butternut squash 

2-3 large sliced shallots 

1/4 cup melted ghee or coconut oil (spray is very convenient here) 

salt and black pepper

1 tablespoon ghee, coconut oil, or olive oil (in a pinch, though some people react to it) 

2 (6-oz.) skin-on salmon fillets 

2 teaspoons pure maple syrup 

3-4 cups torn curly kale 

Linseed oil for finishing, if desired

Directions 

1. Whisk melted ghee with a sprinkling of salt and pepper and an herb if desired (see food chemical notes at the end). Toss butternut squash and shallots with this and spread in a flat layer on a baking sheet. Roast at 400°F for 20 minutes or until tender. 

2. Heat 1 tablespoon of ghee, coconut oil, or olive oil in a nonstick skillet. Brush the salmon with maple syrup and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Cook the salmon skin side down 3-4 minutes. Flip, and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes, adding the kale to the pan to wilt.  

3. Toss the butternut, shallots, and kale together, adding a drizzle of linseed oil if desired. Top with salmon.    

Food chemicals to note: 

Unless your fish is EXTREMELY FRESH, like caught, gutted, and frozen within 30 minutes on the boat FRESH (which I can never find indicated anywhere...) then it has histamine. As this is the third chemical I am testing, this works out great for me. If you are not there yet or have a sensitivity to histamine as a migraine risk factor, consider cooking up some fresh chicken breast instead. 

Spices: If you have cleared the first chemical and are not actively testing a new one, then feel free to include rosemary and/or sage in the roasting your butternut step.  Friendly full time: basil, ginger, chives, or parsley. I recommend picking just one here.