One of the easiest ways to add a terrific flavor punch to your entrees is to marinate, cook, or grill with teriyaki sauce. According to the folks at the great site, Serious Eats (www.seriouseats.com) the word "teriyaki" originally described a style of cooking. It refers to meat or fish basted with a sweet and salty sauce and roasted on a grill or over an open fire. The sauce is traditionally made with soy sauce and two types of rice wine, mirin, and sake. Today the word is just as readily used to describe the sauce as the cooking style.

“Teri” comes from “tare,” a word meaning luster or glaze, and it describes the glossy sheen the sauce contributes. What is now commonly referred to as teriyaki sauce is one of a number of sauces collectively referred to as "tare" in Japan. "Yaki" refers to cooking over direct heat—a fundamental concept that also shows up in the words yakisoba, yakitori, okonomoyaki, teppanyaki, sukiyaki, and many more.

Who doesn’t love all things teriyaki? Well, there are a few of us, anyway, that have a few reservations about teriyaki sauce. They’re around the massive amounts of sugar (in the form of high fructose corn syrup) and MSG that the commercial stuff is loaded with.

The good news is, like so many commercial products out there, teriyaki sauce can be healthified.

So let’s look at how we can create a homemade teriyaki sauce that’s not loaded with sugar or MSG yet is just as yummy as your favorite store-bought brand. (The timing for this is good since grilling season is just around the corner.)

The other good news is, this sauce is built from ingredients you likely already have on hand: soy sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, and ground ginger. The only item you may need to purchase is a few dried prunes. I like simple recipes. This one is from the informative website, Happy Herbivore (www.happyherbivore.com). Happy Herbivore suggests you consider making triple batches of this throughout the year. See what you think:

SUGAR-FREE TERIYAKI SAUCE ( yield: ½ cup)

4-5 pitted, dried prunes
¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce
garlic powder, to taste
onion powder, to taste
ground ginger, to taste

Soak prunes in ¼-cup HOT water for 10 minutes. Transfer both to a blender and puree. Add soy sauce, plus a few light dashes of garlic, onion and ginger; blend until smooth and homogenous. Taste, adding more garlic, onion, or ginger. If it's too thick, add water. If it's too runny, heat on the stove over low until it reduces. Refrigerate.

Now that you have the basic recipe for one of the most popular sauces created, consider all the things you can do with it. For instance, turn your teriyaki glaze into a fantastic salad dressing, just by combining it with more sesame oil and either more citrus juice (lemon or lime juice) or some more vinegar. This is delicious!

Or consider jazing up boring vegetables with a dash of teriyaki sauce. To green beans add that dash of teriyaki, some minced shallots, and slivered almonds make for an easy and surprisingly elegant green bean side (this would work great with shelled edamame, too).

I’ve experimented with adding just a smidge into my white sauce when making fish chowder. It was scrumptious. And the dash of teriyaki I added to my cheese sauce when I made my last batch of macaroni and cheese made an already awesome dish even more amazing.

Finally, how about satisfying your mid-afternoon case of the munchies with this Asian-inspired variation on classic Chex Mix® (found on www.recipe.com), a healthier but no-less-tasty alternative to higher-calorie snacks? Try this:

ASIAN SNACK MIX

6 cups wheat cereal squares (such as Wheat Chex®)

1 1/2 cups sesame sticks

1 1/4 cups dry roasted peanuts

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3 tablespoons basic homemade teriyaki sauce

2 teaspoons dark sesame oil

1 teaspoons sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt plus 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (known as “hot salt”)

1 1/2 cups wasabi peas

Heat oven to 250 F. Coat a 15 x 10 x 1-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. In a large bowl, toss together wheat cereal, sesame sticks and peanuts. In a medium-size glass bowl or measuring cup, combine butter, teriyaki, sesame oil, sugar and salt. Microwave on HIGH for 45 seconds or until butter is melted. Pour over mixture in bowl, and toss to coat. Transfer cereal mixture to prepared pan and bake at 250 F for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool mix in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes. Stir in wasabi peas; divide and package to give away.

Considering how easy real teriyaki glaze is to make, there’s no reason to ever again cover your lovely pieces of poultry, meat, or shellfish in store-bought, junky teriyaki sauce. And since you now have a healthified version, why not experiment and start adding it to all sorts of other things? It’s such an easy-to-make flavor punch!

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