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Monday, September 17, 2012

Grilled Vegetable Skewers



For several weeks now I have been remiss in my blogging duties.  Big T and I have initiated a “lifestyle change” that involves regular exercise and carefully monitoring our eating habits, so I have yet to fully adjust to a different schedule that involves a side trip to the gym after work.   Therefore, some items have fallen behind, like laundry and blogging.  However, I want to share some of my recipes that I have been putting into our rotation for anyone else that might want to try them, so the first one is for grilled vegetables using a marinade I found online recently.   Unfortunately, I do not remember which website I found it on to give them credit. I do, however, want to give a shout out for myfitnesspal.com.  It takes some discipline, but I really like this website and they have a mobile app to make logging on the go very easy!  So back to our regularly scheduled food.

We prefer to use squash, zucchini, mushrooms, onions, and cherry tomatoes for our grilled vegetable skewers. 
  
 I don’t like tomatoes but I add them for my guests and they are pretty.  You can also add peppers.  I don’t like them either.  These pics won’t show onions because we chose to grill them whole.  I’ll post that recipe later.
Chop the squash, onions, and zucchini into big chunks and put them in a ziploc bag with the tomatoes and mushrooms. Next gather these ingredients and make the marinade.

Vegetable Marinade
½ c. olive oil
½ c. lime juice
¼ c. water
¼ c. dijon mustard
2 T. real maple syrup
2 T. minced garlic
2 t. dried basil
½ t. salt
½ t. freshly ground pepper

If you add everything in order and DON’T mix it until the very end, it looks like this:
 
Love it when science and cooking mix. Or don’t mix.
Anyway,mix well and pour it over the vegetables. 
 
Moosh all of the air out of the bag and zip it closed.  Then roll the bag around and make sure all of the veggies are coated.
 
Throw the bag(s) in the fridge for 2 hours.  Go watch a favorite movie.  Then put the veggies on skewers.  I prefer metal, but if you use wooden ones, make sure they have been soaked for at least 30 minutes first.  Then place them on the grill on medium heat.
 
 Flip them after about 3 minutes or so.  Then flip them onto the plate.  Your side dish is ready; dig in! 

A couple of tips:
The marinade can be made up to 7 days in advance of use.  I usually store mine in a mason jar.
Chop your veggies the night before to save time on grill day.