Grape Nuts Chicken

As I left for work today, now remember I headed in for day seven of seven at six thirty this morning, my daughter asked me if she could have her new BFF over for dinner.

New BFF. New this week. Have I mentioned that this middle school thing is hitting ME hard? Apparently, this school year's original BFF has moved to another social group.

It's amazing how the social behavior of tween and teen girls doesn't end in PTSD. I think I might me having a few flashbacks just seeing what my daughter is starting to go through.

So, I raided the meats on clearance. Four pounds of ground beef, on sale this week, discounted for quick sale, AND I had a cartwheel. I think each pound ended up being about $2.50. Then I hit the chicken. Two family packs of chicken breasts (2 pounds each), with discount price and cartwheel, equalled about $6 each. I also got a small pack of Bare chicken breasts. $3. That was what we had tonight.

So, the friend thing wasn't definite. I put all my superstitious traditions into effect. I wore ratty sweatpants, didn't clean and didn't make extra food.

The friend accepted the invite.

This recipe feeds three, but I made it work for four. I just trimmed a "finger" off each breast after cooking and kept that for my serving.

I used to have a promotional Kraft cookbook and in it was a Grape Nut chicken. I looked online and found a salty/crispy version. But I didn't quite like the idea of adding salt as my salt content has been ridiculous lately... So I made my own variation. 

Preheat oven to 425.

The ingredients:

• 3 chicken breasts

• mayonnaise 

• Dijon mustard

• blackstrap molasses

• grape nuts cereal

• ginger

I lightly oiled the bottom of my dish with extra virgin olive oil.

I mixed about a tablespoon each of the mustard and mayo. I added about 1 1/2 teaspoons blackstrap molasses and mixed into a sauce.

I brushed both sides of the chicken very heartily and placed them in the dish.

I sprinkled with ginger.

I then coated the top with grape nuts.

Bake for 35 minutes. Let stand 5-10 minutes as you nag your daughter to come set the table.

It was so delicious & juicy. I'm sad I didn't make more. And it's rich in iron and protein.

I ate mine with leftovers of last night's stew.

Hot Grape Nuts Goop

I was shopping the other day and I found a coupon on Cartwheel for Grape Nuts. I used to eat hot Grape Nuts all the time! 

1/2 cup grape nuts cereal

A touch of honey 

Milk 

Heat for 90 seconds in the microwave.

Today I added 1/2 cup fresh raspberries and some cinnamon. 

A great low fat breakfast full of iron, protein and vitamin C.

Rag Tag Meals

tortellini

I made peach muffins yesterday which I thought were mediocre, but my daughter ate six of them so I could be wrong. I didn't post the recipe because I ran out of flour, brown sugar, baking soda and baking powder. I ended up mixing half flour and half oats.

For dinner last night, I made cheese tortellini with a butter/olive oil sauce, with fresh parsley, kielbasa, and peas.

For dinner tonight, we had breakfast. Pancakes my husband made over the weekend and froze. Strawberry ones with real maple syrup. Veggie sausage. Smoothie of raspberry Chobani yogurt, coconut milk, unsweetened soy milk and vanilla carnation instant breakfast. And hot generic grape nuts, with raw local honey, dried blueberries, vanilla almond milk and a touch of blackstrap molasses.

Hot Grape Nuts

A long time ago, maybe it was college, I discovered a recipe for hot Grape Nuts. Heating them and adding honey makes them soft and sweet, though not soft enough for me to eat in present circumstances. I made a bowl for daughter and she seemed to enjoy them. The trick is to determine how soupy you like them.

As a base:
-about 1/4 cups Grape Nuts or generic Nutty Nuggets cereal
- one teaspoon local honey
- soy milk

Heat in microwave until toasty warm.