Healthy at Home BBQ

Summer brings on BBQ cravings, and while I love to indulge at a place like Redbones, especially post-marathon, eating huge piles of somewhat unhealthy food doesn’t always feel great, especially in the dog days of summer.

One key element to a good BBQ is some form of potato. For my healthy at home version, I thinly sliced purple potatoes into “chips”. The pigments in purple potatoes are high in antioxidants, so these are definitely a bonus.

I rolled them in some EVOO, tossed them in sea salt, and roasted them at 400 degrees until they got crispy around the edges. I love good fries, and I find that roasted potatoes can often be even better if done correctly.

Our main course was barbequed shrimp over a lighter version of coleslaw. For the slaw, I simply heated some white vinegar until boiling, then poured it over a bed of cabbage and spinach. I let it cool and added some ground black pepper. It had a kick and a crunch without a heavy mayonnaise dressing. If I had shredded carrots and red peppers, I would have added those for some color, but I was trying to use up the fridge 🙂

The shrimp were also simple, thawed and cleaned, then half-cooked in a dry pan. At the halfway point I mixed in a couple of spoons of Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce and finished them off, making sure they were cooked through but also that the BBQ sauce didn’t burn.

I topped the salad/slaw with shrimp and served the roasted potatoes on the side with some ketchup and a little more BBQ sauce. I also had a summer favorite, an iced tea lemonade.

Forgive the photo; I dove right in to dinner and completely forgot to take a photo until I was almost done. These were my last few bites. . .

I am always happy when I can re-make a meal to make it a little bit healthier while still keeping loads of flavor and making it fun. Eating healthy does not have to be boring, and I like to constantly remind myself (and my husband!) of that.

Do you have any favorite traditionally fattening dishes that you have healthified?