Carne Asada Tacos

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Speaking of grilling, after making the carne asada a few weeks ago I have been obsessing about it and I just had to make it again. The carne asada is flank steak that is marinated in a tasty Mexican style mojo with orange juice, lime juice, garlic, jalapeno and cilantro and then grilled until a perfect medium rare, or well done if you prefer. I used the last batch of carne asada that I made in a carne asada salad but I had been dreaming of carne asada tacos ever since. I hardly need an excuse to grill some steak so the carne asada tacos quickly made it to my meal plan! I kept things nice and easy to let the grilled steak shine and used a homemade pico de gallo along with some dice avocado and crumbled cotija to complete the tacos. It is always wondeerful to see such simple ingredients come together to make something so fantastically good! What a great way to enjoy some steak and to get outside and to use the grill!

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Spring Quinoa Bibimbap with Asparagus, Fiddleheads, Fava Bean and Ramps

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This past weekend the farmers market was full of new fresh local produce including ramp (aka wild leeks), fiddleheads, favabeans and asparagus. I had left some slots open in my meal plan this week to pick up some of the new arrivals to make a dish or two but now that there was so much selection I just could not decide what to get! In the end I decided to get a bit of everything and I was already thinking about what to use them all in on my walk home. Bibimbap is a Korean 'mixed rice' dish where vegetables and meats are served over rice and then all mixed up before eating and it seemed like a great way to enjoy all of springs bounty! Although bibimbap is normally made with rice, I like to make it with quinoa both for the extra nutritional value and because of the great texture that quinoa has. This dish is really easy to make though if you are starting from scratch rather than using leftovers it can take a bit of time to cook all of the vegetables but it is well worth it. Most of the vegetables are steamed or blanched and then optionally sauteed in a bit of oil along with the ramps. This spring bibimbap is finished with a fried egg with a runny yolks and a spicy gochujang sauce.

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Buffalo Chicken Burgers

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With the warmer weather here I have been thinking about grilling more and burgers definitely come to mind! When I went over all of my burger recipes I noticed a glaring omission; where were the buffalo chicken burgers? I am a huge fan of all things buffalo chicken and it is always a treat to grill up some buffalo chicken burgers in the summer. I like to start my buffalo chicken burgers off by grinding some boneless and skinless chicken in the food processor to which I add some buffalo chicken flavours including carrots, celery, onions and blue cheese in addition to the buffalo hot sauce. In general I like to avoid fillers like egg and breadcrumbs in burgers which means that the patties are a little more delicate but as long as you flip them gently they still hold together quite well. Once the patties are assembled all that is left is to grill them until cooked and slightly charred before serving them up in a bun with your favourite condiments. For buffalo chicken burgers I like to keep the condiments simple and my faourite topping is a blue cheese slaw whether it be a cabbage slaw or as in this case a broccoli slaw. These tasty buffalo chicken burgers are all set to impress at your barbecues this summer!

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Avocado and Goat Cheese Alfredo Pasta

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Not too long ago a reader asked me if I had ever combined avocado and goat cheese in a pasta dish, which I had not, but since I am a huge fan of both ingredients I was immediately intrigued. I have used avocado and goat cheese in a lot of recipes together but mostly where other ingredients were the star of the show with the avocado and goat cheese there as backup and it was about time to let them shine together. I already had plans for dinner that night but I had both avocado and goat cheese on hand so I threw them into the salad that I was having with the meal and that only confirmed that the two ingredients are indeed truly magical together!

I had avocado and goat cheese pasta on my mind for the next few days as I ruminated various pasta recipes and in the end I decided to go with a simple alfredo style pasta. An alfredo pasta is a pasta with a sauce made from butter and parmesan to which I like to add cream and I figured that that would be a great base to melt the goat cheese into. On the avocado side of things I knew that I would have to add some lime juice to brighten things up and from there it seemed only natural to continue with the theme and add some cilantro and jalapeño pepper. (At this point I was thinking that this was almost like a guacamole and goat cheese pasta!) I did not want to cook the avocado too long so I pureed it in a food processor and mixed it into the goat cheese sauce and heated it just until it was warm before tossing it with the pasta. This avocado and goat cheese pasta is super easy to make and all things said and done this recipe takes less than 20 minutes to make so it is definitely doable on a busy weeknight.

