Honey Mustard Chicken

This is a family favorite. We make it sometimes with cut up fryers and sometimes with chicken breast or tenderloin pieces. There's even a vegetarian version! Whichever you try, I think you'll be pleasantly delighted with it.

And if you are vegetarian try this sauce recipe with some tofu that has been prepared to be more meatlike. I freeze Nori Nu Extra Firm tofu for a day or longer, then I thaw it in the refrigerator. This eliminates the jello/egg feel of the tofu. Open the package, drain it, slice it thickly and set in a colander. Put a plate on top of the tofu, and add a large can, let sit for half an hour to press the water out. This gives it a meatier texture. Now cut it into chicken strip sized fingers and cook in the oven on 400* with the honey sauce of this recipe until the tofu is browned and has soaked up the delicious juices.

Honey Mustard Chicken for Six

6 chicken breast sections (1/2 breast each), or cut up chicken pieces of your choice

1 tsp. salt or season salt of your choice

1 cup melted butter
1 cup honey
1/3 cup spicy brown or dijon mustard or grainy hearty mustard

Preheat oven to 400*. In a baking pan with sides, lay chicken portions, season with your salt and some pepper. Combine butter and honey and mustard in a microwave safe bowl, heat for 30 seconds until it stirs easily to combine. Pour over the top of the chicken breast pieces. Cook until the chicken pieces are done, (which could be as soon as 15 minutes) and meat temperatures register 160* with a meat thermometer, and the sauce has reduced a little. Remove the chicken from the oven, and let sit for a few minutes for the juices to settle back into the meat. This also raises the temperature to 170* internally. Spoon the sauce into a gravy boat or syrup pitcher and pass with the chicken.

Serve with risotto or mashed potatoes, and drizzle a little of the sauce over the top of your chicken and rice or potatoes.

This feeds my family of seven, because the children are little and don't eat a full adult sized serving of meat. Add or subtract how much meat your family will need.

P.S. I can often find boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale for $1.40/lb. when bought in bulk, and leg/thigh combos for .69/lb. So we rotate these using this recipe.

Butternut Squash Risotto

1 medium butternut squash (about 1 pound whole or 12 ounces cut up) or 1 thawed pkg. frozen squash

24 sage leaves (or use 2 tsp. dried sage, or omit completely - which is what I do)
Salt and pepper
7 to 8 cups chicken or vegetable stock, I prefer low sodium
1 medium onion, finely minced
2 T olive oil
1 T real butter or margarine if you prefer
2 cups uncooked Arborio rice
Scant 1/2 cup apple or white grape juice, plus 1 T of white vinegar
1/2 cup parmesan or romano cheese, grated



1) Peel squash, then dice into very small (1/4- or 1/3-inch) cubes. Combine squash, a few sage leaves, 1 cup stock, and a little salt in a heavy-bottomed pot. Bring to a simmer and cook until just barely tender (but not too soft) about 5 to 10 minutes. Drain and reserve liquid, just in case.

2) Put the remainder of the stock into a sauce pan, add 1 cup of hot water, then bring to a simmer, and keep it just barely simmering or steaming.
3) In another, larger, heavy-bottomed dutch oven sized pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over med. high heat. Add sage 1/2 the sage leaves, and cook for 30 seconds until crispy. Remove, and set aside on a paper towel for the end of the recipe. To the same pan add onion, the other 1/2 the sage and cook until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Turn heat to low, add rice and a pinch of salt and cook for 3 minutes, stirring often, until rice has turned slightly translucent. Turn the heat back up to medium, and add the juice and vinegar. Once the juice has been absorbed, add two-three ladles full of the simmering stock, just enough to reach the top of the rice. Stir well and reduce the heat back down to medium-low.

4) Gently simmer the rice, stirring occasionally, until stock is absorbed. Add another 1/2-to-3/4 cup warm stock, and stir occasionally until new stock is absorbed. Repeat the process until all the stock has been absorbed by the rice, and rice has a bit of a bite still, but is tender on the outside. You want just a little resistance in the middle, this is what separates risotto from American rice. If you run out of stock, add a cup of water it will be fine.
5) If you're using frozen squash, now is the time to heat it in the microwave until it's heated through. Otherwise, have a glass of apple juice and stir the rice occasionally.

6) When rice is mostly tender, add cooked squash, parmesan, and a tablespoon of butter. Cook 3 to 5 minutes, until dairy is melted and squash is heated through. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot, using sage leaves as garnish.

If you don't have butternut squash, you can also use canned carrot cubes, or shred raw carrots and saute' it with the onion. They're both delicious. And I usually dislike cooked carrots.

