Turn your cook out into a heath fest with the right barbecue recipes

Start by checking out different cookbooks and cooking blogs for vegetarian and light barbecue recipes. You’re bound to find ideas on how to prepare fish, seafood and veggies on the grill, and how to enjoy leaner versions of your favorites. After all dieticians keep saying that grilling is a healthier way of preparing food, so it’s something to consider. And don’t worry, just because your cook out is to contain less fat and meat and more veggies doesn’t mean it’s going to lack flavor.

Whether you decide to go with seafood barbecue recipes, replace fatty ribs with lean pork or try something unusual like casserole off the grill, one thing to do is to skip processed foods and prepare barbecue sauce, salad dressing or marinades the old fashioned way, from scratch. Not only will you be sure of the ingredients and omit all the unnecessary chemistry, but you’ll also be able to tweak the flavor precisely to your liking by adding a bit more garlic, honey or olive oil. If you can, when preparing your sauces avoid using salt and chop in lots of herbs instead, thus making them healthier and more flavorful at the same time.

Most people stick to corn on the cob when it comes to barbecue veggies, and it’s a mistake. Sure corn is delicious, but it’s not the only vegetable you can prepare on the grill. Baste some zucchini, yellow squash and eggplant with a home made barbecue sauce and grill until you see the markings; wrap sweet potatoes in tin foil and bake them in place of regular potatoes; chop up some fennel, carrots and leeks, add them to fish pockets with a touch of butter and grill until the fish is cooked through; or prepare veggie kebabs with mushrooms, onions, peppers, cherry tomatoes and other soft vegetables that will grill approximately the same amount of time to serve with a healthy natural yogurt dip or as a side to lean chicken breast.

A good balance is the key for every meal, and that should go for a cook out as well. so don’t bother with excuses that when you’re grilling it’s all about burgers, ribs and rib eyes, and make sure that there are plenty of grilled or fresh veggies on your plate alongside some healthy seafood or trim steak prepared according to one of heart friendly barbecue recipes. And to not be tempted to drink one soda after another, minimize sodium on your cook out menu and have plenty of healthy alternatives like iced green tea with pear, chilled mint and lemon water or fresh squeezed orange and grapefruit juice. You’ll see that a cook out colored with different veggies and watered with herbal teas will still be tasting of that yummy barbecue sauce, but it will feel much healthier when going down.

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Torri Myler is a web designer and a passionate writer. Interested in travelling and foreign languages, she writes articles about people and lifestyles.

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