Grilled Bratwurst with Grilled Vegetables

Decided to cook all of our dinner on the grill tonight.  It makes it so nice for the clean up.  Really all you have it the cooking utensils and the plates.  So easy!

All items were cooked on a 400 degree Fahrenheit grill.  Each recipe will be specified for direct or indirect heat.

Grilled Bratwurst
1 package of bratwurst, from a local farm of course
Place bratwurst on grill, direct heat for 15 minutes, turning frequently.

Grilled Red Bell Peppers
1 red bell pepper, cut in half - seeds and top removed
Olive oil
Drizzle cut pepper with olive oil on both sides.  Place on the grill, direct heat for 15 minutes, turning several times.

Grilled Kale
1 large bunch of kale, washed, stems removed and cut into pieces
Place cut kale on a piece of foil.  Drizzle with a small amount of olive oil, salt, pepper and a dash of rice wine vinegar.  Place another piece of foil over top, fold edges over to create a pouch.  Place on grill in indirect heat for 15 minutes, turning every 5 minutes.

Grilled Sweet Potatoes
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
10 minutes on direct heat, turning once, and 10 minutes on indirect heat, turning once.

Grilled Marinated Chicken Salad

Okay I have a confession to make regarding tonight's dinner.  I didn't make it, my husband did.  The only thing I had a hand in is the marinade.  We wanted something very simple for tonight's dinner, so we thought a salad was as simple as it could be.

Grilled Marinated Chicken
4 chicken breasts
1 small piece of ginger, peeled and grated (it came to about 1 tablespoon grated)
1/2 cup coconut aminos (very similar to soy sauce or tamari - just without the soy)
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
Mixed salad greens (arugula, red and green leaf lettuce, red cabbage)
Tomatoes
Avocado (1 for each salad)
Asian Dressing
Place chicken breasts into a large Ziploc bag.  Combine the ginger, coconut aminos, sesame oil and rice wine vinegar in a bowl and whisk until thoroughly mixed.  Add marinade to chicken in bag.  Place in refrigerator and marinate for about 30 minutes.  Remove chicken from bag and place on a preheated 400 degree Fahrenheit grill.  Place chicken on direct heat for about 5 minutes, flip, and cook for another 5 minutes.  Move chicken on grill so that it is now on indirect heat.  Cook for 5 minutes, flip, cook for another 5 minutes.  Remove chicken from grill and let rest for 5 minutes, covered.  Slice and place on salad greens.

Grilled Halibut Cheeks with Lemon Caper Sauce

I have come to really love halibut cheeks.  They are so tender and almost have the consistency of a crab or lobster meat.  I know you could certainly put them in place of a scallop anytime.  Tonight's dinner I made up on the fly as I was in the kitchen.

I used a rose wine instead of a white wine for my sauce which turned it a pink color.  I didn't want to open a bottle of white, since I wouldn't be drinking any tonight, and I had a bottle of wine already open.  The color of the wine did not change the flavor I was going for at all.

I wanted to grill as much as we could.  Less dishes to clean up, easier clean up and it doesn't make your house warm.

Grilled Halibut Cheeks with Lemon Caper Sauce
8 halibut cheeks (from SeaBear)
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 shallot, minced
Juice of 2 lemons
1 tablespoon of capers
1 teaspoon fresh basil, finely chopped
White wine
Sprinkle the cheeks with a little bit of salt and pepper.  Spray a grill basket with olive oil.  Place the cheeks into a grill basket and place over direct heat at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Cook for about 15 minutes, turning about every five.

In a small saucepan add olive oil and heat over medium high heat.  Add shallot and cook until tender but not overly brown.  Add lemon juice and capers, stir letting the mixture reduce slightly.  Add a small amount of white wine.  The wine will help to cut the acidity and tartness of the lemon juice and capers. So taste it along the way and add wine as needed.  Reduce until you get a sauce that will coat the back of a spoon. Spoon sauce over cooked halibut cheeks.  Stir in basil at the very end.

Wilted Spinach
1 large package of spinach
Small amount of olive oil
In a large skillet over medium high heat add oil and spinach.  Turn spinach in pan over so that what is on top can cook.  Continue to cook until spinach is wilted.  Keep warm in a bowl until ready to serve.  Place some spinach on the plate and place halibut on top.

Grilled Asparagus
1 bunch of asparagus, washed and snapped
Spray a flat cast iron skillet with olive oil, place skillet on the grill (direct heat) that is at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Cook, turning for 15 minutes.

Grilled Pineapple
1 fresh pineapple
First cut the pineapple.  I didn't know how to put cutting a pineapple into words, so I found a step by step here.   Instead of cutting the pineapple into circles.  I cut my pineapple in half lengthwise, and in half again, removed the core by cutting down the edge (which is now a partial triangle).  I then sliced the pineapple into strips on the longer side.  Place pineapple on direct heat on the grill, 400 degree Fahrenheit and cook for 10 minutes turing once.  Then remove pineapple to an indirect heat location and cook for another 10 minutes.

Breakfast Bars (gluten free)

I made these when I was doing the detox diet and they were a great thing to grab in the morning for breakfast or really anytime you want a high protein healthy snack.