By the way, the second and third time I made this I used simple short grained rice from my food storage buckets, which reduces the price considerably. My family is lactose intolerant, and we find that we can use Sheep Milk Romano cheese (read the label) instead of parmesan and nobody gets a belly ache. During our milking season we also use a homemade parmesan cheese made with goat milk.

Risotto goes really well with Honey Mustard Chicken, home bottled green beans, and a smile.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fiber, and Price Per Serving
371 calories, 10 g fat, 1.4 g fiber, $1.77 or less

Chicken Teriyaki Rice Bowls

Yesterday was a grey, rainy winter day, suitable for melting the snowpiles we saw as we drove to church, but not for much else. I had some boneless, skinless chicken breast pieces that were thawed waiting for me to decide how to use them, waiting in the refrigerator when we returned. Here's what we came up with. Just to give you an idea of the response to this meal from my family - here's how it went.

Emma, 3, cleaned her bowl completely. Merina - asked for seconds on the rice and green beans and gleefully drizzled teriyaki sauce over her second bowl. The big kids (9, almost 12, and 12) all had seconds, and my husband said WOW! High praise from half my family who were raised on pizza and wings and canned ravioli before I married in.

So here's my new favorite, somewhat reduced sugar Teriyaki sauce. And following you'll find how we used it last night and ideas I have for the future. Because I ate the leftovers for breakfast at 5:30 this morning. I named it because in the cities where I lived in Washington there were teriyaki places in every strip mall. Nearly every place served their meals similarly, a scoop or two of rice, stir fried veggies including cabbage, garlic and broccoli, and a portion of grilled chicken thigh or breast with a nice glaze of teriyaki sauce.

I Miss Seattle Teriyaki Sauce

Ingredients:

1 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup splenda (or substitute other low sugar sweetener)
1 cup of sugar free soft drink

*I used a generic of Crystal Light in peach, but have used Orange Early Rise previously too. You may also use Sugar Free Sprite, 7UP or other sugar free drink. You can substitute Pineapple juice, but then it's not suitable for diabetics, at all.

1 teaspoon grated ginger, very fine or use 1 hunk of candied or crystallized sugar ginger, like I did, minced
1 large garlic clove, minced or 1 tsp. jarred garlic
3 scallions, chopped fine - I skipped that, the refrigerator was out and we don't shop on Sunday

Bring the soy sauce and sugar free soft drink to a simmer in a sauce pan, add the ginger and garlic and add sweeteners and stir until it's dissolved. Add the scallions just before serving. Makes about 2 cups of teriyaki sauce.

Now where do you use this teriyaki sauce? Everywhere. Here is what we had for dinner last night:

Chicken Teriyaki Rice Bowl

1/2 cup of steamed white rice per person
1/4 lb. of sautee'd chicken breast or thigh (do not salt)
1/2 cup of steamed veggies of your choice - piping hot

In a bowl, mound 1/2 cup of steamed rice like an icecream scoop, arrange 1/2 cup or more of steamed veggies around this. We like broccoli, or a stir fry mix, but even canned green beans from last year's garden are really good this way.

Then drizzle Teriyaki sauce, to taste, over the top of each rice bowl. Reduce in size appropriate to the age of the eater.

How else can you use this delicious sauce? How about baking some chicken wings, sectioned, until crisp. Toss them in a bowl, drizzle with sauce and stir until well-glazed. Or, when your hamburger or turkey or venison burger is almost done to your liking, brush this teriyaki glaze on it for the last two minutes of cooking.

Teriyaki Beef from Leftovers:

In a large skillet, heat a tsp. or so of heart healthy oil on high heat. Add one or more sliced sweet onions and sautee' until just turning golden. Slice leftover steak or roast into bite sized portions, sautee' with the onions until warmed through. Now drizzle some teriyaki sauce over the meat, and turn the meat down a little so the sauce won't burn, and glaze the meat. Serve this teriyaki over a scoop of steamed rice with salad or a steamed or stir fried vegetable along side. And that will be the end of your leftovers, quickly.

If you're eating lower carbohydrate, you might consider serving the teriyaki over stir fried cabbage and zucchini and broccoli cut into thin slivers instead of rice. Vegetarians will find this is really good to use for a marinade for pressed tofu, and in fact makes a delightful sandwich with diced fried tofu, shredded veggies and lettuce stuffed into a pita.

It's bliss. What's your local food favorite? What do you find on nearly every corner, and at every strip mall in your community? It's one thing I just don't see any more... teriyaki restaurants. In rural upstate New York, it's pizza places, sub shops, and the occasional overcooked Chinese fast food.

Enjoy Mouthwater Mondays' Chicken Teriyaki Rice Bowl, in whatever version you try.

