Community User Tips: New Takes on Favorite Summertime Recipes
By Leslie Fink, MS, RD | 6/5/2006

If you serve the same salads and burgers at every BBQ, listen up: We've combed our Community User Boards for sensational spins on classic side dishes, grill favorites, and simple summer sweets. Here's what users like you say really works.


Side Dishes
SHARI9298 is a big fan of spiced-up slaw. Toss in some chopped canned chipotle peppers in adobo for a little heat.

CAVAL235 brings a uniquely refreshing Pineapple Slaw to the table. It's a combo of strained fat-free vanilla or pineapple yogurt, reduced-fat mayo, slaw mix, pineapple tidbits and a dash of lemon juice.

Oil and vinegar potato salad is high on NGGUIL4D's list. "I love doing potato salad this way. If you are taking it to a picnic there is less worry about spoilage… Don't forget to add salt and pepper – if you do it while the potatoes are still warm, they soak up the seasonings better."

Swapping lightly steamed cauliflower chunks for potatoes is HRII7EAI's secret to skinny potato salad.

STAMPCRAZYGIRL offers a mouth-watering alternative to mayo-based potato salad: Combine bite-size potato chunks (with skin on) and some light margarine with parsley, chives, onions and turkey bacon in a foil packet. Grill until the potatoes are tender.

Add color and flavor to ordinary macaroni salad with BZ1027's recipe idea: Try whole wheat pasta, celery, tomato, yellow or orange pepper, cucumber, mushroom and red onion, parsley, garlic powder, black pepper, salt, a little splash of extra-virgin olive oil and fat-free mayonnaise.

And GOGREENSPARTANS gives feta cheese big thumbs up as an addition to pasta salad.

Main Dishes
Kabobs get a lot of summertime play. KATIEINNY marinates cubed pork in a ginger and soy dressing and grills it on skewers with mushrooms, tomatoes, red peppers and pineapple.

"I love turkey burgers," writes THE GOPHER. "I've done everything from simple black pepper and salt to more Cajun-style turkey burgers with chili powder and the like."

JCALSON adds finely chopped mushrooms to turkey burgers since "the mushrooms release their moisture while cooking, making the very lean burgers very moist and tasty."

And PUDDYTAT05 flavors her turkey patties with a few tablespoons of steak sauce and some onion soup mix.

CMSXLG suggests combining lean ground turkey and ground beef for burgers, then adding a flavorful cheese, such as reduced-fat feta or blue cheese, to the mix.

Extra lean ground beef mixed with chopped onions, grill seasoning mix and Worcestershire sauce is the secret to ELLIOTT03's flavorful patties.

BKMEAD adds soaked hickory wood chips to her gas grill to give a smoky flavor to grilled meats.

If you're tired of burger patties, POPACHINA suggests grilling meatballs – they turn out crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle.

And for something completely different from burgers, try CAGOTHICGIRL's meal of grilled polenta and grilled pineapple with seared tuna steak.

Desserts
JJ92980 indulges in grilled pineapple and warm caramel sauce over vanilla ice cream.

When fresh summer strawberries hit the market, CA_VOL creates mock strawberry shortcake: Combine fresh strawberries with sugar-free strawberry glaze and spoon it into small angel food cake cups. Add Splenda, fat-free whipped topping and/or light vanilla ice cream if desired.

There's lots of talk of a mock cobbler on the boards and HEATGRAHAM gives us the lowdown: Place any kind of frozen fruit in a 9- X 13-inch pan, sift a box of cake mix over top and pour 20 ounces of diet soda over the cake mix (do not stir). Bake at 350ºF until bubbly and golden on top, about 1 hour.

And for a mock shortcake, TAJMAHAL8 found another user's suggestion surprisingly tasty: Combine 1 cup of plain fat-free yogurt with a little Splenda, 1 cup of frozen cherries and 1/3 cup of oatmeal and let it set overnight in the fridge.