Grilling Season is on Its Way

This up coming Sunday, June 15th, is fathers day. What better way to celebrate fathers day with a good old BBQ meal (lunch or dinner).
Grilling is a great way to eat healthier as it eliminates a lot of the fat found in other cooking methods such as frying and pan frying. Moreover, it gives food this great smokey flavor that makes anything taste better.
To help assist build a complete & healthy grilled meal My Plate shall be our guide.

 

For healthy protein we can use: fish (salmon, walleye), chicken breast, loin or sirloin of beef/pork
For healthy grains we can choose a starchy vegetable: grill corn on the cob, grilled sweet potato or just make some brown rice.
For healthy vegetables we can grill up some asparagus, zucchini, summer squash and onions or create vegetable skewers. Cheese can also be added in skewers (ex: halumi, mozzarella)  
For healthy fruits we can have a fruit salad or even grill some pineapple with cinnamon.
Before you start grilling, make sure you clean the grill well. You can do so buy taking half an onion and running it over your hot grill before putting anything on it. Make sure you do the same when you are done as well.

Here are some recipes:
This recipe of Grilled Trout is from Cooking Light website

Ingredients
1 Tbps of fine sea salt
2 tsp of sugar
4 (7 oz) dressed rainbow trout
cooking spray 
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 (1oz) bunches dill sprigs
2 limes thinly sliced

• 
  
• Preparation
• 1. Combine 2 cups water, sea salt, and sugar in a shallow dish; add fish. Let stand 20 minutes. Drain.
• 2. Prepare charcoal fire in a chimney starter; let coals burn until flames die down. Pour hot coals out of starter; pile on one side of grill. Coat grill grate with cooking spray; put grate in place over coals.
• 3. Sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper over fish flesh. Divide dill and lime slices evenly among fish cavities. Coat outside of fish with cooking spray. Place fish over direct heat; grill 4 minutes. Turn over; move to indirect heat. Grill 12 minutes or until done
• 
  
• This recipe is for grilled vegetables:
• Ingredients

  1 zucchini cut into round circles

  1 summer squash cut into round circles

  1 medium red onion cut into thick pieces

  1 cup of cherry tomatoes

  1 cup small mushrooms

  2 Tbsp olive oil

  1 Tbsp garlic powder

  1 tsp sea salt

  Fresh rosemary

  Pepper
  
  

  Preparation

  1. Mix all vegetables together with oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder and rosemary. Let sit for 15-20 minutes

  2. Take as much skewers as needed and start putting vegetables on each skewer in a variety.

  3. Place skewers on direct heat. Grill for 5-10 minutes. Turn over and

  grill 5-10 minutes or until done
• 
• For dessert you may want to use this great pineapple recipe (clean the grill before you put the pineapple in order to prevent meaty taste and contamination):
  
  
  Ingredients
  1 medium size pineapple cut into circles or chunks
  1 Tbsp cinnamon
  
  
  Preparation
  1. Sprinkle cinnamon all over pineapple
  2. Place pineapple with cinnamon directly on the grill.
  Grill for 5-10 minutes or until done
• 
  
• There you have it! Grilling like a pro with My Plate.
• Happy Fathers Day!  

Do you know the best place to store your food? Pantry? Fridge? or Freezer?

Here is a great reference to help you decide where to store your food to help it stay fresh longer. Do you keep your tomatoes in the fridge? They may do better on the counter! 

Respect Your Food! A Guide to What Goes Where

Food Safety: Don't get sick!

Cooking at home is often the most cost efficient and healthy way to eat. I love to cook, but I know that may not be true for everyone. Either way, we all have to eat! Having a general understanding of food safety guidelines will help keep you from getting sick - whether you are home or away.

I have provided an excellent resource for you to review.

http://www.foodsafety.gov/

The link above gives you specific cooking temperatures for food. Not all meat is created equally when it comes to safe internal temperatures that it must reach to kill the microbacteria that can make you sick. It also provides information regarding the different types of foodbourne illnesses and the signs/symptoms.

Do you know how long you can keep your leftovers? It will tell you that, too! Please take a minute or two to become familiar with the topics covered so you know where to go when you have a question. Food illness is preventable!