Archive for December, 2009
Happy New Year from George Foreman
Happy New Year from George Foreman!
From all of us at the George Foreman team, to all of you and yours, we wish you a very happy, safe and prosperous New Year!
Please note: we will not be posting tomorrow since it’s a holiday, so we just wanted to send you a quick message with New Year’s wishes. We’re looking forward to a very exciting New Year here on the George Foreman team and we’ll be keeping you updated through our regular posting schedule starting next week.
Happy New Year to all!
Resolutions with George Foreman
New Year’s Resolutions with George Foreman
Just a few more days and we’ll officially be moving on to the New Year. As we get close, this is the time everyone really starts making those New Year’s resolutions. We did a feature article in our December newsletter that broke down the ways George Foreman can help you lose weight and eat better in the New Year. Now, we pulled some of the top New Year’s resolutions from usa.gov and expanded on how George Foreman can help with each.
Lose Weight / Get Fit
Whether you’re trying to trim fat, have a healthier diet, lower your cholesterol or get in shape, it all comes down to eating better than you are right now. Even if you’re trying to shape up, adjusting your diet and your daily menu plan is a great way to help reach your goals. For more tips on using your George Foreman grill to get healthy in ‘010, read the full healthy eating resolution article from this month’s newsletter.
Manage Debt / Save Money
Eating at home is a great way to save money! You spend less cash cooking a full meal for your family at home than you would buying a comparable meal out at a restaurant. By committing to eat in, instead of eat out, you can actually save quite a bit of money each month. This is especially true if you make weekly menu plans, because you can coordinate ingredients so you don’t buy something and then only use half of it on one dish.
Reduce Stress
Cooking is actually a great stress reliever (it only causes stress if you eat everything you cook yourself and gain weight). The whole idea of cooking therapy came up recently with the idea of the Julie & Julia movie, where the Julie used cooking as a way to escape. In a NYDailyNews.com the author of Addicted to Stress, Debbie Mandel states, “while stress can numb your senses, cooking activates them. It’s a sensory experience with aroma, taste, touch, visual delight and even sizzling sound.”
Another great reliever of stress can simply be the act of sitting down to a family meal. Even if your hubby or some other member of your family is trying to reduce their stress, you can help by increasing the amount of sit-down family meals you do, which increases the amount of family bonding and relaxing around the table, reducing stress.
Quit Smoking
George Foreman grills don’t smoke as you cook, so you don’t get all that grease smoke filling your kitchen that you would from pan cooking! In all seriousness, though, finding another hobby and something to keep yourself busy can also help you quit smoking. Often, people use excuses to rationalize their smoking, such as needing something to do with their hands/mouths in place of puffing on a cigarette. Cooking keeps your hands busy (and eating does wonders for the mouth). By keeping yourself busy, you’ll have less time to think about what you’re missing.
New Year’s Party Snacks with George Foreman
Holiday Party Planning
New Year’s Snacks on your George Foreman grill
Having trouble coming up with some easy snacks for your New Year’s party? Your George Foreman grill can help! Here are some of the top appetizers and dishes you can make using the various plate sets of George Foreman:
GRILL PLATES
Besides the usual fare of hamburgers, hot dogs and grilled sausages with BBQ sauce, you can also do some additional creative dishes for your New Year’s party with your grill plates. Kabobs are a great choice, since they can serve as a party platter item or a more substantial main dish if you’re feeding your guests a full meal. Another great party platter item is some kind of slider dish – mini-hamburgers (typically about 3 – 4 oz. of meat) that can be done with a variety of tasty toppings.
As a New Year’s treat, here is a great slider recipe you can use for your party:
Beef & Blue Cheese Sliders on the 360 Grill
Beef & Blue Cheese Sliders
- ¼ cup crumbled blue cheese
- 2 tbsp. minced green onion
- ½ tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. coarse black pepper
- ½ tsp. extra-virgin olive oil
- 12 oz. lean ground beef
- 6 curly green leaf lettuce, small leaves
- 6 slider buns or small dinner rolls, split
Using your George Foreman® Grill with the grill plates securely attached. Plug in and preheat grill; on most grills, the preheat indicator light will go out when you reach your cooking temperature.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, toss together cheese, green onion, salt, pepper and oil. Add ground beef and blend; do not over mix.
Divide ground beef mixture into 6 equal portions. Lightly flatten each to form a ½-inch thick square burger patty. Place burgers on the grill. Close the lid and cook for about 3 minutes, or to desired doneness.
Assemble each slider by placing one leaf of lettuce on the bottom half of each roll. Place cooked beef patty on lettuce. Top each patty with the remaining half of roll.
Makes 3 appetizer servings of 2 sliders each.
BAKE/GRIDDLE PLATE
Ghirardelli brownies in the Kitchen Bistro
All kinds of great dishes can be done for a party using a George Foreman grill with a bake or griddle plate – especially if your grill has variable temperature, because you can use it as a baking chamber in place of your oven. You can do crab cakes, quiche, foccacia and even brownies directly on your electric grill – that’s right, brownies on your grill!
To give you an idea of the time adjustment, we baked Ghirardelli® and Duncan Hines® Chocolate Lovers brownies for 25 minutes at 350°F. Each recipe will be different, so we recommend trying it out once before your party to make sure you have the cook time right.
