Food Thursday 06.07.12

Since I am on a quest to get you all to eat more meals at home, I have dedicated Thursdays to food.  There are recipes, nutritional information and stories about how we eat vs. how we should eat.  Today we turn our attention to the grill.  It's summer time and in America, the barbecue is synonymous with summer.


When one thinks of the grill in their backyard, what is the first thing that comes to mind?  Burgers?  Steaks?  Hot Dogs?  Of course, our thoughts turn to animal proteins.  That is how we were conditioned growing up.  I want to turn your programming and your grill on its ear...with vegetables.  Peter, you can stop reading here.  :)


Usually our meals cast a meat or fish in the starring role and the vegetables are relegated to supporting characters or even worse, extras.  Since I am trying to eat healthier and presumably you are too since you are reading this, why not make vegetables the protagonist of your dinner story.  Since I gorged myself on broiled seafood on Tuesday, I thought that I would give veggies a promotion at my Thursday meal.  It got me thinking how we could all serve ourselves better by doing this every once in a while, if not weekly.  Have a veggie-centric meal.  The grill seemed a perfect way to pull this off.


What you see above was my dinner tonight.  I made way more than I would eat with the thought that leftover grilled veggies would go great in a salad, omelet or sandwich.  Hence the massive spread you see.  Here we have grilled corn, eggplant, Bermuda onion, asparagus, red bell pepper and portobello mushrooms.  It couldn't be easier to make.


Heat your grill to high and clean it well with a wire brush or crumpled foil and tongs.  With a paper towel dipped in oil, use tongs to lubricate the grates.  Place whatever veggies you are going to grill on a cookie sheet (Except corn.  Corn doesn't need oil or seasoning at this time.).  With an olive oil spray, coat your veggies with the oil and then season liberally with garlic salt and pepper on each side.  If you don't have an olive oil spray, place a tablespoon in a Ziplock bag and do the shake and bake thing before you season.  Grill until your desired char is achieved.  I like mine more well done than most folks.  Be aware that the asparagus will cook quickly.  The peppers and eggplant can be as sweet as candy when in season and grilled properly and the mushrooms are very meaty.


These veggies are great on their own but would be elevated with the addition of a balsamic reduction.  Just place balsamic vinegar in a small sauce pan and simmer until syrupy.  Even a basil pesto would go well any grilled veg.


I hope you will try to recast vegetables into starring roles in your meals.  I often find that they outshine the much, much more expensive proteins they are otherwise paired with.


Cya Friday,
M


What I ate today and how I exercised:
Breakfast ~ Kashi 7 Grain Nuggets w/1/2 a banana, fresh blueberries, toasted pecans and unsweetened almond milk
Lunch ~ A cup of beef barley soup and grilled chicken Caesar salad w/o croutons
Dinner ~ From the above feast, I had 2 ears of corn w/Earth Balance spread, 1/4 of the pepper, some mushrooms, asparagus and eggplant.
Exercise ~ 25 minutes of walking in the hood, yo