Spiced Up Summer BBQin'

There's nothing like a good, freshly prepared Greek-inspired barbeque with your family on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Greek food is great for summer, since it's prepared with fresh ingredients that leave you feeling light, yet satisfied; perfect for you to go out to the beach in your bikini afterwards! My grandma spotted some fresh tilapia while we were at Sprouts yesterday, so we decided to grill 'er up. We paired it with a green onion tzatziki, and greek salad. This literally took around 30 minutes, prep and all. Opaaaa!

Tilapia with Green Onion Tzatziki

Tilapia

Fresh Tilapia filets

salt & pepper

lime juice

Green Onion Tzatziki

1 cup 2% greek yogurt (I used Fage)

1 tbsp chopped dill

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

2 tsp lime juice

2 tbsp green onion, finely sliced

1/3 cup grated cucumber

salt & pepper to taste

Combine greek yogurt, dill, garlic, lime juice, green onion in bowl. Squeeze juice out of grated cucumber, and add along with salt and pepper. Mix. Season your fish. Before grilling, put foil over the grill and spray with cooking spray. Cook 3-5 minutes on each side, or until edges are golden brown.

Greek Salad

The greek salad was compliments Ina Garten's recipe, sans olives. 

For dessert, my mom picked out a mouth-watering poached peach and blackberry treat from my Eating Well magazine. The only issue was that we didn't have the lavender and vanilla bean that it was meant to be flavored with, so I used cinnamon instead; which really didn't turn out to be much of an issue at all, judging by my grandpa's declaration that this was "the best dessert [he's] had in years!" The only downside is that it takes about an hour. But if you like to cook, then hey, no biggie!

Poached Peaches and Blackberries

This recipe was adapted from Eating Well magazine, except instead of lavender and vanilla, I used 1 tsp ground cinnamon.

If you're looking to lose some weight, dine on Greek food. I once read an article about Jillian Michaels, who revealed that before she became the fit woman she is today, she herself was overweight. Being Greek, she switched to a diet consisting of only such foods, and the weight came right off.

[Did you know...? There are only about 105 calories in a cup of Greek salad. Eat up!]