Eating, Drinking, and Linking: Grilling

I am excited about sharing some delicious recipes with you and linking up with Christy at Teaching Tales Along the Yellow Brick Road. 

If you love cookies, you won't want to miss her post. Also check out the yummy posts everyone else has shared. Thank goodness virtual pictures are calorie free! 
I love grilled foods. There is something about the simplicity of grilling and the delicious taste that grilling pulls out of food. 
In the summer, we grill almost every single night. This year I have even taken over the reigns of the grill, since during the school year my husband did a lot of school night dinner prep. 
If you like sauteed onions, I have a super simple recipe for you. 

Cut or slice a sweet onion, place it on top of some aluminum foil, put a spoonful of butter on top, close the alumninum foil up and put it on top of the grill as it heats up. 
As the grill heats, then while your food cooks, the onion is transformed in to a soft, delicious topper (or even it eat it as side dish). The bitterness of raw onion disappears and the onion becomes a source of buttery bliss. 
Last night, we added the rings to our burgers, YUMMY! It is also delicious with steak. 
I also love to grill peaches and pienapple. Grilling brings out the sweetness of the fruits. 
Sliced peaches are great on a salad, as a side dish, or as dessert - tryi it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top! 

Grilled butter onion on my burger and grilled pineapple as a side dish. 

All I do it slice the peaches in half or cut slices of the pineapple, place them on the griil, cook for about 5 minutes and they are perfect! For the pineapple slices, I flipped them over so both sides had a chance to cook. 
Recently I grilled some watermelon slices. I did not like it as much as the pineapple or peaches, but it was neat to compare raw and grilled flavors. 
I love lamb, but hardly ever cook it. Recently, I had a major hankering and decided to tried to grill it. This was one night I did not object to my kids snubbing their noses at me about the lamb steaks. They ate hot dogs while I enjoyed a full serving, and savored leftovers the next day!
Based on all of the recipes I read, the key is marinating it.
Click here for the recipe I used. It was simple, but produced a wonderful entree. And of course, this Irish girl, served up some potatoes as a side dish. 

Source: BBQ.about.com 

Marinade: 

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano

Preparation:

Place lamb chops in a shallow baking dish or resealable. Combine olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, rosemary, honey, mustard, oregano, salt and pepper and pour over chops. Toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Preheat grill. Grill chops over a medium high heat for about 5 minutes per side on until browned to desired doneness.

Last year I bought a Zoku with the ambition of creating Popsicle treats for the boys all of the time. Well, little did I know that is was not going to be my favorite purchase, the thing is a pain in the butt to clean and only makes 3 ice pops at a time. For some reason, mine does not freeze the pops as quickly as advertised, or maybe I am impatient, or perhaps a little of both. 

I decided it was time to give the Zoku a chance to redeem itself, and pulled it out to make Jell-o pudding pops, remember those? 

I tried out the recipe on My Pinterest Affair, and well, let's say, it did not go super smoothly! They were delicious, but my attempt resulted in a messy end product. Check them out...

Looks like a chocolate volcano exploded!
He was still a very happy customer!

Another happy customer, he was surprised how cold it was. 

The pudding mixture was thick! I stuffed it in a plastic bag, then squeezed it in to the Zoku molds. Since it did not pour, the mixture did not make it all the way to the bottom. 

The mixture was so good, even before freezing it. The boys were my frozen pop tasters since I had enjoyed a few scoops of the non-frozen Jell-O! 

I used 1 box of Chocolate pudding (instant). 1 1/2 cups low-fat milk, and 1/2 cup Greek yogurt (might be why it was so thick). Simple, good, and filled my nostalgic needs for some pudding pops!

So what have you been enjoying this summer? Do you have a favorite go to meal or have you tried something new? Check out the other posts or consider linking up with Christy at Teaching Tales Along the Yellow Brick Road. 

Cheers!