I don’t pretend to be a chef, but I am trying to provide you with a few more yummy gluten and dairy free recipes on Bewildered Bug recently! Usually, they are recipes I’ve been making for a while, but when I was invited to a demonstration of the new George Foreman Fat Reducing Health Grills a few weeks ago, I made up my mind to try something new.
Now, I do not usually experiment in the kitchen without company around (specifically company of my Mommy at Christmas time), so this was a big step for me – not only did I try quite a few recipes, but I tried recipes that you would not usually try on a grill. None of these are quite at the point where I would share them yet, so I’m not giving you specific recipes, but I will tell you about what I did and why, and then maybe you can work on them as well on your own time!
The demonstration of the George Foreman Fat Reducing Grills was in the heart of Manchester and I found it very, very inspiring. Not only did I meet some amazing British online personalities, but the views (both inside the apartment and out) were absolutely gorgeous, the demonstration team were extremely friendly and the food was amazingly inventive! All in all, I had a spectacular time and really appreciate that I was invited to this amazing ladies’ afternoon out.
View of Manchester from the apartment where the demo was (sorry for t he quality, I had to sew together four photos)
Who doesn’t want George to cook you dinner right?! What I loved was that this was not just plain burgers and steaks that George can cook, but he can also do different things like Spring Rolls & fruit turnovers (using filo pastry!), Pita pockets (including gluten free ones!), Grilled Halloumi, Grilled Fish (Salmon and Mackerel), Grilled Asparagus, Grilled Roasted Vegetables and even a Grilled Duck breast – and yes, they gave us the recipes that they used, including any and all dips or sauces included!
Our chef and hostess for the day
The Articulated Hinge allows for weirdly sized & shaped food to cook properly
Think you can toast a croissant in the grill without squishing it?!
Yes! With built-in raclette grilling almost everything is possible!
We even tried to see if we could do a fried egg on the grill….but…um..let’s just say that we should have a flat pan/grill for a fried egg shall we?! *ahem*
Trying to fry an egg on the grill – not that successful
All of the recipes that were made were easy and fast – perfect for the life of a busy lady whether you are a stay at home mother or a busy working lady or a mixture of both. The meals all took less than 10 minutes to prepare and a max of 15 minutes to cook….except maybe the duck – that may have taken a bit longer. After getting our turn on the George Forman Fat Reducing Grills, we all went home with full tummies (trust me FULL tummies) and recipes flying around our minds with the intention of creating some spectacular recipes of our own that we could cook on our new George Foreman grills.
First attempt at grilling with the George Foreman Reduced Fat Grill
On the way home, I called the Luv Luv and told him to pass into the butcher’s and pick up some turkey mince for me…and oh, maybe a lamb leg since we could make a roast later that week. That’s when I realized that I had asked them to mail the George to me, so I would not be able to use it that night. I grudgingly put it in the freezer for later…and a few days later, I took out one of the packages to defrost…thinking it was the mince.
Alas, it was the lamb leg…but I was determined to use the new George! So I took out my handy dandy knife and carved lamb steaks…only to realize that the butcher had left a nice bit of fat on it for a roast … um…that’s okay, George would take care of that!
I got two trays full of this from the lamb (it was originally meant to be a roast)
George cooking away – notice the timer near the handle and the little light at the top that tells you when it’s reached optimal grilling temperature
Lamb steaks being grilled! Look at the fat that came off
Yep – I had to make the salad or the Luv Luv would have none!
And it did! It took care of two full fat trays of it!!! Eventually we ended up with a gorgeous lamb steak dinner that looked, smelled and tasted divine with hardly any fat at all! Thanks George!
The only complaint I had was that the cord for the George Foreman is very short – as you can see in the photos above, I had to balance the George on the edge of my countertop and reach over my microwave…but my kitchen is not the most organized at the moment….and I did eventually find another spot for it after moving some stuff around.
Second attempt at grilling with the George Foreman Reduced Fat Grill
Of course, when you have a man in the house, he has to take charge of the grilling, so one day, Luv Luv came home with these pre-made shish kebabs from Sainsbury’s and said that HE was making dinner. What are you making with the shish kebabs Luv Luv? I asked…um…making with? he goes. *sigh* So I forced him to at least open a bag of salad and put some lemon on it for me.
Sainsbury’s pre-packaged Sweet Chilli Beef Shish Kabobs
He truly enjoyed using the George Foreman Fat Reducing Health Grill – At first he thought it would not hold all the skewers, but after a bit of readjusting – it fit them perfectly! We closed it down and waited….and he stared at it as he does when something is cooking (if you are on my personal facebook page you’ll know he decides to stare at my cakes when they’re baking? Very much like in the photo below, except that he was leaning on the oven door!!!). Finally, it was done, and served with sweet greens in lemon…and he had a beer. All in all, the most successful cook of this entire experiment (I’m embarrassed to say).
