This week, we’re taking part in a weekly cooking challenge that runs on Facebook. I think it would be great to get a few of you involved in it as well!  It’s called “The Weekly Cooking Challenge” (I have NO idea where they got that name!!) and I love seeing the creative things people come up with every week. Sometimes it’s difficult for us to get involved since we want to grill everything for our recipes and the weather doesn’t always play fair. But this week, we got to participate and we’re quite happy with the results!

This week’s ingredient is: Bananas!

We made Banana Delights. They are essentially banana splits made on the grill and they are delicious! We have some recipes below and of course … pictures & videos! We hope you enjoy.

Our first recipe is Chocolately Peanut Butter Banana Delights. Click here for a printable recipe.
You will need: Bananas, Peanut Butter Chips, Mini Marshmallows, and Chocolate Syrup. We also added chocolate chips to ours because we like chocolate!

Mini Marshmallows and Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chips

How we did it:

Stuffing the banana with marshmallows, chocolate chips,
and peanut butter chips

We also made a Banana Delight with Heath in it … SO good! You can click here for a printable version of that recipe.

Bananas on the grill ... don't
they look goofy? But they taste
great!

Click on a picture to see it full
size.

What do you think? Have you ever heard of bananas on the grill before?

Well, it’s the last day of Summer Fest and even though we’re not *officially* partaking, we still wanted to get in on the fun! The feature ingredient this time around is broccoli. We grilled some up just by itself before we did anything else. Did you know that grilled broccoli is delicious? It is. I’m starting to believe that you can take just about anything and put it on the grill, but we’ll continue to test that theory!

Here’s the video of how we did it!

Click on the pictures to see them full-size:

After we’d grilled the Broccoli, even though it was delicious by itself, we thought it would be fun to add it to the chicken we were making for the day. We stuffed chicken breasts with the broccoli, grilled them, then added cheese to the top. They were definitely delicious! To see us putting it all together, just check out our video below!

If you’re looking for the recipe, just click the link & you’ll be able to print it off!
Cheesy Broccoli Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Click on a picture below to see it full-size:

Before:

During:

After:

Today we are attempting to cook store bought biscuits directly on a gas grill. They will be placed directly on the grates and no pan or griddle will be used. Will it work or will it fail? Watch the video below to see.

Today we took on the Bacon Explosion. This was created by the people over at BBQ Addicts. This took off on the internet several years ago when they created it and I have always wanted to try it. Finally the day has come and I get to make this and try it out. I headed over to the BBQ Addicts blog and got the recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs thick cut bacon
• 2 lbs italian sausage
• BBQ Sauce
• BBQ Rub

Directions

1. Take 10 slices of bacon and weave them to make a 5×5 grid.
2. Sprinkle some BBQ Rub on the weaved bacon.
3. Spread the sausage on top of the bacon weave.
4. Cook and crumble the rest of the bacon you have on top of the sausage.
5. Drizzle BBQ sauce on top of the bacon.
6. Roll the sausage back on direction. Leave the bacon weave in place.
7. Roll the bacon weave back the opposite direction you rolled the sausage in.
8. Now you should have your Bacon Explosion.
9. Put BBQ rub on the outside of it on the bacon.
10. Put it on a smoker and cook at 225-230 degrees.
11. Once the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees you can take it off.
12. Add BBQ Sauce to the outside and slice.

This was a fun recipe to make. Most people cringe when you tell them what your making and don’t think they would like it. Most people were surprised with the taste. It was really good, but definitely had a lot more sausage taste than I expected.

If you are feeling really adventurous take a Krispy Kreme donut, slice it in half and use it as a bun for the bacon explosion. We tried it here and surprisingly it was really good.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ths40An-W8I

Print the recipe here: Bacon Explosion Recipe.

Today we are cooking an easy healthy meal all done on the grill. On the menu is Italian marinated chicken, pasta, bell peppers (green, yellow, red, orange), mushrooms & corn on the cob.

