Alright- Ribs!  I know that for the most part I'm a plant based person-but I do love my ribs.  Doesn't matter if they're beef or pork, but I love my ribs!

Even thought Memorial Day is past-we are now officially in prime grilling season-so let's talk about how to get those ribs on the platter in the tastiest way possible!

Here is the age old question amongst those of us who love our BBQ or Grill:  Dry rub or sauce?

My feeling is somewhere in between.  I love the dry rubs for beef.  I change my rubs the way I change my underwear-daily.  So don't ask me for recipes on this score!

I do have some favorite ingredients though-start with Montreal Steak seasoning.  This stuff is terrific on chicken, pork or beef.   I don't grill turkey too often, but it works well on it as well.  You can use it straight as a dry rub. You can combine it with evoo and soy sauce and it makes a terrific marinade.  Do the same with it but swap out the soy sauce for balsamic vinegar or orange juice.  

Another great thing for pork or chicken is to make a paste out of equal amounts of chopped fresh rosemary and mint, add minced garlic, kosher salt, lemon juice and zest and evoo.  This has been used on lamb chops, but I don't thick it would do beef justice.

I've gotten off course here-we were talking about ribs.

Pork-I like to boil mine in a beer and chicken broth mix for about 20 minutes.  This tenderizes them, shortens the cook time and adds a lot of flavor.  Once out of the "soup", dry them well, season and seal them up in a foil bag.  Bake at 300 for about 2 hours.  Finish up on the grill-if you like sauce, put it on about 10 minutes before they're done.  And grill them at a low temperature.

Beef ribs are best if you use the rub or marinades of your choice, letting them hang out for several hours or even overnight.  Bake them at 300 in the foil bag treatment for about 3 hours or so.  How long depends on their size, how much meat and/or fat there is.  Then finish up on the grill.

I love to heat up the sauce and serve it on the side.
Now for the weekly share-how do you like your ribs?

Happy Memorial Day!  I have to say, we're not really doing anything all that special this holiday.  Our daughter and her family may come over so the kids can either use my sister's pool or the wading pool we bought them.  We always grill-so I'm sure tonight won't be an exception to the rule.

You'll notice I said grill not BBQ, ask any true BBQ fanatic or chef and they will gladly was poetic and with a lot of fervor about how different the two forms of cooking are.  BBQ takes hours of low heat over coals and lots of care.

Grilling is when you flick on the gas unit, heat up the grills and cook your food.  Do it right and no one cares whether you've taken all day or a half hour-just as long as the food is NOT totally black and can possibly give you cancer in the not to distant future.

What do we grill?  Name it?  Sometimes it is best to start some of the food in the house.  Such as potatoes.  I like to microwave them about ? way through and then finish them up outside.  Same with ribs, believe it or not.  Artichokes also do better if you steam them first and then split them in half and give them a few minutes outside.

Should you use rub or sauce?  To marinate or not?  This depends solely on personal taste and what you are planning on serving.  I like to marinate veggies, pork, chicken and the less expensive cuts of beef.  Adds a lot of flavor and it helps to keep things moist and juicy.  Potatoes-NO!  Don't wrap them in foil-then they steam, not roast.  

Same with corn-those are best if you leave the husks on, but pull them back and soak the ears in ice water.  Shake off the water and rub on a compound butter.  Or use olive oil.

Our favorite is olive oil (evoo), minced garlic and kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.  Brush it on, put back the husks and grill about 10 minutes on each side.  Yum.

On Friday-even thought the holiday's over-let's talk about those rib bones!

More on quick and healthy meals in the heat and hurry that is abounding at this point in the year.

Here's a really quick stir-fry, which takes some help from the packaged produce aisle.

Turkey With Cabbage

1 tbsp cornstarch
1-1/4 C chicken broth
4-1/2 tsp tamari sauce
1/3 C your favorite chutney-we like mango
1 tsp of each, Chinese 5 spice powder & minced garlic
7 tsp (divided) toasted sesame oil
1 pkg turkey breast tenderloins, cut into thin strips
1 lg red bell pepper (really any color will do)
2 C fresh snow peas
1 1 lb pkg cole slaw mix

In a small bowl combine the first 6 ingredients.  In a large wok, heat 1 tbsp oil and saut? turkey until no longer pink.  Set aside on a platter.  Heat 2 tsp oil and saut? peppers and peas for a couple of minutes.  Add liquid mixture (stir first) and bring to a boil, simmer until thickened, add turkey and heat through.    

In a separate pan sprayed with Pam, saut? the cabbage for about 5 minutes.  Divide and serve on 4 large plates and top with turkey mixture.  

Calorie count is about 400 with only 10 grams of fat and 5 grams of fiber.

Need a quick and healthy dessert?  I love serving fresh berries of any kind with some sorbet.  No fat here and no one has ever grimaced at the delicious and colorful bowl.
If you want to add a bit of fast decadence-dollop with some cool whip or a squirt of chocolate syrup.

Happy Fast Eating!

As most of you know by now, I love food that tastes good, is low fat and healthy and can be put together without much fun.  This week has really been quite hot and hectic here in my neck of the woods, so I decided to talk about the fast and healthy part.  

