Skewers of Summer Veggies

Very easy to make and even easier to cook. When you put the vegetables you like on a skewer. the Skewer makes it easy to move the veggies around the grill off of the hot spots or flare ups. They encourage you to cut all the veggies about the same size so the cook time is consistent, and as an added bonus, it makes all the dinner plates look much more appetizing to you, your family and friends. add a little seasoning and you are done!

VEry easy 

Grilled Tuna Steak with Veggies

Grilled Chicken Sandwhich

Grilled Chicken, real simple meals

Thank you for checking out my food blog.  I had some drastic changes in my life lately. And with my supportive, beautiful wife I know we will get through the changes. Cause what is life anyway?  a bunch of changes in a row!  I will post new dishes when I can, but please don't go too far. I have the last 2 years of weekend meals photographed sitting in a file. I just need to attach a recipe to them for you.

Real Simple Meals... like the domain says.. keeping that theme going here is the latest.

So On Sunday you Grilled Chicken and veggies.  Here is the second simple dish to come from all that effort you put in a few days ago.

Grilled Chicken-Cheddar-Jalapeno Sandwich

Ingredients:
Grilled Chicken breast
1/4  green bell pepper
1/2 jalapeno pepper
4 slices ( per sandwich) quality Cheddar cheese
2 slices of bread per sandwich
1 tsp of butter or oil for skillet/ pan


Slice the grilled chicken breast in half along the equator or thin strips so that the chicken sits flat on the toasted bread. 

Slice up 1 HALF ( 1/2) of a  Jalapeno into little rings.  Figure 3 thin rings per sandwich at the most.
Slice thin slices of the green pepper (2-3) per
Slice the Cheddar thin so that 4 fit on the top of the sandwich with room to melt

The Sandwich looks like this before cooking

I used a Cast iron skillet to cook mine this time.  If you have the right amount of oil on them they don't smoke indoors.

Heat up the skillet and add a little oil or butter and wait til it starts to brown slightly.
Place the sandwich in the pan with the veggies on the top side of the chicken breast.
Heat should be at  4-5 ( 75%) at most.
reduce heat to 50%
Keep an eye on it. it only take a  few minutes cook time to brown the bottom.
place the bread on top and carefully....carefully flip the sandwich with a spatula on the bottom and your fingers on top.

let grill on the other side for a few minutes at the 50% heat level.

Carefully tilt bread up to see progress of the flipped side.
When to you liking, remove and plate.

This is what it should look like.

Grilled Veggies and Chicken Salad

Here is an easy lunch option. I love to make this or some version of it. If you like it, enjoy! if you want to tweak it to your liking please feel free to do so.  This is my Grilled Vegetables and Chicken Salad.

When we grill on a Sunday evening, we throw a few Chicken Breasts and skewered veggies on with that night's dinner.
 On the weekdays following, chop the veggies to as size you want in your salad.
 Don't let it sit overnight because the vegitables are still moist and will sog your crisp salad.
 Take one chicken breast and slice it the long way, then into quarter to half inch pieces. The Chicken can sit with your salad over night if you are taking this to work the next day.
The smokey veggies add a nice flavor and the Chicken helps to fill you so you are not snacking later in the day.  I've  included some photos just not sure which one I like more.  Since I am getting a feel for this, Please comment below as to which photo works better for you. 

Grilled Summer Vegitable skewers

Summer is Chicago is sometimes like catching a bus, You have a general idea of when it will arrive but you can't count on it until it is sitting in front of you. It is mid August, 2013. usually it is SO HOT in town, that you can't find clothing that keeps you comfortable standing on the street sidewalk did not help things. this year, we have 70's and after a spring of rain, a lot of farmers are finding a solid amount of produce. Perfect! I can grill and, well..... Not be grilled doing it. Here is my latest from today. Squash, Zucchini,Green and red peppers,baby peppers with Yellow Onions......and Pineapple! It has that perfect light color, the sweet, yummy summer taste we are all looking for and just maybe it will get Squash and Zucchini past the lips of the non believers. So this is my Grilled summer veggies: depending on the amount of people are actually eating... 1 yellow squash and 1 green zucchini if you have more friends, add more of these. 1 yellow onion 1 green pepper 1 red pepper 1 cored pineapple Chop all veggies to fit on the skewer poke the water soaked skewers through the onion first add veggies in a creative color pattern to finish the skewer. Add a little olive oil followed by any spice you want. Hot pepper, herb garlic, thyme and rosemary. You cant go wrong, just flavor as you choose to. I will include photos of spices needed

Real simple Meals. A guy has to eat.

real simple meals - spicy fun food that is easy to make

A guy has to eat!

It is the 1980's. When I was growing up, my mother said, you need to know how to cook. One version of this conversation ended with, ...cause you have to feed yourself!  and another version I recall wrapped up with something like ....because a lot of women cannot cook! 
I am not sure which version was repeated more often, but It's pretty much was the earliest reason I recall for learning how to cook.

Thanks Mom!

 "You need to write this stuff down." 

Skip ahead to 2013.   I've been shooting  photography for the past 12 years and when I get a chance I cooked for my wife and I. We live in Chicago, illinois  and I love to grill in the summer and cook in the winter months.   I would snap a photo with my phone or whatever I had near me just for fun.  Nothing grand, not props, or studio lighting, just "snap shots".  I now realize that I have about 2 years worth of photography of dishes I created.

 My wife likes my cooking (which is always good for a relationship) but has learned that I did not name my recipes, so she could never request a dish that she craved at the moment. Her requests were always,  " hey, that spicy chicken dish, with the peppers, and the veggies that had that awesome flavor." It was up to me to guess.

Are my dishes  on this food blog going to change the world? NO. They are not meant to. They do error on the side of being healthy,  but not boring. They are SIMPLE to make and you will see similar ingredients being used.   I'm all for trying new things, but  it will become quickly evident that you can use a core group of flavors in many ways.   We like hot, spicy food, so if you do. I hope you like what you find on this blog.


Enjoy,