Day Before Cooking

First you will want to take your chicken breasts and put them in a Ziploc bag and cover them with Italian dressing. If you can do this 24 hours before cooking them on the grill. If you do you will get some great tasting and very tender chicken breasts.

Day Of Cooking

Before you start cooking everything on the grill you will need to do some prep.

Bell Peppers, Mushrooms & Corn
Cut the peppers in half and remove the core and seeds from inside each of the halves. You will want to shuck the corn and the mushrooms will not need any cutting.

Once all the veggies are cut you will want to brush them with some oil and then flavor them with salt and pepper. Once this is done you can set them off to the side.

Cooking

1. Start preheating the grill and put water into a pot and start heating it up on your side burner (if you don’t have one then you can cook it like normal inside on the stove).
2. Once the grill is preheated put the chicken on.
3. When the chicken is roughly 10 minutes close to being done put your pasta in the water (should be boiling by now) and put the veggies on the grill.
4. Depending on your grill temperature the veggies will only take 5-10 minutes. Watch them and take them off if they finish before the pasta and chicken is done.
5. Once everything is done take it all off the grill.
6. Slice the bell peppers into smaller strips.
7. Slice the chicken into smaller strips.
8. Slice the Mushrooms into smaller strips.
9. Place the bell peppers, mushrooms and chicken over your pasta and your corn to the side.
10. Enjoy

Today we will be cooking up some prime rib, bacon wrapped asparagus and grilled pineapple. This is the first food that we have cooked that has used a rotisserie. The prime rib cooks up great on a rotisserie. You don’t have to use a rotisserie and if you don’t you will need to manually flip it and cook it at a lower temperature since it will be on one side a lot longer.

Prime Rib

Prime Rib is actually a pretty simple piece of meat to cook. It does not need a marinade or any complicated spices to bring out flavor. When looking for a prime rib to cook make sure it still has the bones attached. This will give the meat a lot more flavor if the bones are not attached when cooking. Before putting the prime rib on the grill add some salt and pepper as seasoning. This is all you need.

Cooking time will depend on how big of a piece of meat you got and how “done” you want your meat. Cooking time is roughly 20 minutes per pound at 350 degrees. You will want to check the internal temperature as it gets close to being done. You want to shoot for about a 140 degree internal temperature. This will give you a medium-rare/medium piece of meat. You don’t want it to be brown inside you want that nice pink middle.

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus has great flavor and a great way to get people to try asparagus if they have never tried it before and it is easy to cook. This is what got me to realize I actually like asparagus. Who knew?

Take your asparagus spear and season if you would like with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Wrap the asparagus in a piece of bacon. Do this for as many as you want to cook. Once done place them on the grill and let cook for roughly 10-12 minutes on medium low heat or until the bacon has reached your desired “doneness”.

Grilled Pineapple

Grilled Pineapple is another simple thing to cook on the grill that comes out looking good and tastes even better. For this you will want a fresh pineapple. Cut the outside off, core it and cut it into roughly 1 inch rings. Place these on a medium-high heat grill. Cook them on each side for 3-5 minutes or until heated through and grill marks appear. As we cooked ours we added honey on some and teriyaki sauce on others as they were cooking. You can experiment with many different flavors here.

For this weeks recipe Friday I will be sharing with you a steak marinade I discovered several years ago. Ever since I tried it I use it on every steak I cook. If you use the salt trick on cheap steak that I posted earlier this week and then marinate them in this marinade overnight you may just never go back to buying an expensive steak again.

Ingredients

• 1/3 C Soy Sauce
• 1/2 C Olive Oil
• 1/3 C Lemon Juice
• 1/4 C Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 1/2 T Garlic Powder
• 3 T Dried Basil
• 1 1/2 T Dried Parsley Flakes
• 1 tsp Pepper
• 1/4 tsp Hot Sauce
• 1 tsp minced garlic

Directions

1. Mix all the above ingredients in a bowl.
2. Pour the mix over your meat and let sit for desired time.

This is a very simple and quick marinade, but has given me some of the best flavor I have ever had from a steak. I have marinated steaks in these from only an hour up to a full 24 hours. The best flavor always came from letting it sit overnight.

