Luau Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 (20 oz) can sliced pineapple
• 1 TBS brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground mustard
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• boneless, skinless chicken breasts - 1 per person (4 oz each)
• 1/4 cup mayo
• 1 TBS Dijon mustard
• 1/4 tsp dill weed
• deli rolls, split & toasted
• optional lettuce leaves

Directions:

1. Drain juice from pineapple, reserving 1 cup of juice and 1 pineapple slice per person (serving). Remaining juice and pineapple can be saved to use in another recipe.
2. Combine the brown sugar, ground mustard, garlic salt, pepper, and reserved 1 cup pineapple juice in a large resealable bag with the chicken breasts. Seal bag, turning to coat chicken.
3. Refrigerate chicken in resealable bag with marinade for 2 hours in the refrigerator. Turn occasionally to thoroughly coat chicken in marinade.
4. In a separate small dish, combine the mayo, Dijon mustard, and dill. Once completed mixed, refrigerate (covered) until ready to use.
5. Time to cook! Drain and discard marinade from chicken breasts.
6. Preheat the grill to medium heat. Cook the chicken breasts on a covered grill, using medium heat for 5-6 minutes per side - or until juices run clear.
7. Grill the pineapple slices for 1 minute on each side.
8. Prepare the split, toasted deli rolls with mayo if desired and layer each roll with 1 chicken breast, 1 slice of grilled pineapple, and 1 lettuce leaf (if desired).

Hint: We opted to make these open face - using only 1/2 a deli roll per person. One of our side dishes was a salad, so we also skipped on adding lettuce to the open sandwich. The boys really liked the chicken grilled this way, and all 4 guys requested that we put this back on the menu, soon!


This recipe is shared over at Sweet & Simple #6 at Cups by Kim.  Please visit and tell her I said hello!  Be inspired by all the great shares...and share a recipe from your kitchen too!

Southwestern Burgers

Ingredients:

• 1 (4 oz) can green chilies
• 4 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 3/4 tsp garlic powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 2 lbs ground beef
• 3/4 lb pork sausage
• 8 slices Pepper Jack cheese
• 8 hamburger buns, split & toasted
• 8 lettuce leaves
• 1 large tomato, sliced
• 1-2 ripe avocados, peeled & sliced
• optional mayo or mustard

Directions:

1. Combine in a large mixing bowl: green chilies, ground cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, ground beef, and pork sausage. Mix well.
2. Shape into hamburger patties.
3. Grill on a preheated grill, covered - over medium heat for 5 minutes on each side. Internal meat temperature should reach 160 degrees F.
4. After cooking both sides of each hamburger, top burgers with 1 slice of Pepper Jack cheese. Cook uncovered for an additional 2 minutes so cheese can melt.
5. Serve on toasted buns with lettuce, tomato, avocado, and your choice of mayo or mustard.

This recipe is being shared on What's New Wednesday (5) over at Grateful Belly - AND - Whimsy Wednesdays over at The NY Melrose Family, go see what everyone else is sharing!!

Polynesian Sausage Kabobs

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 lbs smoked kielbasa or Polish sausage, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 small pineapple, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1 small cantaloupe, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 2 medium green peppers, cut into 1 inch pieces
• salt & pepper to season as desired

Directions:

1. Making the marinade: In a large bowl, combine lemon juice, soy sauce, water, honey, and salt. Divide in half. Half will be used to baste and half should be put into a resealable bag or covered dish to marinade the sausage.
2. Refrigerate reserved marinade, and marinading sausage separately in the refrigerator for 3 hours.
3. Remove the marinading sausage from the refrigerator - drain and discard the marinade.
4. On soaked wooden skewers or metal skewers, thread alternately sausage, pineapple, cantaloupe, and green pepper.
5. Preheat grill to medium heat.
6. Grill skewers uncovered over medium heat for 10 minutes while turning and basting with reserved marinade.

Hint: Grilled cantaloupe did not sound appealing to me - but OMGoodness it is delicious! We keep a blend of *house* seasoning, (equal parts salt, pepper, garlic powder, and red pepper) on hand to add a little extra punch. Sparingly. On these kabobs, it was delicious!! Even on the pineapple chunks - it worked very well! Maybe next time we will add some chunks of red onion. Maybe!

This recipe is linked up over at Grateful Belly for this week's What's New Wednesday post...go see what other AWESOME and AMAZING ideas are being shared!!

O. M. Goodness Grilled Peaches

I've never grilled peaches before, and I really really wanted to try them.

Lucky me, my local store that sells everything had some beautiful peaches, right there by the cash registers yesterday.

It was fate!

With Jon's help, the peaches were cut in half, and then again in quarters...but that was mostly because I couldn't get them apart.

Oops.




Then we dipped the cut sides of the fruit in brown sugar and wiped off the excess.



On to the hot grill pan they went. About medium heat. Not too hot, that brown sugar and the natural sugars of the peach could get ugly real fast if the heat was too high.



I grilled both sides of the peach quarter that hard brown sugar. I let them cook 3-4 minutes on each side. That's a lot longer than it sounds!

I knew they were ready when the peach began to soften and the sugar had caramelized on the peach.

Success!! These were absolutely wonderful! My 12 year old thought he would refuse to try one. He was wrong. He went back and got 2 more.

These boys!!