A Quick Grilled Dinner

It never fails.  I can have all kinds of good intentions to leave work on time and then inevitably, something or someone comes up right before I have to leave.  Sometimes I'm even stopped on my way out the door.  This puts a bit of a crimp in my dinner planning and preparation time.  I, for one, am still of the mindset that my family sits down at the dinner table and eats supper together at least during the week, so I have a small window of time to get everything on the table before everyone is rushing off to their activities.

I've used lots of crockpot recipes and I have a few "quick dishes" cookbooks.  I also do weekly menu planning based on our daily evening schedules.  Now that the weather is warmer, I've started using my grill more often too.  It's great that I can text my oldest son as I'm walking to my car to have him start the grill (we have a charcoal Webber grill) so it's almost ready to use by the time I get home.

Tonight, we had grilled chicken and grill-roasted vegetables.  I marinated the chicken and the vegetables in olive oil, lime juice, cumin, chili powder and cilantro.  I didn't follow a recipe just added each to taste AND made sure I had enough to cover the chicken and the vegetables.  I let the chicken marinate while I cut up the vegetables.  I used yellow peppers, red onions and poblano peppers.  When cutting the peppers, make sure you protect your hands by wearing plastic gloves/bags.  (The juice from the peppers may burn your skin.)  You could also use jalapeños, red peppers, pineapple, peaches, yellow squash, zucchini, asparagus……the possibilities are endless!

After letting the chicken marinate for about 10-15 minutes, I placed it on the grill; not directly over the coals but around the edges.  While the chicken was cooking, I used the rest of the marinade on the vegetables.

Once the chicken looked close to done (no longer pink inside), I added the vegetables to the center of the grill.  Watch them carefully because they only need a few minutes to soften and blacken a bit.

Once done, I removed both the chicken and the vegetables from the grill.

To serve, I cut the chicken into strips and cut the cooked vegetables into thinner strips (I grilled them in larger pieces so they wouldn't fall through the grate).  I put tortillas, cheese, lettuce, taco sauce and sour cream on the table.  Everyone could make their own tortilla wrap OR like me, choose to just eat the chicken and vegetables without the wrap.  I dinner started and on the table within an hour - which pleased two very hungry teenage boys!

There was just enough grilled chicken and vegetables to put on my salad for lunch tomorrow and my daughter requested some chicken in her school lunch.  I would say this was a successful supper!!

"A grill is just a source of heat.  Just like a stove, it is very user friendly."  -Bobby Flay