Everyday Grilling Mistakes

I am finally feeling excited about cooking again! We ate pretty well while we were on vacation and now that I am home getting organized I plan on getting back to meal planning. Since we have fabulous summers here in Washington state it has inspired me to fire up the grill.

I found this great article on Cooking Light’s website about Everyday Grilling Mistakes – it offers great tips for mastering the grill, which my husband and I are always trying to achieve. I pulled about half of the grilling mistakes from this article but go check it out to find out the reasoning behind these and they other mistakes they have listed. A lot of them might surprise you! Here is a link to the article.

Grilling Mistakes:

• You coat grill racks with cooking spray while they’re over the fire.
• You use lighter fluid to get charcoals going.
• You grill over flames.
• You grill with dry wooden skewers.
• You thoroughly mix burger patties.
• You always marinate meats overnight.
• You check the doneness of meats by cutting into them.
• You put all vegetables directly on the grate.
• You cook your chicken over direct heat.
• You cook turkey burgers like regular hamburgers.

Here are a few grilling recipes that I want to try…..Click on link for photo credit and recipe.

Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Orange Chipotle Glaze

Grilled Asparagus with Caper Vinaigrette 

Mediterranean Burgers

 

Halibut Sandwiches with Grilled Puttanesca Salsa

and there isn’t summer grilling without an occasional hotdog! First off, I always feel so guilty about buying hotdogs so I just don’t buy them very often. When I heard about these organic, uncured (meaning they are not preserved with sodium nitrite, sodium nitrate or a salt cure), grass-fed beef hotdogs I had to try them. I finally made it to Trader Joe’s and found them. I will never buy another hotdog again.

They taste great and check out the nutritional profile:

Calories: 90 calories
Total fat: 7 grams (that is just unheard of for a beef hotdog!)
Sodium: 280 mg
Sugar: 0 g

So there you have it. I am in no way telling you to go eat hotdogs, but if you are like me and like to have one on occasion, these are definitely the ones to buy. The Applegate company sells a lot more than just hotdogs- sausage, bacon, deli meats, etc. Although I haven’t tried anything else, I will definitely be looking for this brand from now on. I also went online to see where else I could find them and it looks like they carry them at several other local grocery stores. Just wanted to share!

 

So hopefully you picked up some grilling tips today and I’ll see you back tomorrow with a grilled salad recipe!