Kabobs and vino

So we've been known to experiment in the kitchen a little. But to keep weekday meals simple, we buy ground beef or turkey and chicken thighs when they're on sale (Yes, I know the breast is leaner and healthier. I do. But Boy and I both detest chicken breasts and I'll sacrifice the calories for edibility) and freeze them. It keeps us from constantly having to run to the grocery store for something to cook for dinner.

Thankfully, our penchant for keeping weekday meals easy helped us get our cooking experiment off the ground this weekend.

After watching a Bizarre Foods where Andrew ate kabobs (probably some exotic meat or organ), Boy wanted to make some for dinner. We had already marinaded some chicken thighs (we de-bone them and take the skin off) so it was the perfect scenario.

[Rabbit hole: Boy's marinade is the best. It's actually his dad's, but it's so simple and delicious. We throw the protein in a zipper bag, cover it with low sodium soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic. Fresh garlic is a lot better, but Boy had used it all in the veggie marinade, so garlic salt worked just as well.]

We cubed some zucchini, sliced some onion, and skewered whole baby portabellas--next time we're springing for the big container. We combined it all in a bag and covered it with olive oil, fresh garlic, salt, and pepper. I should probably point out that this is where I got in trouble. I kept plucking zucchini pieces off of the plate and that got me yelled at :)

After we soaked the skewers for a couple of hours (100 bamboo skewers were on sale at Kroger for $1.50), we assembled the kabobs, keeping vegetables and protein separate.

Raw chicken grosses me out, but here is the "before" shot with kabobs assembled.

We have a gas grill my parents gave us so we fired it up and Boy went to work on the cookin. I'm not a huge fan of warm tomatoes, but he wanted some so we put a few of the yummy cherry tomatoes in a foil packet with some olive oil and veggies that broke during the skewering process and threw it on the grill.

I love tomatoes. Probably my favorite food. But not so much the warm ones. These were good though.

After laboring over the hot grill all afternoon (or for like 30 minutes, whatever), Boy brought everything inside. Keeping the veggies and protein separate was a great idea, because raw vegetables are one of my biggest pet peeves about kabobs. Vegetables and meats cook at different rates, so keeping everything separate helped us keep our kabobs perfectly cooked.

I think Boy did a pretty good job.

Grilled onions, zucchini, mushrooms, and chicken: On a stick!

This was really one of my favorite "random" meals that we've cooked. That marinade for the chicken (we use it for steaks, too) is just so good and grilled vegetables are one of my favorite foods. It was a nice, light change from the hamburgers we had the night before.

Oh! At the suggestion of a friend and co-worker, I tried a new brand of wine. Lucky Duck is inexpensive but really really good. I opened a bottle of the Shiraz while we were cooking and it was the perfect complement to the hectic kitchen.

I love ducks :)

We also bought the Sauvignon Blanc, so look out world.

I love summer for a ton of reasons but grilling is up there near the top. Can't wait to experiment a little more and see what we an come up with!