‘Grill’ Articles at Sweetnicks

Recipe: Southwestern Salad

July 16, 2016 · Narrative, Salads

A delicious, healthy salad that is filling and you can have on the table in thirty minutes. Let’s go!

When we were making plans to meet up with our family down the shore last weekend, I offered to make Saturday night dinner. Mostly because I feel like it’s my small way of contributing to our weekend, and I had just seen a recipe for a Southwestern Chopped Salad that would make excellent use of the leftover grilled corn I had in my refrigerator.

Two birds, one stone.

I found the original recipe from the Damn Delicious blog, but made a few tiny changes along the way. The biggest change was probably to use grilled corn instead of canned corn. Because when you’re in the thick of peak corn season, why wouldn’t you?

If you *have* grilled corn already, you can make quick work of this salad easily. It’s just a question of cutting the corn off the cobs. I set up my daughter, Madeline, and my niece, Sophie, and gave them that job. They could chatter about their day and be a huge help to me.

And the bonus?

My oldest, Nick, did all the other work, from washing and chopping all the ingredients to make the homemade dressing.

Teamwork at its finest.

Filling salads like this are such a great thing to have in your repertoire when it comes to the hot, hot, hot months of the summer. Who wants to heat up their kitchen or spend hours toiling away over a hot stove?

With all the ingredients, and a creamy dressing that uses Greek yogurt as its base, this is a nice summer meal that you can feel good about serving … and eating!

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Recipe: Turkey, Spinach, and Feta Sliders

March 22, 2016 · Meat and Poultry, Narrative

A delicious burger that takes twenty minutes from start to finish … and neatly checks that “ate my vegetables” box? Yes, please.

This could be titled: A Recipe That Got My Kids to Eat Spinach.

But I don’t want to make it out like they don’t eat vegetables, because they totally do.

Nick would eat salad every day if he could.

Madeline eats grape tomatoes like they’re candy.

And they both love artichokes and roasted broccoli with wild abandon.

So no complaints from me.

And quite honestly, they both will eat spinach in the Spinach Cheese Squares we make often.

So, #winning all around.

But if I can find a new way for them to kinda sorta like a vegetable they really don’t?

Even better.

And these cute little sliders are just that.

They take less than ten minutes to mix together and are super stuffed with fresh spinach, a few pantry items, and feta (get the good kind! Dodoni! Not the already crumbled kind).

Once the burgers were cooked up (I used a stovetop grill pan I got a few years back, similar to this one), everyone topped them differently.

Which is the great thing about burgers.

Add your own personality to them!

The kids just went for straight-up ketchup.

While I tend to subscribe to the “mo toppings, mo better” camp and topped mine with caramelized onions, homemade mayo, and a few homemade bread and butter pickles that a friend made for me.

So good … and dinner was completely ready to go in less than 20 minutes.

YES.

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Recipe: Caribbean Asian Fusion Steak

February 1, 2016 · Meat and Poultry, Narrative

A steak recipe that is uber simple to make and renders each bite tender and bursting with flavor.

My kids don’t love steak.

Sometimes I wonder if we’re related.

And then I remember the combined 29 hours of labor, and know that we most definitely are.

If I don’t call it steak, they like it somewhat better.

But it’s a roll of the dice. Sometimes they gobble it up and sometimes they ask for leftovers.

Weirdos.

Despite all that, I still make it.

Because every now and again, my body is craving red meat.

Which is way better than when it is craving chocolate.

KWIM?

Skirt steak is one of the easiest cuts to cook because as long as you pay attention to it while it’s cooking, you can’t screw it up.

As in: don’t walk away from it, because it cooks faster than other cuts.

I make a million different marinades for it, just to make it all the more flavorful and juicy.

Which are totally words I want associated with my steak dinner.

Flavorful.

Juicy.

For this version, I threw together a hybrid of ingredients I had on hand to meld a little bit of Caribbean and Asian influences together, and then let it marinate and do its thing in the refrigerator for two days.

If I’m being completely honest, the second day of marinating was purely by accident. I forgot we had a Girl Scout meeting and dinner, so it had extra time in the fridge. Which just makes it even more tender. I would marinate the steak for at least a few hours, but up to two days.

Make it. It was super tender and packed with flavor the night we ate it … and even several days later when I heated up the leftovers for lunch. Pair it with a salad and some seasonal roasted or grilled vegetables, and you have a nice easy and healthy meal.

Hungry for more skirt steak recipes?
This old favorite features the saltiness of anchovies and the zip of lime – delish.
And although this recipe sadly doesn’t feature an accompanying photo (what the what?!), it’s totally worth making … and I’m putting it on my list for this weekend, just so I can snap a shot of it.

