Maple Mustard Chicken 1/18

Another Cooking Light Recipe that looked simple but good.  I don't often do recipes with chicken, as to me it is the "boring" meat and its sort of my fall back when I am bored or lazy.  But this time I decided it was time to try out a recipe.  This one had a ton of flavor and was rather simple to cook.  The cleanup was a little sticky, but well worth it!  Check out the Maple Mustard Chicken.  I'm in love with the full seed Dijon mustards these days, so this was perfect!

As mentioned in a previous blog, I got into BJs vegetables, and had bought a huge bag of brussels sprouts.  I love roasting them, but decided I wanted something that went along with the chicken, but stood as a side dish and didnt overpower the chicken.  So I chopped up some thick slices of carrot to go with them and tossed it all on a cookie sheet with olive oil, salt & pepper and some herb de provence. Yet another mention of Sandy & Sarah, as they first turned me onto this herb blend when they brought me back a grinder of it from Paris many years ago.  Since then, it has completely replaced Italian seasoning as my herb blend of choice.  Roasted them for probably 20-30 minutes at 400.

Lastly for something quick, I threw together a lemon raisin couscous.  A cup of chicken broth, two tablespoons of lemon juice, tablespoon of olive oil, a quarter cup of raisins and bring to a boil.  Once at a boil, remove from the heat and add a cup of couscous.  Cover and let sit for 5 minutes, fluff with a fork and serve!

By the way, the leftovers for this meal were equally amazing! It held up well for a couple days!

Orange Meal 1/10

Wanted to throw together something quick and tasty.  I've been going to BJ's a lot lately, and found that their giant bags of fresh vegetables are not only a great value, but tend to hold up fairly well as well.  With Wegmans being a good 25minute drive, I don't get there every weekend, so I've started stocking up more often at BJ's. They have a gigantic piece of salmon that is usually around $18, and I bought a huge bag of cubed butternut squash.  Makes for a super fast meal!

 Sage Roasted Butternut Squash
Cube some fresh butternut squash and throw it on a cookie sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Chop up some fresh sage, or in my case, I had some dried sage from Sandy's garden that I crumbled into the mix.  Crack some fresh salt and pepper over it and roast it in the oven at 400 for 20-25 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so.

Orange Tricolor Couscous
I also get the big container of couscous so we can have a fast rice-like side dish as needed.  I follow the package directions, but replace 3/4 of the water with orange juice, and added some thyme into the liquid before it boiled.

Fresh Salmon
We often cook this huge thing of salmon all at once.  This time I froze half and cooked half.  We added a seafood rub that my dad gave me for Christmas, and just baked it for around 25 minutes.

And the resulting dish!  I'm still working on the photography part, but everything was very flavorful and complimented well, and best of all it was fast and simple!  Wa-la!

Bon Appetit!