Healthy Eating Done Right

Part of Jordan's Christmas gifts this year was a gift card to Williams and Sonoma. We both live in apartments and cannot have a personal grill so she's been salivating over the All-Clad Indoor Electric Grill for more than a year now and was finally able to get it. The ordeal was crazy, drawn out and ridiculous due to the customer service representatives at the Williams and Sonoma catalog end of the company. After finally leaving the local store with her grill in hand (really, in arms. That thing is huge), we decided to celebrated with some delicious, grilled vegetables and made a short trip to Whole Foods.

So many people these days have lost the joy of cooking vegetables, opting for overly seasoned and flavored or canned for the flavor of the veggie, itself. The most additional flavor I like to give to my veggies would be olive oil and mild spices but today, after craving veggies so badly, we opted for the deliciousness that nature offers, adding only the smokiness from the grill.

The process couldn't have been any simpler than it was. We chose to keep it simple with red bell peppers, grape tomatoes, garlic, cremini mushrooms and purple onion. When washing your mushrooms, don't leave them in water for too long as they absorb water and lose flavor. The best way to wash them is to use a damp paper towel and wipe each clean but sometimes that just isn't the best option for your time frame. Many cooks say it won't hurt anything to rinse them as long as you do so quickly. Snip the top off your garlic clove and cut it in half for a faster grill time. The softer the garlic is when removed from the grill, the milder the flavor. We cleaned our bell peppers and onions, cut them in quarters in grill those that way. No olive oil, no seasonings, no marinades and no spices. It was absolutely delicious, flavorful, colorful and smelled wonderful. The grill worked amazingly and I would definitely recommend it, especially since it's on sale right now for about 2/3 the normal price. It has a large grill surface and would work well cooking for just one or two or for feeding company. This was my first experience with anything Williams and Sonoma and I definitely approve.

We added to our dinner a small baguette that we sliced and served with olive oil seasoned with dried rosemary, garlic powder, salt and fresh cracked pepper and a simple tomato salad. For the dipping oil and bread, be sure to allow the seasonings to rest in the oil for a few minutes for the flavors to mingle. The longer the oil rests, the more flavorful it will be. As for the tomato salad, I'm not really sure you could even call it a salad. We bought a few heirloom tomatoes and chunked up some delicious parmesan cheese and drizzled it all over with basil infused olive oil.

On a side note, you'll need to bear with our photos for a little while. Jordan's camera kicked the bucket and I left my camera in North Carolina so we are currently using Jordan's Android phone to take photos of the food we make.

That's all for now. Peace out, hommiiiiiiiieeee!