Shrimp Stuffed Salmon Fillets

Mouthwatering Monday. That's a challenge I just can't walk away from. You may have noticed that I'm a Washington state raised girl, married to a farmboy from Upstate New York. And yes, Upstate is the important part. You see, downstate is New York City. I know you've seen Law and Order on television, and it just doesn't match up with Upstate New York. I mean, goodness, the goats broke out of their barn after a wind storm blew the hinges and hardware off the 200 year old barn. They wandered 10 yards to the back of our village neighbors greenpatch and gobbled down tender shoots on their blackberry bushes, and topped their rosebushes but good. Did Christopher Meloni and Marishka Margitay pop out of their sedan and tackle the goats and read them their rights? I think not. This was no issue of Law and Order: Caprine Victims Unit, nosirreebobby. Instead, FarmBoy sees the goats roaming the village, in their girly rhinestone goat collars I might add, and came in the house and hollered for the big boys to come help because the entire goat herd was loose.

He hollered for the two eleven year old boys, because Mom o'Five was up several times in the night with 5/5 and was sleeping. But those are my goats, so I was down the stairs in my warm sleeping sweats and into my kelly green rubber boots before those boys had even registered Papa's holler.

Goats were cavorting like ballerinas in Swan Lake. It was hilarious to see grown goats leaping into the air like little kids free... free at last. They startled when I came bounding out the back door to protect them from the imagined dangers. I called them, and like the good Alpine goats they are, they came running to follow me back to the barn. Ahh, bliss, nibbles of tiny sprouts of greening grass in the spring time, followed by a handful of goat chow and a good back scratching. Oh wait, I was going to be sleeping more than 2 hours. Who needs sleep when you have goats? Oh back to the life I left behind when I married my FarmBoy.

I'm from Washington - and it was a farm, actually with goats where I spent my formative middle school and high school years. Goat milk works well for lactose intolerant tummies, and big gardens feed big families, and that's how I grew up - lots of produce and lots of dairy from our goats. Life and employment took me to Corporate America, and jobs in major metropolitan areas, and what is it that I miss in a tiny village in Upstate New York?

Good seafood. Truly. There have been days when my mouth watered at the mere sight of Iron Chef - Fish of your choice. Being from Washington - I love Pacific Salmon. Being in Upstate New York, I can usually find Atlantic Salmon here. A bit drier, and not as lovely red hued, but stil heart-healthy and delicious. FarmBoy informed me he didn't like salmon. I gasped. When I clarifed that salmon doesn't exclusively come from a can, he invited me to try recipes out on him.

Upstate New York has a supermarket chain that excells. Wegmans'. It's a family friendly chain, and voted #1 in Fortune's Best 100 Companies to Work for. I go there for Thai recipe ingredients, and this week, for salmon. Salmon has those heart-healthy omega fatty acids, and that's my excuse for eating it this week. FarmBoy gives it two thumbs up!

Shrimp Stuffed Salmon Fillets
32 oz. Salmon fillets (about 8)
1/2 to 3/4 cup of seasoned Italian bread crumbs
3-4 T mayonnaise (low fat is fine, but not fat free)
2 T chopped fresh basil leaves (I used frozen from the garden)
1 clove of garlic, pressed or finely diced.
1/4 c shredded parmesan
1 cup chopped shrimp (cooked)
1 roasted red pepper (capsicum) peeled, then finely diced
First, thaw your salmon if using frozen. Lightly salt and pepper the fillets, then make a pocket in each fillet by slicing most of the way through the fillet, leaving both ends uncut. Open a little wider with your fingers. If a single fillet is cut thin, instead, roll up in pinwheel fashion, rather than cut a pocket.

Place chopped shrimp, red pepper dices, chopped basil and garlic, and 3 T of mayonnaise in a small bowl. Mix lightly, add parmesan and 1/2 cup of bread crumbs. Take tablespoons of stuffing, and press together in clean hands to make a stuffing ball. Add a little mayo or breadcrumbs to make it just right, to hold together fairly well. Put a stuffing ball into the pocket in the salmon fillet, and mound a little on the top.

When you've stuffed all 8 pockets, put on an oiled baking sheet and bake about 15 minutes, or until the salmon begins to flake. Remove from oven, and cover with foil for another two minutes, until salmon temperature rises to 130* or fish flakes easily with a fork.

Delicious with spring asparagus, young peas, and pierogies with browned butter. Because Upstate New York pierogies and Washington state (pacific) salmon are a match made in heaven. Just like FarmBoy and me. If you're not feeding lots of little ones like we are, you might even want to add some cajun or creole seasoning and kick it up a notch.

Now that's good food, well earned, after saving the village from a herd of marauding goats. Eat your heart out.