QUESADILLA PLATES
Delicious Quesadillas on the 360 Grill
Our 360 Grill™ has quesadilla plates, which are the perfect, quick and easy party menu maker. We also have a George Foreman quesadilla maker that works for this as well. You just take 2 tortillas and stuff them with your favorite ingredients, grill for just a few minutes and you’re ready to go.
If you don’t have your own favorite quesadilla stuffers, here is an easy recipe:
Quick & Easy Quesadillas
- 1½ cups pepper strips
- 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
- 2 large cloves garlic, minced
- ½ lb. grilled pork loin, cut in strips
- 2 tbsp. chopped cilantro
- ½ tsp. oregano
- ½ tsp. coarse salt
- ½ tsp. ground cumin
- ¼ tsp. coarse black pepper
- 1 cup shredded Cheddar Jack cheese blend
- 4 large tortillas (9 to 10 inches)
Place upper grill plate and bake pan on your 360 Grill™. Preheat for about 6 minutes on Medium High. (Green light will notify you that the grill is ready.)
Add peppers, onion and garlic and cook until onion is softened, about 3 minutes. Add pork, cilantro and seasonings. Transfer mixture to a medium bowl; toss to blend.
Let your grill cool and then exchange the plates for the quesadilla plates; preheat on Medium High for 5 minutes. (Green light will notify you that the grill is ready.)
Meanwhile, assemble quesadillas. Place 2 tortillas on work surface; divide pork mixture evenly between both. Top with cheese and remaining tortillas. Carefully place one tortilla on grill and cook for about 3 minutes until cheese is melted and tortillas are lightly browned. Remove to serving plate and repeat with the remaining quesadilla.
Makes 6 servings
If desired garnish with low fat sour cream, salsa and chopped cilantro.
Ham and Swiss Strata Recipe
A Gift for You:
Ham & Swiss Strata Recipe
See the post below from today for even more great Christmas morning breakfast ideas using your multi-plate George Foreman grill!
Delicious Strata, straight from your George Foreman Grill
- 24, 1-inch slices of French baguette (about 8 oz.)
- ¼ lb. thinly sliced deli ham
- ¼ lb. thinly sliced baby Swiss cheese
- 1 tbsp. butter or margarine
- 4 eggs, lightly beaten
- ⅓ cup sour cream
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
- ¼ tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. seasoned pepper
Place 12 slices of bread on a cutting board; top with ham, cheese and remaining slices of bread. Butter the deep bake plate of your George Foreman Grill. Place “sandwiches” in prepared bake plate.
In a bowl, whisk together eggs and sour cream. Stir in milk, mustard, salt and seasoned pepper. Pour evenly over all ingredients in the bake plate. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.
Remove plastic wrap. Place bake plate onto grill. Set baking time at 20 minutes and temperature at 350ºF. Bake until golden and puffed.
Using pot holders, remove bake plate from grill and place on a heat-resistant surface. Garnish with parsley. Use a nylon spatula to serve.
Makes 6 to 8 servings.
Christmas Morning with George Foreman
Holiday Party Planning
Christmas Morning with George Foreman
For most people, the grill only applies to breakfast food when it comes to sausage and bacon; but in truth, a multifunctional grill can do a lot more for breakfast than you think. If you have a grill with multiple plates, then chances are you can pretty much do the whole meal on your grill to minimize cleanup and make breakfast cooking supremely easy.
This is especially good for Christmas morning, where you’d rather be spending time with the family, opening presents and even planning for dinner if you do a big meal on Christmas day. Using your grill, you can have breakfast ready in a snap and then move on to more important things after you throw a few things in the dishwasher.
Using the Griddle/Bake Plate
Many of our electric grills come with a griddle/bake plate. For those familiar with using a griddle, you know this is a breakfast mainstay appliance. You can do eggs, French toast, omelets, breakfast sandwiches and, of course, the standard sausage and bacon.
Ham & Swiss Breakfast Strata
Another great idea is to do something like a breakfast strata. Bake plates with deeper sides (particularly the plates with 2-inch depth) are perfect for doing casseroles and strata as we mentioned in our last post. Simply prepare the strata as you normally would, then place it in your bake plate on the grill instead of in a baking vessel.
If you’re interested in trying a strata, but don’t have a recipe, we’ll be posting the Ham & Swiss Strata recipe directly following this post as a special gift to you!
Using Your Quesadilla Plates
The 360 Grill™ comes with a quesadilla plate, which makes for an easy breakfast meal if you have a taste for breakfast quesadillas. Simply fill the tortillas with eggs, cheese and your favorite meat or veggies and you’re ready to go. Since they cook in about 3 minutes, you can even make several different variations and have a whole spread at your family meal.
Using Your Muffin Pan
Chocolate Chip Muffins on the Kitchen Bistro
Yes, there is a George Foreman grill with a muffin pan! The Kitchen Bistro™ series comes with a muffin pan insert that fits directly into the bake plate of the grill. It makes 6 muffins at a time – either from scratch or using a prepackaged mix. You’ll need to adjust the baking time, but this list will provide you with a few examples of cooking times:
Jiffy® Corn Muffins: 400ºF baked for 10 minutes; made 10
Martha White® Blueberry Muffins: 425ºF baked for 12 minutes; made 6
Betty Crocker Banana Nut Muffins: 375º baked for 12 minutes; made 6
Whichever multi-plate grill you have, as long as you have a little creativity, you can do breakfast on your George Foreman in a snap. Once you’ve finished cooking, just throw the plates you used, along with the accessories, into the dishwasher and get on to enjoying the rest of your day!