Try this marinade out and let me know what you think in the comments below.

Grilling out this weekend? Want a simple side that will leave your guests speechless and make you feel like Chef Gordon Ramsey? Yes you say? Read on…

This grilled onion blossom requires practically no work and turns an onion into a side dish and not an afterthought. I love onions with my steak and I am always looking for creative ways to prepare the onion and that is how I stumbled across this recipe. Now lets get to how you actually make this.

Ingredients

• 1 large sweet onion
• 1 1/2 T butter
• garlic salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste
• olive oil

Directions

• Preheat your grill to high heat
• Peel the onion and slice it into 6-8 wedges, but leave the base of the onion still intact.
• Pull apart the wedges slightly
• Coat the inside of the onion with the butter, garlic salt and pepper
• Drizzle some olive oil over the onion
• Wrap the onion with aluminum foil
• Place on the grill and cook for 30-45 minutes.

That’s it. Very simple. This is a very inexpensive side to have with your meal when grilling out. It is also a great starting point to create your own flavor. Try some cajun seasoning, or real garlic instead of garlic salt, or seasoned salt instead of the garlic salt. There are a lot of possibilities with this. One of my favorite additions is Worcestershire sauce. Try it out, mix it up and let me know in the comments below how it was.

We have made it to another Friday and it is time for the weekend! Hopefully you are in an area that will give you weather to grill, unlike here in Ohio where it has been unseasonably cool with snow. Even if it is cold where you are might as well still grill up these burgers because they are that good.

The recipe I am sharing with you today is called, Bay Area Burgers. I found this on the web and it had some great reviews along with some negative. The positives out weighed the negatives and I was ready to try something new in the burger arena, so I decided to try them (with some modifications). I made these this past weekend when I was down visiting my family. I had to make regular burgers as well since I have never tried this recipe before and well it was a good possibility it would come out tasting terrible. Below is the recipe and after the recipe I will give you my final verdict on these gourmet burgers.

Ingredients

• 1lb ground beef
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (I used the bottled kind, not fresh)
• 2 T extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 T worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. dried basil leaves
• fresh mozzarella
• red onion
• lettuce
• tomato
• rosemary foccacia bread

Directions

Put the ground beef in a bowl and add the garlic, olive oil, salt, black pepper, basil, and worcestershire sauce. Now it’s time to get your hands dirty and get in there and mix it all up together. Once it is mixed well divide it out into 4 balls and make your patties.

Preheat the grill. Once the grill is preheated take the burgers and put them on the grill. Make sure you make an indentation in the middle of the burger with your thumb before putting them on. Your burger will thank you. Now cook until your desired doneness has been reached.

You could put these on a regular hamburger bun, but does a gourmet burger really deserve to be sitting on a common hamburger bun? I don’t think so. Take your fresh loaf of rosemary foccacia bread and slice it in half and then cut it into sections to create your own bun. Get out the fresh mozzarella and cut off slices for your burger. When it is all said and done you will have one the best dressed burgers you will ever see.

The Verdict

These burgers were really good with amazing flavor. With the bread you probably are not going to want to eat it like a traditional burger. A fork will probably be needed, unless you have a big mouth. Like I said at the start I did not make all the burgers this way because I was not sure how they would turn out. Well it turns out I should have made them all that way. People that I did not expect to eat them, ate them and people I thought would eat them didn’t get to eat them because of that.

If you are looking to dress up a burger every now and then you will definitely want to try out this recipe. Great recipe. I already have it back on my list to cook again once we can break this cold, snowy weather here.

Leave a comment below and give your review of these burgers after you try them out.