Frugal & Healthy Cookouts
With a holiday weekend coming up, this means lots of outdoors activities and cookouts for most people, well except for my neighbor who likes to grill foods 8 months out of the year. There’s certainly something about grilled foods that makes me want to eat more. Cookouts can be a disaster in terms of breaking the budget and the diet plan, with mayonnaise laden dishes; poorly cooked, processed meats; and an abundance of desserts.
But cookouts, based on fresh ingredients, including lots of fruits and vegetables, can also be a great time to for delicious, healthy foods that are reasonably priced. For potluck cookouts, I usually bring either my apple ginger coleslaw or corn and black bean salad. For the grill, I prefer grilling chicken or fish, and topping it with a tasty salsa. The pineapple salsa includes grated fresh ginger, the frugal secret ingredient. And for dessert, I like to serve up a large fresh fruit salad or grilled fruit with yogurt or ice cream.
Ginger Pineapple Salsa
2 cups pineapple, thawed if using frozen
1 T lime juice (or lemon)
1 T grated fresh ginger
2 T red onion, finely diced
2 T cilantro, finely chopped
Red pepper flakes, to taste
pinch of salt
Cut the pineapple into small cubes, about 1/2 inch dice. In a mixing bowl combine all of the ingredients and taste. If the pineapple was not very sweet, add 1 teaspoon brown sugar. Let sit for a few minutes for flavors to combine. Serve as a topping for grilled chicken breasts or grilled fish.
Grilled Peaches
4 peaches
oil or butter for brushing
brown sugar to taste
Cut peaches in half and remove pit. Oil the grill well and place the peaches skin side down on grill. Brush top of peach with oil and sprinkle with sugar. Grill skin side down for 2-3 minutes; then turn over and grill for 2-3 miinutes. Serve hot with frozen yogurt or ice cream on top.
see other recipes in the recipe index
see other ideas at Frugal Friday, Grocery Cart Challenge, Ultimate Recipe Swap, and Food Renegade
I have always wanted to try grilling peaches. Thanks for the prompting!
Oh grilled fruit is divine!
Hi Dana, hi niki, if you can find good white peaches, these are wonderful grilled; also grilled pineapple. Thanks for visiting.
I have never had grilled fruit! The rebates for fresh fruit or produce will come in handy for this. I can’t believe I had never heard of this; thanks for posting!
I’m with Whitney. I’ve never had grilled fruit. What a simple dessert. Peaches seem so sweet; I bet I wouldn’t even add any sugar to them at all.
Thanks for sharing these recipes in today’s Fight Back Fridays carnival. I stumbled them!
Cheers,
KristenM
(AKA FoodRenegade)
Hi Whitney, Hi Kristen, try the grilled fruit just once, and you’ll be hooked. The heat makes the flavors really come out, especially for white peaches and pineapple. I actually don’t add sugar on the grill, but serve the fruit with ice cream:).
Grilled peaches sounds fun! I bet pineapple might taste good too
Hi Snow White, my favorite so far are the white peaches, but I’m looking forward to try apples and maybe plums.
[...] This is also a great base for a grilled Thai steak salad. For an extra special meal, end with grilled peaches and ice [...]
wow grilled peaches? Must try!
Learning the Frugal Life, I’m excited for this peach season, I plan on trying all of the varieties including white, yellow and nectarines.
[...] I suggest poaching then pairing with a flavorful salsa, like this pineapple ginger: Frugal & Healthy Cookouts | Modern Gal Reply With Quote + Reply to Thread « Previous Thread | [...]