grilled vegetables

I've been extremely lazy and completely unmotivated the last few months, which is part of why my blog posts are getting further apart. Hopefully my issues will be resolved in the next couple months, though.  In the meantime, a short post about my first-ever experience making grilled vegetables.

Recently I had some store-bought grilled veggies and they were delicious. The best part was I didn't have to make them myself--a definite plus these days. I had them as a side dish with some fish for lunch at work. Unfortunately, the store where I got the veggies is 20 minutes away and not cheap--Whole Paycheck...I mean Foods. There's no way it makes sense to spend that much on grilled veggies when I can easily make them myself. Did I actually feel like it? No. But did I do it anyway? Yes.

I made a marinade using some garlic balsamic vinegar I had in the cabinet. My husband got it for me a while back and I just haven't made an effort to use it. He got it from Beekman 1802 Mercantile and it's called Roasted Garlic Drizzle.  (If anyone watches the Amazing Race, the owners won the 2012 season. We visited their farm in 2014 and I got to hold the baby goats. 😊)  I also used olive oil, lemon juice and some salt and pepper.  For vegetables I used vidalia onions, cremini mushrooms, red peppers, zucchini, yellow squash and roma tomatoes. I chopped all the vegetables into either strips or chunks. The onions were cut into quarters from top to bottom, leaving the root end intact so they didn't fall apart when grilled. I then put them all in a two-gallon plastic bag to marinate for the day.  Once that was done, I grilled them until charred and soft. I left the red peppers a bit crunchy for texture. I then cut the bigger vegetables into smaller pieces. And that's it!

I have to say, they tasted delicious. I really enjoyed the flavor of the vinegar.  The veggies were a little crunchy, a bit sweet, and had a nice charred flavor from the grill. And I'm happy to report that not one vegetable fell through the grates!

Marinade for Grilled Vegetables
(You could use this for chicken, too.)

1/4 cup olive oil
3 TB garlic balsamic vinegar (use whatever balsamic you like)
Juice of one lemon
1/2 tsp salt (add more if you like)
1/2 tsp pepper

Mix well and pour into a dish or plastic bag along with the vegetables.