Don’t you just love a man who cooks?
Look how many fit!
You know that saying “A watched pot doesn’t boil”? Apparently he doesn’t.
Shish Kebobs resting
With a little flavoured ketchup, it’s a meat lover’s dream
Just look at those grill marks!
Dinner that night (fine mine was the shish kebob and the salad, he just had shish kebob and beer)
Third attempt at grilling with the George Foreman Reduced Fat Grill
I had a whole hunk of turkey mince left in the freezer, so I figured that maybe I should use it. So a few days later, I defrosted the proper little meat package and decided to make turkey burgers. I know, I know, turkey burgers are nothing different or original, but at the demonstration they showed us this great technique for stuffing burgers. That’s right – they stuffed burgers with cheese, or salsa, or guacamole or….the possibilities are endless. Now, I’ve heard about stuffed burgers before because there is this great little burger place in Montréal that a friend took me to years ago that did these amazing burgers stuffed full of precious little surprise jewels of different cheeses *drool*. Yes, that’s before I went dairy and gluten free.
Anyway, so I decided to do a healthier version of the Montéal stuffed burger by using turkey meat and by using the George Foreman Fat Reducing Grill (trumpet call) to cook it – plus, I’d get an opportunity to use the raclette grilling feature! Woo hoo! Now, that excited me to no end – um…perhaps a little too much because I added the cheese a bit too early and then realized that the burgers were turkey (poultry!) and there was no way that it was completely cooked yet. Oops. So my first three attempts went into the microwave and ended up in a beautiful turkey burger mess. Luckily, I used my head on the fourth and it looked (and tasted I’d imagine) much better. So the raclette grilling, when done properly, is fascinating!
Stuffing the homemade burgers – each burger had approx 2 Tbsp of meat – but you can make it bigger or smaller as you like.
Then cover the cheese up and mush together to make one big burger
Please remember to turn on the power to the George and don’t blame it for not working if there is no electricity coming to it (#duh #freshofftheboat). We don’t have to worry about this in Canada!
Patties on the grill – only three fit – maybe I should make them smaller?
I’ll come up with something to do with this extra cheese, I promise…and I didn’t eat it #dairyfree
Lovely grilled turkey burgers!
Putting on the extra cheese!
Raclette grilling a bit too soon :S
I had to microwave three of them, but the bottom right is only the raclette grilled burger patty (and the best looking and tasting)
Unfortunately, the Luv Luv bought extra lean turkey – and the turkey gave off almost NO FAT at all – instead, it gave off water…so the burgers were a bit dry and tasted a bit bland….because of course, in my rush I forgot it was not beef, and I under-seasoned the bland turkey meat. Ah well….it was not my best, but it was still edible! I sent the Luv Luv out for MacDonald’s fries to make up for my lack of talent – his burgers (with the cheese) were a bit sad, but mine (with salsa and guacamole) were actually pretty good. I still prefer beef burgers, however, and in future, will probably save the turkey mince for cottage pie & lasagnas where I know it works well!
Dinner that night – we got fries to make up for the ultra healthy burger patties
My last ditch efforts to make something I love on the George Foreman Fat Reducing Grill!
Today, however, today I decided I had to go all out and experiment with something completely different! A few weeks ago, a friend from the Southern US challenged me to try making Southern Fried Chicken, because one thing I’ve refused to do for years, is fry chicken. I do not like to be splashed with oil, and I hate when my food spits hot oil at me…and chicken (poultry?) is famous for doing this. Of course, my pride was on the line, so I accepted. I found these awesome mini-fillets breasts at Sainsbury’s and used those with the seasonings she suggested and gf flour to make Southern Fried Chicken fingers. And they were awesome – so awesome in fact that the Luv Luv demanded more…and got more a few more times!
Also, at the demonstration, they made Spring Rolls with filo pastry on the George (on a grill, yes! And it worked REALLY well!), and I suggested maybe using rice paper for a gluten free version (since the three gluten free ladies there couldn’t have any of that yummy smelling snack!). Today, I decided to try it, but, unfortunately, I did not have any rice paper and I was lazy to go out. I did, however, have rice noodles, and remembering the “Tornado Rolls” from the restaurant Spring Rolls, in Toronto, I was sure this would work.
So I took the chicken breast mini-fillets, seasoned them with chinese spices (garlic, ginger, chillies, gf soya sauce and a splash of lemon, salt & pepper to taste) and wrapped them with cooked, flat, wide rice noodles. Then I put that on the grill. It tasted absolutely amazing – unfortunately, it looked messy and crappy like a mini Egyptian Mummy caught in a sandstorm. Tasted good though, so I’m 100% sure that the rice paper wrapped around the chicken would be amazing – just soften the rice paper up in warm water first (then again my chef radar seems to be a bit off).