This past week had me walking well over 20 miles, running errands, driving out to my parents to take them on their errands and doctor appointments, doing over 10 loads of laundry (and that was just Monday-Thursday!) and the usual research and writing that I do.  Plus, at 10 a.m. Friday, I had grandma duty of a 2 year old all weekend.  

Needless to say-time was short, I was tired and we still had to eat!  I have to admit, I put most of the food on our grill.  Thank goodness for our grill!  Monday was grilled chicken asado, grilled asparagus and mushrooms and quinoa pilaf.

Here's a great tip-things like rice, barley, couscous and quinoa can be made in quantities that can last for a few days-so don't make a small batch.  Now I only use brown rice, which like the barley, takes about 40 minutes to cook-but only a couple of minutes to re-heat.  Plus, both can be transformed into very filling salads, stir fries and added to soups and such.  

One of my families favorites is when I grill or roast extra veggies, chop them up add it to any of the above grains and let it marinate with some non-fat Italian dressing.
These are great for taking for a brown bag lunch as well.  Add some chopped lunch meat or leftover protein from dinner and all you need to add for a very healthy and nutritious meal is a piece of fruit.

Chicken, pork and beef asado mixes are usually found in just about any grocery store meat counter, but if yours doesn't have it, it's not that hard to create on your own.  Simply chose your lean meat, leave it in large serving slices that are on the thin side and add finely chopped bell peppers, purple onions and your favorite BBQ sauce.  Let it marinate and then grill.

Grilling veggies are fantastic!  All you need is a simple jar of minced garlic, a very minute amount of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) and some kosher salt.  You can get creative with some fresh herbs or add some spices, but we're talking fast here this week, so use the KISS method.
(Keep, It, Simple, Silly)

Friday, let's share some quick and healthy recipes!

Happy Friday!  I love weekends-hubby and I love to walk down to our brand new bagel place and have breakfast there on one of the mornings.  I am on a thing where I try a new flavor bagel with peanut butter and apricot jam.  The owner already knows (after a mere 2 months in business) to grind up the beans for a large cup of coffee for me!  Hubby is trying all the eggels.

What are eggels?  Essentially, they are breakfast sandwiches done on bagels.  All have eggs that have been scrambled and molded by being made in a microwave.
Here are some variations:

Add a slice of ham or turkey, top with almost any type of cheese:  Swiss, cheddar, mozzarella or even pepper jack.  Get creative on this!  Try some corned beef or pastrami, even roast beef, if you prefer.

Instead of cream cheese-us chipotle mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, BBQ sauce or even some kind of chutney!
Add a slice of tomato and lettuce!  We love using roasted mushrooms, zucchini or even some sun-dried tomatoes.
Go for a Florentine version by using some raw or saut?ed spinach.

A more traditional form would be to add some chopped lox and onions to the eggs before cooking.

As for eggs in a microwave-couldn't be easier.  Get a custard cup and spray with some butter flavored Pam (or its equivalent).  Use 2 large eggs.  Crack the eggs into the cup and blend thoroughly with a fork, beat in a teaspoon or 2 of water, a pinch of salt and pepper.  Microwave in 30 second intervals-breaking up the cooked egg and stirring each time-shouldn't take more than 1-1/2 to 2 minutes.  

Be careful not to over cook or the egg will just be plain "nasty"-i.e. tough and inedible.

The custard cup is generally the size of a bagel-so it works beautifully.  But depending on the size of who makes your bagels-you might need to adjust this.

If you come up with some interesting combinations that made your taste buds water-share them!

I blew it.  Last week my columns should have been about celebrating Mother's Day-but since I changed the days I'm posting-I completely forgot!  I'm sorry!

Nevertheless, I hope everyone had a wonderful day with their kids and/or their own moms.

Our family was just happy that my mom was here and able to celebrate.  She's still weak from her hospitalization, but our mother has the strength of 10 women, so the celebration of the day and all the May birthdays went on as planned.

We decided on Breakfast for Dinner.  It's easy, delicious and it's truly everyone's favorite meal.  My sister and I bought fresh bagels of about 4 different kinds, lite and regular creamed cheese, lox, strawberries, eggs for "eggels" and freshly ground chocolate raspberry coffee, creamer.  Mom insisted on ordering a rum cake from our "family" bakery (the one that has made every birthday cake needed for our clan since my 6th birthday).
Our daughter lives closest-so she went over with her crew and set the table so my parents didn't have too.

This year there were 4 moms:  our mom, me, my sister and my daughter.  Unfortunately I just listed these by age.  Darn-I'm now in the upper bracket.  

We celebrated the following birthdays (these are done by dates):  Adam who turned 25, Sarah-27, Dave (our brother-in-law, whom I'm not going to say how old he is), our nephew Jonathon-17, our son-in-law Alex-28 and my dad, bless him, is turning 80.

Quite a celebration!

Now about those "eggels"!  This is the term we use here in SoCal-but I'm pretty sure many other areas use it as well.  It's a breakfast sandwich!  

Friday-some variations to try on the eggel-after all, the weekend will be upon us and we should try something different!