I had some pretty high hopes for this goat cheese and avocado pasta and they were easily exceeded! The creamy avocado and tangy goat cheese is an amazing combination and it goes fabulously well in this pasta!

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25 Recipes for the Grill

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With the warmer weather here grilling season is open and it is time to get your grill on! Dust off your barbecue, fire it up and start grilling your steaks, chicken, burgers, vegetables and even your fruits! Late spring is always a great time of year when the weather gets warmer and you can can start doing more things outside including cooking. With the first long weekend of warm weather upon us I thought that I would take the opportunity to pull out some of my favourite recipes that can be cooked outside on the grill. Of course burgers are featured predominately but lets not forget about chicken and fish and even fruits and vegetables. Once you have your meat or vegetable grilled you can use them in many different dishes from sandwiches to salads to wraps to tacos etc. No matter what you are grilling, it is bound to be outside cooking under the sun!

Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Popper Burgers

Tequila Lime Grilled Chicken Club Sandwich with Guacamole and Roasted Jalapeno Mayo

Chicken Fajitas

Carne Asada (Grilled Marinated Steak)

Chipotle Lime Fish Tacos

Strawberry and Balsamic Grilled Chicken Salad

Grilled Chicken Club Sandwich with Avocado and Chipotle Caramelized Onions

Chicken Souvlaki Salad

Fajita Burgers

Grilled Pineapple Salsa

BBQ Chicken Salad with Creamy Avocado Dressing

Strawberry BBQ Chicken Club Sandwich with Bacon, Avocado and Goat Cheese

Buffalo Chicken Club Sandwich

Chicken Satay Salad in Spicy Peanut Dressing

Cilantro and Lime Fish Tacos

Burgers Smothered in a Caramelized Onion, Mushroom and Blue Cheese Sauce

Tequila Lime Grilled Chicken

Mojito Grilled Fish Tacos with Strawberry Salsa

Banh Mi Burgers with Vietnamese Caramel BBQ Sauce

Chicken Satay with Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce

Salsa Verde Turkey Burger

Grilled Chicken Club Sandwich with Pesto Mayo

Greek Lamb Burger

Black and Blue Steak Sandwich

Bulgogi Burgers

More Recipes for the Grill

Looking for more recipes for the grill? Check out my Get Your Grill On! Pinboard.

Strawberry BBQ Chicken Spinach and Quinoa Salad with Bacon, Avocado and Goat Cheese

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After making the strawberry BBQ chicken club sandwiches with bacon, avocado and goat cheese I still had plenty of the roasted strawberry BBQ sauce leftover and I knew just what I wanted to make with it, a strawberry BBQ quinoa salad. I have been wanting to try making a BBQ chicken quinoa salad with black beans and corn for a while now but a strawberry BBQ quinoa salad suddenly sounded like a much better idea! I used a lot of the same flavours as in the strawberry BBQ chicken sandwich in this quinoa salad including the avocado, bacon and goat cheese since they worked so amazingly well together. I filled the quinoa salad out with baby spinach along with some green onions and cilantro. If you have the cooked chicken on hand, this salad is as easy to make as cooking the quinoa and throwing everything together and despite that it is so fantastically good!

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Crispy Baked Asparagus Fries

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I have really been looking forward to spring and the fresh local asparagus and one of the first things that I wanted to make with it was some crispy baked asparagus fries! Ever since I discovered that you can coat vegetables in panko bread crumbs and bake them that they would become healthy 'fries' I have been doing it with pretty much every vegetable that I can get my hands on. Given that asparagus is already in perfect 'fry' shape it seemed only natural to turn them in fries and it couldn't be easier to do so! You pretty much just need to dredge the asparagus in flour, dip in egg, coat in panko breadcrumbs and bake until crispy. All said and told you can be enjoying these healthy baked asparagus fries in about 20 minutes so you can make them whenever you want. If you are a fan of asparagus, you will definitely enjoy these asparagus fries and they might just be that one new asparagus that you absolutely need to try this spring!

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