I’ll let you know what tomorrow.

Ever in the mood for something a bit healthier that still tastes straight from the grill?  Turkey burgers and onion lollipops are the answer.

Whenever you cook something lean like ground turkey, especially over smoke and fire, the potential exists for it to dry out.  How do you counter this?  With a stuffing, of course.  Side note - we used queso dip, but you could also use herb butter or another type of cheese.  After stuffing the burgers with the queso, we seasoned them with a store-bought lime seasoning and threw it on the fire.  The cooking took approximately 20 minutes over charcoal, but would be faster over propane (I simply prefer the charcoal, though).  After cooking, we topped them with a spicy mayo and served a toasted whole-wheat bun. 

As tasty as the turkey burgers were, the real gem of this meal was the onion-lollipop, and they couldn’t be any simpler to make.  You simply take a yellow onion (side note - I’ll be doing these with Vidalias this summer), add some salt, pepper, and olive oil, and put it on a skewer.  I cooked them over the charcoals for about 3-4 minutes per side, then put them over to the side and let them catch some smoke.  The results were amazing, and you can eat the onions right off the stick. 

We topped it off with a spinach and red pepper salad that, again, was extremely tasty.  The entire meal was pretty lean and healthy, and was quite honestly one of the best meals I’ve grilled in a long time. 

I broke out my new Weber One-Touch Gold last night.  We started out with a pretty simple menu of grilled chicken with fajita seasoning, and some roasted peppers, potatoes, and onions on the grill. We also spiced up some rice by cutting up some cilantro and throwing in some lime juice, a la Chipotle. 

I bought a grill basket for the vegetables.  It’s just a simple non-stick bowl with holes that allows the smoke and flame from the charcoal to permeate the food. It’s a pretty simple thing, but it makes vegetables (which, admittedly, I have trouble eating enough) much more interesting and palatable for someone like me.  A grill basket is a terrific addition to your grilling tools inventory that I can’t recommend highly enough.

We topped the dish off by pouring a little queso dip over the chicken, but honestly the chicken was good enough on its own that I had half of a second piece without it. 

A little fire can go a long way to make something that’s normally bland turn into something that’s downright tasty!

Grilling is a favorite summer year-round activity for me.  As long as man has been cooking, he been grilling in some form or fashion.  Aside from the fun of being outdoors, it can be significantly healthier and a whole lot tastier. 

If you’re just sticking to standard fare like burgers and hot dogs, you’re really only scratching the surface of what your grill can do.  There’s nothing as good as vegetables, corn on the cob, and even fruit cooked over a roaring fire.  Ever tried grilled pizza?  The hard crust combined with the slight doughy texture of the crust can’t be beat.

If you’ve got food and you’re tired of the same old, just throw it on the fire and try something new.  You’ll be amazed at what you can do.