Have a favorite skirt steak recipe of your own? I’d love to hear about it.

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Recipe: Drunken Onions

August 18, 2015 · Narrative

Tender slices of onions that lend themselves perfectly to a million dishes … this is something you need in your kitchen.

When I asked Nick what he wanted me to cook for our family meal to celebrate his birthday, he quickly decided on carnitas (pulled pork). An idea I totally love. It’s a crowd pleaser, easy to make, and because we set it up with lots of different fixins’, it’s a great way for everyone to put together their own plate exactly how they want it.

I usually use this recipe for the carnitas, and then set out dishes with homemade guacamole, salsa, sour cream, shredded cheese, rice, and black beans. It means a relatively easy day in the kitchen for me, and you can please a crowd of people without breaking a sweat.

Which is kind of my favorite way to entertain.

A few days before, I spied a recipe for Brick Chicken with Drunken Onions in People magazine from Michael Symon (love him!). While the chicken pictured in the recipe looks divine, I immediately thought the drunken onions would be perfect as another toppings option for our carnitas fest.

And I was right.

Although the original recipe is meant to be cooked on the grill, since I don’t have one, I just did it in the oven, and it worked out just fine.

You certainly don’t have to make carnitas to enjoy these onions … they would taste heavenly on top of a burger or grilled chicken. However you decide to use them, just be sure to make them.

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Recipe: Balsamic Grilled Flank Steak

May 12, 2015 · Narrative

‘Tis the season for grilling, and this flank steak is the perfect way to celebrate warm weather foods, and it’s quick enough that you can enjoy it even on the busiest day of your week.

Every two weeks, we have a Girl Scout meeting in the evening and the timing of it usually means take-out on the way home, or scrounging through the refrigerator for leftovers.

But tonight, I made an effort to get dinner done before we even left.

I also needed something quick and easy, healthy, and that the kids would eat.

This is that.

Well, almost that.

Delivering all the goodness of dinner cooked on the grill, this meal can be ready in thirty minutes, which includes the 15 minutes of marinating time.

That’s a movement I can get behind.

Once I started marinating the steak, I popped a tray of cherry tomatoes in the oven for roasting, and when the steak was done grilling, the tomatoes were done. The steak was then topped with the roasted tomatoes and torn pieces of fresh basil.

Super simple and super delicious.

Whether you’re following Whole30, paleo, primal, clean eating … or just an eat-all-things-grilled lifestyle, this meal works out perfectly. In half an hour, you can get a complete dinner that you can feel good about serving your family.

Which is pretty much my favorite kind of meal.

*I said this was almost the meal I was looking for, because it failed to meet the kid-friendly part of my requirements. Madeline ate enough to get by and Nick reminded me that he’s “not a fan of steak,” and proceeded to microwave his until it no longer resembled what I made. Kids.

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Recipe: Dominican Chimi Burgers

July 30, 2014 · Narrative

Twenty minutes until you can sink your teeth into a delicious, full on flavorful burger … the perfect thing to hit your grill this summer.

Burgers are an easy crowd pleaser in our home. Everybody likes them, they’re quick for me to make, and, well, they scream summertime grilling fun. We need no more convincing than that.

I am closerthanthis to breaking down and getting an official grill (happy birthday to me!), but in the meantime, this grill pan I have gets quite a work-out on the regular. And when we have a weeknight where we’re heading off to cheer practice for Madeline, a quick dinner made on the grill is exactly what we need.

Mix a handful of ingredients with ground beef. Common ingredients that I bet you have in your kitchen already. Form the patties. Grill. Mix a handful of ingredients to make the coleslaw topping. Top your burger.

And you’re done.

I don’t think I’ve ever had warm shredded cabbage and carrots before, but in this recipe, it totally worked, giving the burger that little something special on top of it. As for the burger itself? It smelled amazing while it was grilling, even good enough to bring the kids into the kitchen to see what dinner was going to be, and the taste only rivaled the scent wafting through the house. Packed with flavor, one juicy bite after the next.

You can go directly to Marnely’s web site for the recipe. The only thing I did differently was that instead of grating the cabbage and carrots, I used a bag of coleslaw mix that I had on hand for another recipe.

Make this one. You won’t be disappointed.

Hungry for more burger recipes?
Greek Turkey Burgers are perfect for when you’re looking for an alternative to beef.
These Mushroom Crusted Chicken Burgers got my kids eating mushrooms. I’ll take it!
Thai Turkey Burgers are another quick and tasty fix without the guilt.
And lastly, these Napa Valley Burgers from Bobby Flay are one of my all-time favorites.