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Best Healthy Grilled Foods in 2014

We’ve all heard the ‘New Year, New You’ line before… and most of us have tried to live up to it. If your New Year Resolution this year was to […]

Jan 16

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We’ve all heard the ‘New Year, New You’ line before… and most of us have tried to live up to it. If your New Year Resolution this year was to eat healthier or lose weight, you’re not alone. In fact, losing weight is America’s number one most popular New Year resolution in 2014.

 

To help facilitate your ‘New You’ ambitions (and ours!), we’ve sifted through hundreds of grill-ready recipes and picked out our favorites to share.

Why grilled foods? Grilling your proteins is a fantastic way to cut out unnecessary fats and oils while still adding great flavor. As an added tip, adding a juice or another beverage to your Kenyon grill drip pan is a great way to infuse flavors into your food without slathering on extra calories (for instance, we recommend apple juice with pork chops!)

 

Remember that the winter months are no excuse to stop grilling! Any of Kenyon’s smokeless, electric grills (like the Revolution or City Grill™) are safe to use indoors or out, making grilling in the winter easy and painless. Why should we wait for summer for amazing meals like these? Click the picture below to check out the amazing products we offer (don’t worry, it opens in a new window!)

 

Here are our top 5 Best Healthy Grilled Food recipes for 2014. If you try them out, please share your results with us on Facebook orTwitter, or by emailing us at Hello@cookwithkenyon.com. We’d also love to see your own grilling creations!

 

5. One of the first diet foods that comes to mind for most of us is “salad” – or more specifically, “salad with grilled chicken and low-fat dressing.” Not exactly appetizing when it’s put like that. Part of the reason so many people dread living off of salad is that they haven’t perfected the art of making one! Salads can be incredibly versatile and tasty if you’re willing to put a teensy bit of thought and effort into them beforehand.

This recipe comes from MenuMusings and is only one of unlimited salad possibilities. We chose to feature this “Grilled Ginger-Sesame Chicken Salad” because it’s jam-packed with flavors to help hit all your sweet and salty cravings in one fell swoop. Unlike other recipes we feature, this one does take some prep time for marinating the chicken – but it’s completely worth it in the end.

Click here for MenuMusing’s Grilled Ginger-Sesame Chicken Salad Recipe.

4. There are thousands upon thousands of “grilled vegetable” recipes on the internet because there is no ‘right way’ to grill a vegetable. But we loved Rebecca Crump’s recipe at Ezra Pound Cake because of her fantastically simple (and delicious!) balsamic vinaigrette marinade.

Not a huge veggie fan? Grilling vegetables brings out the natural sugars and adds caramelization which changes the flavor completely. Give it a try!

Click here for Ezra Pound Cake’s Grilled Vegetable with Balsamic Vinaigrette Marinade recipe.

3. From The Jolly Tomato we have something that’s more of a great healthy grilling idea than a recipe. Grilled Fruit! The concept and execution are simple- Slice up some fruit, throw it on a medium hot grill, and as soon as the grill marks appear, flip over.

Grilling fruit brings out the natural sweetness without having to add any extra sugars or additives. Whenever you’re craving something sweet, this is a great (maybe even tastier!) substitute for all of the bad-for-you desserts out there. For an extra dimension, try adding a little bit of fresh granola, honey, yogurt, or homemade whipped cream. Below are Gina Homolka’s grilled peaches, topped with honey and honey-flavored yogurt.

Some of the more popular fruits to grill are pineapples, bananas, and peaches – but feel free to get adventurous! There’s no messy risk involved if you’re using a Kenyon grill, where cleanup is only a dishwasher away.

This next recipe comes from Gina Homolka of skinnytaste.com and involves shrimp, avocados, and cheese… need we say more? These Shrimp Quesadillas with Tomato Avocado Salsa seem decadent, but weigh in at only about 300 calories for an entire quesadilla that is packed with nutrients and amazing flavors.

Gina recommends grilling the shrimp and quesadillas in a skillet, but using a Kenyon grill is a great way to infuse extra flavors into the shrimp and tortillas without having to use any oil or butter.

Click here for the Shrimp Quesadillas with Tomato Avocado Salsa recipe.

1. Our top pick for the best healthy grilled food this new year comes backed by scientific evidence of its health benefits. Salmon is high in protein, amino acids, Omega-3 fats (those are good!), tons of vitamins, and additional nutritional benefits are still being discovered. Being that salmon is also one of the staples of the grilling world, it’s no wonder that this recipe topped our list of healthy grilled foods.

There are infinite possibilities for preparing salmon on a grill. Sweet or salty, lemony or smokey, tons of different marinades, sides, and sauces to choose from… choosing just one recipe to highlight was difficult. The recipe we chose is great because it includes grilled asparagus on the side which compliments the flavor of the salmon while providing its own ‘superfood’ benefits (it actually used to be used as medication for arthritis because its inflammatory properties are so great!)

Martha Stewart’s recipe for Grilled Salmon Steaks with Mustard Sauce and Asparagus is top-notch and takes minimal prep with only a handful of ingredients.

Click here for the Grilled Salmon Steaks with Mustard Sauce and Asparagus Recipe

 

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