Veggie Portobello Grill and Avocado Coconut Ice Cream!

July 26, 2011 by Melissa

Nothing makes me happier than a grill-n-chill night at our casa. Maybe it’s because we really only grill out when my healthy hubby is home from the fire station. Or, maybe it’s because all of us…kiddos included…get outside to participate in making dinner together. It’s not Mom’s in the kitchen cooking…or, Dad’s in the kitchen doing his magic…it’s all four of us outside doing our part. Dad is definitely still in charge of the grill…he is after all the Grill Master!

But, we are all out there helping…kids are playing…and, of course, there is the required cold beer or two involved which is always refreshing on a hot summer day.

Last night we decided on one of our favorites…a veggie and portobello grill with a chimichurri sauce. We picked up some fresh, organic squash and zucchini from the farmers market…

Seriously…how perfectly pretty are these?! When grilling, you can either chop your squash and use a grill basket…or, you can do like we do…slice them lengthwise and just place them directly on the grill. We kept things simple by brushing them with a little olive oil and sprinkling them with sea salt and fresh ground pepper.

We also bought a bunch of fresh portobello mushrooms. Portobellos are like the steak of the mushroom family and I love them for that reason…they are so “meaty” and filling…not to mention TASTY! We marinated ours in one of our favorite grill marinade/sauces…a chimichurri sauce. I’ve posted our chimichurri recipe in a previous post if you’d like to check it out. Chimichurri is an essential part of Argentinean cuisine. It’s typically served with steak but it’s great on grilled fish, chicken, even veggies…basically anything you’d want to put on your grill! We place our portobellos with the gills up and then spoon the chimichurri right on top while they are grilling. We reserve any left over marinade for dipping sauce during our dinner.

Our kiddos love corn on the cob…so, we cooked some up to serve with all of our grilled goodness. In my book, it couldn’t get any better than this…

Until…THIS…homemade Avocado Coconut Ice Cream!

This creamy, healthy, DELICIOUS, non-dairy ice cream was so easy and quick to make. It only has 4 ingredients…how simple and wholesome can you get?! Mia and I put it together in about 5 minutes! All you need is a blender and an automatic ice cream maker. We have a Cuisinart ice cream machine that we’ve had for almost 10 years…it’s nothing fancy, but it works great. Once we placed our ice cream mixture in the machine it only took about 30 minutes for it to freeze and firm up. So, while we were outside grillin-n-chillin…our ice cream machine was inside doing it’s magic. The result…an amazingly YUMMY homemade desert that we all loved! The avocado makes it really creamy, it’s sweetened with just the right amount of agave nectar…it’s sweet but not too sweet…and the lime adds just the right amount of tang. It was the perfect end to a wonderful meal and another hot summer day!