Healthy Summer Grilling Tips from Traverse Bay Farms

Over the next few posts, I’ll share some insight on summer grilling tips to use to enjoy healthy meals right from the grill. Feel free to send in your ideas for healthy grilling tips: When following recipes from different recipe books, remember that cooking times stated in the recipe do vary from grill to grill. When you purchase a new grill, most now come with cookbooks with sample recipes and charts that indicate how much time is needed to cook different kinds of food on that particular grill. This is a great recipe book to use and a quick reference.

1. It is usually a good idea to precook tough meat like thick cuts of meat or ribs before trying to grill them outdoors.
2. Do not pull out frozen meat directly from the freezer and throw it onto the grill without thawing it. It will taste better if you let it thaw for some time before you grill it.
3. Trim any excess fat from the meat before you start grilling. This helps in reducing flare-ups caused by juices dripping from the meat but more importantly it also reduces your fat intake.
4. If you are planning on using basting or barbecue sauces, make sure you apply them when the meat is nearly done and only needs a few more minutes of grilling. This will ensure that very little of the sauce will drip down into the flames, which will otherwise cause smoke and flare-ups.

Here are some idea when using our award winning red raspberry and apple bbq sauce. The red raspberry BBQ is very light and it excellent on chicken, pork and grilled vegetables, while the apple BBQ is more suitable for pork, chicken and make an great dip for French fries. Check out our Fruit BBQ selections. Dried cherries make and excellent addition to any steak on the grill. Toss on a small handful of dried cherries to add a little cherry flair. Also consider basting with cherry juice to and another depth of cherry flavor to chicken and fish.