Don't Hide the Grill in the Chill

Although our guest writer for today’s specialties historically include math, Google image searching, Friday emails, rocking suspenders, quoting The Simpsons, and eating Mexican, my brother has graced us today with his passion for grilling. This is Mark’s second article for Defending Veggies, and he’s written today to help motivate you to keep that grill cooking this winter!!


Thanks for the help today, Mark!
- Erin

Lots of people love to have cookouts. People come over, you fire up the grill, then burgers and brats for all! Then comes November, and with the cold, comes the grill cover. And other than maybe getting the mini-grill out at football games, we won’t see those coals again until May.

Well I don’t buy that at all.

Grilling can be an easy, inexpensive, time saving, and healthy… all year long. You can cook entire meals all at once! Last week I ran into the same old issue…I didn’t know what I was having for dinner. I didn’t have a ton of options. Let’s see…I had two potatoes, some chicken breasts, and asparagus. And all I thought was, “Yahoo! No dishes for me tonight!"

Chicken in BBQ sauce for 30, potatoes cut in half, wrapped in foil, asparagus with a little salt n pepper, and I was ready for the grill. (That took about 5 min by the way.) Cook time was 30 minutes for potatoes, 20 for the chicken, and about 7 for the asparagus. Done. Dinner served. Not a 5 star restaurant, but also cost about $4…and I had some leftovers. And seriously, not to pat myself on the back, but it was pretty freakin’ good.

The grill gets used year round for sure. First of all, it is easy and quick. But secondly, it’s also healthy. (Sorry, had to put that in or Erin wouldn’t have posted it.) Now you can choose to eat the brats and burgers, but (your welcome, Erin) lean cuts of steak, pork, and especially chicken, are your healthier choices. Another thing that puts grilling ahead in the health game is that you’re not using any butter or oil to cook with… maybe just some marinade.

Skinless chicken is really the way to go - find new marinades, and find different veggies to go with it. It is low in fat and high in protein. Another option, although not my favorite, is fish. People like to try new things every once in a while, so tilapia, salmon, and tuna steaks have all been grilled at my house. I’m not a master with the sea food, but it was easy enough to find how to cook whatever on the internet, or the thousands of cook books out there.

Note: The aroma of something like salmon about an hour into cooking is not the most appealing. Grill outside, and that stays outside.

Last but not least, the smoker; I received an electric smoker as a gift. I wasn’t really that excited about it, but hey, why not give it a try?! First, I tried ribs. I failed. I failed miserably. Although a great man once said, “See! You tried your best and failed miserably. The lesson is: Never try,” I have given it a few more tries, and it has worked out great. I smoked a 3lb pork tenderloin that took about 5 hours…it was awesome! I named the pig, “lucky.” My company didn’t think that was funny, but they didn’t reject eating “Little Lucky” either. I had little lucky leftovers for about a week!

So, get out there and get grilling! Let Erin know how much I inspired you by sending her grilling recipes that she can post on here!