Breakfast Bars

1 cup blanched almond flour

• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• ¼ cup coconut oil
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• ½ cup pumpkin seeds
• ½ cup sunflower seeds
• ¼ cup blanched slivered almonds
• ¼ cup raisinsIn a food processor combine almond flour and salt.  Pulse in coconut oil, honey, water and vanilla. Pulse in coconut, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almond slivers and raisins.  Press dough into an 8 x 8 inch baking dish, wetting your hands with water to pat dough down. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes.  Make sure that you cool them completely before cutting otherwise it will make them crumbly. 

The next time I make these I plan on using other fruits like dried cranberries in place of raisins and maybe some other kind of nut or seed.  We will see!

Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

I had a real taste for spaghetti tonight and I didn't want to use any wheat free pasta.  I did however have this huge spaghetti squash sitting on the counter just begging to be cooked.  So I actually cooked the huge squash and made spaghetti with it.

Baked Spaghetti Squash
Cut squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds.  Place the halves onto a baking pan and place into a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven and bake for 45 minutes.  Since this was a huge squash I cooked it for a total of 1 hour.

Remove squash from oven and using a fork start at the narrow end (where the root would have been) and scrape the fork through the squash.  I will start to look like a bunch of spaghetti.  Place the spaghetti into a large bowl.  Keep warm.

Spaghetti Meat Sauce
1 pound of grass fed ground beef
2 cloves of garlic, smashed
1 14-1/2 ounce can of diced tomatoes
1 14-1/2 ounce can of tomato sauce (I happened to have a pizza sauce which is pretty much the same thing but it has all the spices and herbs that you would want)
1 teaspoon dried italian seasoning
1 tablespoon of dried basil
In a skillet over medium high heat add ground beef and chop up to make into pieces.  I left mine on the larger side.  Cook until no longer pink.  Add garlic and cook. Turn heat to medium and add cans of diced tomato and sauce.  Stir mixing the meat and the sauce together.  Add spaghetti squash and incorporate into the sauce meat mixture.  I couldn't use all of my squash so I reserved the rest to eat later.

Serve the meal with a small side salad consisting of mixed greens, tomatoes, and cucumbers.

Serve with a little bit of fresh grated Parmesan cheese if you want!

Pork Bratwurst with Vegetables

I love this time of year.  Winter is over (I hope), flowers are blossoming, trees are starting to get their leaves and the weather is just right.  No humidity in the upper 70s.  When the weather is like this I love to be outside.  Cooking dinner is no exception.  All of tonight's dinner was cooked on the grill.

I will work this so that the order I list each food that was cooked, this is the order that it goes onto the grill.

Grilled Sweet Potatoes
1 sweet potato (ours was very large so it only took one for us)
small amount of olive oil
foil
Peel and cut sweet potato into bite sized pieces.  Place the cut sweet potato onto a large piece of foil.  Drizzle with a small amount of olive oil.  Fold foil over the potatoes to create a pouch.  Seal pouch on all sides.  Place pouch onto grill that has been heated to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.  Cook for 10 minutes.  Remove pouch to upper rack for 10 minutes.  Remove foil pouch from grill by sliding it onto a serving plate.  Keep pouch shut until ready to serve.  They will continue to stay hot.

Grilled Vegetables
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 zucchini, sliced in quarters
Place a cast iron skillet onto the grill (ours is a griddle type).  Let it heat up, spray with a little but of olive oil.  Place vegetables on the griddle and cook, adjusting heat as necessary, until vegetables are soft.  Stir vegetables around so that they will cook evenly.  Remove from pan and serve.

Grilled Pork Bratwurst
1 package of pork bratwurst (from a local farm)
Place bratwurst onto a 400 degrees Fahrenheit grill and cook, turning as needed, for about 15 minutes.  Remove and serve.

Small Side Salad
Mix of lettuce
Grape tomatoes
Sliced cucumber
Mix of beans (salad mix)
Place all ingredients into a bowl and serve with a little bit of olive oil and red wine vinegar.

Pancakes (Gluten Free)

You ever just have a taste for something and you won't be satisfied until you get it?  This morning it was like that for me.  I really really wanted pancakes.  We have eliminating wheat from our diet and I have to say that I feel good not eating it.  Since we aren't eating wheat I needed to find a good recipe for pancakes.  I already use my own mix of gluten flour for when I make my brownies but I didn't know if that would work as a straight out substitute in a regular white flour recipe.  So as to not re-create the wheel.  I opted to look for another food blog who had a recipe.  I came across Elana's Pantry Silver Dollar Pancakes.  I have to say there were delicious!  Oh, and if you are doing the Paleo diet, these fit that as well!

Gluten Free Pancakes
3 eggs
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons honey
1-1/2 cups almond flour
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
a small amount of coconut oil for the pan
In a large bowl whisk together eggs, water, vanilla and honey.  Add almond flour, salt and baking soda.   Mix until all ingredients are combined.  Heat coconut oil in a skillet or flat pan over medium heat.  Add batter about 2 tablespoons onto skillet.  When bubbles form on pancakes, flip them, cook until done.  Regulate heat as necessary so that they won't burn.  Remove to a plate and serve with sliced bananas and maple syrup.  I also used a blueberry sauce that was imported from France.  The sauce is made from blueberries and grape juice.  No added sugars or other ingredients.

I also served this with some cooked breakfast sausage links that came from our local farm.