We spent the first two years of our marriage without a grill. Donny is a chef, LOVES cooking barbeque, and yet we never had a real grill.
We had one Pampered Chef grill pan for a while and then a year-and-a-half in to our marriage we received the double grill pan for Christmas. Still no real grill.
We would have people over for dinner and would prepare chicken or steak. They couldn’t believe that it was grilled inside. A lot of that is attributed to Donny being a bad-ass when it comes to cooking, but the grill pan was there for us when we needed it. It definitely did it’s job.
Then one day Donny splurged and got a grill.
Something changed.
My kitchen was clean! No more splattered oil everywhere from the steaks sizzling and no more scrubbing those pans with the grooves!
Now Donny grills outside all the time. If he is home and not traveling for work, then I will have him grill all my veggies and meat for the week.
I’ll prep all the veggies and meats inside, but then all the magic happens outside. He will bring in bowl after bowl of grilled vegetables and I have to stop myself from eating it all before I pack my meals!
We always grill different proteins including chicken, pork tenderloin, steak, fish, etc.
If you follow my Day in the Life: Mel’s Meal posts then you are probably familiar with the veggies I eat. Depending on the week I have Donny grill all kinds of vegetables including zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, asparagus, broccoli, green beans, carrots, peppers, etc. He even does it for me in the winter! I’m tellin’ ya, the grill was a great investment for us.
Grilled vegetables are super easy AND incredibly healthy. Sometimes I’ll drizzle extra virgin olive oil on them, sometimes I won’t. I highly recommend grilling as much as you can for meal prep, then eating it throughout the week. I pack my containers for the week, but I try to leave extra veggies and proteins in the fridge for Donny to take for lunch and for us to use for breakfast or last minute dinners. If you get home after work tired then you can simply throw a bunch of protein and veggies in a bowl and call it dinner!
This recipe for Brown Rice with Grilled Vegetables can be made with whatever vegetables you prefer! I used eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, and carrots. I really like the different textures of the vegetables in the salad.
I used sweet brown rice that I purchased in the bulk section of whole foods. I bought it a while ago and it sat in my pantry for a long time. I finally decided to use it and I am so glad I did! It is super sticky and delicious. I would definitely buy it again. If you don’t have sweet brown rice, then regular brown or even instant brown rice would work.
- 1 cup sweet brown rice*, measured cooked
- 1 cup baby carrots
- 1 cup zucchini, diced
- 1 cup yellow squash, diced
- 1 cup Japanese eggplant, diced
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- Grill all the vegetables. Combine all ingredients in a medium mixing and stir until evenly distributed. Serve warm or cold.
- *Regular brown rice may be used in place of the sweet brown rice (medium-grain, long-grain, instant, etc).
