So instead of being responsible and doing errands this past Saturday, I grilled outside on a beautiful Spring day. This is what I did…
BTW, I believe a grill should be a staple for all poor people. You can put just about anything on the grill with no added fat or sauces and it tastes amazing.
So, before you start you preparing your food, start your charcoal grill (if you have a gas grill, skip this, obviously). I use a chimney thingy. These are cheap, and they’re a must-have for charcoal grilling.
If you need help starting this, I won’t waste space here. Watch this guy…
Mmmm… fire.
This is what my meat marinade looked like. It had extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, and tons of spices like basil, oregano, rosemary, sage, bay leaves, crushed red pepper, and lots of onion powder and garlic powder. Use your intuition and your own preferences here. Ask me if you’ve got questions.
Okay, let’s get cuttin’ the veggies. These are two tiny mini onions. Peel ’em.
Grilled asparagus is literally one of the best things… ever. My favorite way of grilling these is simply letting them rest in salt, pepper and olive oil before cooking.
Then some mushrooms.
So the deer steaks were marinating in here for a few days. Feel free to skip the meat or use a different meat. Honestly, I didn’t really need this meat but I had already defrosted it! Right before grilling, I wanted a tiny bit of the flavor on my veggies. So I moved the steaks over to give the veggies room.
Pop ’em in there for just a minute.
By this time, your chimney charcoals should be looking awesome.
When the coals turn gray, pour em’ in the grill bottom. Side note: Don’t pour the coals in the grill until they’re flippin’ hot. I basically had to re-do the coals because I poured them prematurely.
Anyway, here’s the magic. Once the hot coals have heated the grill rack thoroughly, you’re good to go (you should hear a sizzle before you put the meat on it).
Ohhhh mama….
Come on. Seriously. Look at that thing. Farmer’s market tomato, baby!
No color correction. It was really that red. YUM.
Everything on here didn’t need very long to cook. Use your intuition about temperature and placement on the grill. I cut bok choy right down the middle. This doesn’t need long at all.
For example, I wanted my onions to be a little soft as well as a little brown on the outside. So I put the onions on before anything else on the sides so they would start cooking through before they got brown.
This isn’t the fanciest plate, but plates don’t need to be fancy when you’re eating with your hands anyway (and alone… and outside!)
Oh, and I wanted to show you a perfect bite… steak, asparagus, onion. Yum.
My brother shot that deer, so I didn’t pay for it. However, most people do pay. So I’m going to say it was about $1.00 per serving since I can get plenty of nice, real meat servings for $1.00 (message me if you don’t believe me).
Venison Steaks (1 serving) – ~$1.00
2 Tiny Onions ($1.00 per bag/10 onions per bag) – $.20
Asparagus ($2.75 for big bunch/5 servings per bunch) – $.55
Mushrooms ($2.00 per bag/10 servings) – ~$.20
Bok Choy ($1.00 per bag/6 servings) – ~$.16
Tomato ($1.10 for tomato/4 servings) – ~$.28
Total for one big, huge serving: $2.39
Thank you local meat and farmer’s markets!
Hey Jenn! Thanks for commenting. Let's see… that's a great question. I'm not a grill master but I'm going to tell you a few things I do to cut down on costs. FIrst, I use paper trash and twigs to help get the charcoal going in the chimney (recycling!).
I use natural hardwood lump charcoal, which isn't as expensive as you'd think. I think my bag at Wal-Mart was about $8 and that lasted me about 4 "grillings". And unfortunately you've got to have a certain amount of charcoal for it to work, right? So I try to think ahead- I try to grill enough meat for the next 4? days, plus veggies and anything else I want too.
You could also try a small gas grill- I won't judge you 🙂 It's probably a little cheaper.
I wish I could give you more pointers. The reason I grill is more for the ambiance than anything- I COULD bake/boil/fry the chicken but grilling is more of an experience for me… well, and the flavor is SO much better, but whatever 🙂
Sorry I couldn't be of more help, but if I come across some awesome pointers I'll pass 'em along!
I love your site. Your grilled recipes look really yummy, but charcoal is quite expensive too me. Each grill usage cost about $2-$3 in coal. I love to grill and would like to more often. Any tips on lower the cost of grillin.
Okay so, first let me say that this portion I'm talking about does depend on your weight/height/male/female, etc. but normal sized people should only eat about 3 ounces of meat. So with that measurement, there are almost 5 1/2 servings per pound.
I mean, the size of a chicken breast from the grocery store is substantially more than we need to eat.
I don't buy ridiculously priced meat. I don't buy top of the line, organic stuff either. I buy the cheapest I can find. That's my rule of thumb for almost all of this food, unfortunately. And that's why my meals are cheap!
But I'm not going to weird places here- Food Lion, Aldi, sometimes even Harris Teeter, rarely Wal-Mart and sometimes a local Hispanic market (the best).
Chicken: Even if I used a whole entire breast for my serving, I usually pay between $.65 and $1.00 for a serving.
Ground Turkey: I got 4 oz. servings for about $.70-$.89.
Pork Chop: You can get thick ones for about $.75 each and I bought super thin chops for $.36 each!
Salmon: Finding cheap Salmon is easy, but it's not the top of the line! The cheap stuff is usually frozen, but hey, it's still fish!
That's just a sample. Look for sales, coupon if you have to, buy a bunch when you find it on sale and freeze it, and don't go to the top of the line stores.
Hope that helps!
I'd love to hear more about this meat you're getting everywhere for $1 a serving!
All right, all right. How do you do it? Are they smaller meat portions? Or do you have an in on cheap grass-fed meats? 😀