Cinnamon Fruit Salad

Happy first day of July (WHAT)! It’s really feeling like summer lately (although it was 55 here at my house in Minnesota this morning, brrr), so it’s salads of all kinds with grilling and more grilling.

A couple weeks ago my mom and dad were here for the night before we all headed to a weekend at the lake for Summer Solstice. Seth and I cooked up a fabulous dinner for the four of us, grilled steaks, grilled hash browns with peppers/onions and cheese, grilled eggplant and cinnamon fruit salad.

I had three very ripe mangoes that needed to be used before we left for the weekend, so I cut them up into pieces and tossed them in a bowl with fresh blueberries and cantaloupe. I then squeezed the juice of two limes over the fruit, a shake of raw coconut sugar (maybe 1/8 cup?) and a sprinkle of cinnamon (roughly 1 tsp). It really doesn’t take much cinnamon to flavor the salad – I went light because my dad isn’t a huge fan of cinnamon, and I was surprised at how cinnamon-y it still was. There was a small serving leftover, and it kept great in the fridge until it was finished with breakfast the next morning.

You could easily change up the fruits, but it was a nice flavor change from regular fruit salad!

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Surf-n-Turf and Grilled Celery

Peak grilling season is here in Minnesota! Our beloved Puerto Rico Char Broil grill would have never survived the move from San Diego to Minneapolis. We complained about that grill for years, but it was pretty reliable. You couldn’t touch it, as it’d fall over into a heap of rusty metal, but hey, it worked! We bought it in 2006, and it lasted 9 years of almost year-around grilling in Puerto Rico, Virginia and San Diego, so not bad for $300 🙂 So long Char Broil, hello Weber! Seth just purchased the corvette of grills a couple weeks ago now that we’re getting settled in MN, so we’ve been grilling every chance we get.

Last night we grilled surf-n-turf and celery (a random experiment). I had the biggest, fattest, most awesome hunk of sea bass with the skin on, Seth had an enormous T-bone, and grilled celery! We wrapped the sea bass in a foil boat with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and tons of fresh citrus slices-I used 1 grapefruit, 1 orange and 1 lemon – all fruit that needed to be used. Tip: fish with skin on is far more juicy and flavorful, and it falls right off after cooking, so don’t be scared of fish skin! Seth seasoned his steak with garlic, Lawry’s, salt and pepper. The flavor of the fish was extremely buttery.

I’ve never grilled celery, but I think you can grill just about anything, so, since it’d been in the fridge for a while we gave it go – man was it tasty and super easy! Wash the celery and trim the ends, toss in a bowl with olive oil, sea salt, pepper and garlic salt, then lay directly on the grill for approximately 12-15 minutes. When it came off the grill I sprinkled with just a little fresh sea salt before eating. It had great celery flavor, still crispy, less stringy, and a charred salty flavor. So good!

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Saturday = Grilling Party!

So…remember that time when Seth was at sea and I tried to light the grill and almost blew myself up? Me neither. But I feel like my grilling skills are improving.

I decided last Saturday I’d try again. Grill lighting, went perfect, but even better was the food (crazy to think this is all for me, hahahaha). But hey, I’ve been eating leftovers for lunch and breakfast all week long…which makes life a whole lot easier. Plus, I get to be outside on a Saturday evening in my backyard (which is newly landscaped), with my awesome next door neighbors and their amazing kids! Sounds like a win for me 🙂

I grilled 4 veggie boats: 1 with purple potatoes, white onion and garlic; 2nd with eggplant and carrots; 3rd with tri-color peppers, mushrooms and garlic; and last, I decided to put the rest of the large bag of whole garlic cloves I had into it’s own foil boat and see how it came out. Hands down, the garlic became so sweet and slightly charred, I can’t wait to do that again. It also was really good smeared on my steak!! So I ate all of that, that night. Ooops.IMG_4690[1]IMG_4691[1]IMG_4696[1]IMG_4693[1]IMG_4728[1]

I also grilled a prime filet from a local butcher shop, Iowa Meat Farms (shout out for Iowa, my home state that I miss dearly!). I complimented that with a side of grassfed butter for “sauce.” Don’t fear the fat.
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Veggie Boats for the Grill!

Very easy way to cook veggies during grilling season! Wash veggies, put in center of foil, season, make foil boat around them and drop on the grill! Voila. Last night I made two boats.

Mini carrots, mini squash, oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder:IMG_4528[1] IMG_4530[1]

Criminis,white onion, whole garlic, oil, salt, pepper, smoked paprika (P.S. when the garlic is soft, it is creamy, a little sweet, and makes a great spread on steak!):IMG_4529[1]IMG_4531[1]

Grilling Time!

It’s grilling time in San Diego 🙂 Well, technically it could be year-round, but the air is warming up and being outdoors in the evenings isn’t as chilly. Last Friday we picked up some fresh meat and veggies, and enjoyed an awesome grilled dinner.

I wanted to share one of my favorite ways of grilling veggies, that’s super easy and convenient.

Slice zucchini in long spears, toss in a bag, drizzle with a little oil, salt, pepper, garlic (or whatever you prefer). Shake around/massage, dump on grill, move around for about 8 minutes so they don’t burn but get the good sear marks, remove and serve. I love grilled veggies, but not when they’re mushy 🙂

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