All the ingredients for my rice noodle experiment (ignore my tea & sugar paraphernalia behind it)
All wrapped…er…sorta..
On the grill we go….
Um…maybe not. The rice noodle got nice and crunchy and the chicken tasted amazing though. Maybe with a bit more thought.
So that didn’t work as well as I had hoped, but the flavour was spectacular. What if I made an Asian version of the Southern Fried Chicken Fingers? All I would do was add Chinese Five Spice Powder to the Gluten Free Flour instead of Paprika or Cayenne. That should work! They did breaded chicken fingers at the demo, why not chicken fingers dredged in flour?!?!
So that’s what I did – with the remainder of the chicken fingers, I dredged them in my flour mixture and then put them in the George Foreman Grill until the chicken was cooked. It was spectacular and tasted absolutely fantastic, but looked like an angel had thrown these babies through the clouds and covered them in cloud dust. The flour that stuck directly to the chicken cooked to a lovely golden brown…the little bit of extras, however, stayed as white as ever.
Floury yet cooked chicken fingers
So now, I had floury chicken fingers that tasted good and a whole lotta extra cooked rice noodles. Guess what I had for lunch – maybe that’s why I turned down chocolate for an apple later in the day – my body just wanted some sort of healthy sustenance!
Gluten free floury chicken fingers with rice noodles and gluten free soya sauce.
So, all in all, my chef radar is off at the moment, but even though I’m spazzing out, the George Foreman did do what it is supposed to! It cooked my meals quickly, drained off almost all fat and made (potentially) tasty meals. I am in love with the raclette grilling feature and have thought about all other types of things that I can do with it – roasted balsamic grape tomatoes on gluten free baguette maybe? That would be a nice bruschetta type thing.
Now, after all my disasters, since the Luv Luv has just finished washing the dishes, including the removable grill plates from the George, I’m going to make myself a semi-healthy treat by grilling nectarine halves and then having them with toasted pecans and maple syrup….and I guess I’ll make one for the Luv Luv too – just so that he could have one with ice cream.
What would you make with the George Foreman Reduced Fat Grill? #giveaway
While I do that, please do feel free to enter for a George Foreman Fat Reducing Health Grill (family size – 4 portion) of your own to experiment with! (the exact one I have).
What would you cook on your George Foreman Grill?!
Here are the rules:
-Enter in the rafflecopter form below – you just have to do the tasks listed (and please be honest, I do check).
-This giveaway is open to the UK only and will run for two weeks from May 03 - May 17, 2013 at 12 am (GMT).
-By entering the giveaway you are accepting the fact that if you win, your contact information will be shared for the purposes of mailing your prize.
- The winner has 48 hours to reply to my attempt at contacting them, else it will be assumed that they no longer want the prize and will forfeit. Another winner will be chosen at that time under the same conditions.
Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Success with the George Foreman Reduced Fat Grill! Obviously I’m a dessert person!
PS – FINALLY! I did something right! This dessert was absolutely decadent, and is a perfect example to show you the articulated hinge on this George Foreman Fat Reducing Health Grill that allows the grill to adjust to the different heights of your food!
Articulated hinge allowing the halved nectarines to be grilled evenly
- My dessert before dinner – grilled nectarines with maple syrup and toasted pecans
The Luv Luv’s dessert before dinner – grilled nectarines with vanilla ice cream, drizzled in maple syrup and toasted pecans
I have been compensated for this post because I am a member of the Mumsnet Bloggers Network, a group of parent bloggers picked by Mumsnet to review products, services, events and brands. Even though I have been compensated, the opinions expressed in this post, and all posts on Bewildered Bug are honest and my own.
I grew up in a seriously dairy loving family. In fact, I only found out I had a casein allergy later in life, so I grew up scarfing down liters of milk and ice cream, pounds of cheese and blocks and blocks of chocolate as a child. When we went to the grocery (supermarket), I remember waiting at the check out counter numerous times while one of the employees went to the storage room to bring out two cases of UHT milk – that would last us maybe a week and a half to two weeks between myself and my two sisters. My little sister, in particular, was a milk guzzler (and still is!) and my older sister, a chocaholic. Chocolate was a favorite in our house in general, with my Mom’s cheesecake coming in at a close second – so when I heard that Philly Chocolate is about to hit Canadian supermarket shelves, I got ridiculously excited – and then remembered that it was dairy based and that I could not have it (boo to allergies!). That just means YOU have to try it and let me know…or that the Luv Luv will become the guinea pig…yet again.
In fact, Philly Chocolate loves this idea so much that they are running a Facebook “Likes” Challenge. They believe that they have figured out an effective and efficient way to 
I’d love to hear which are your favourites!
