Growing up, we were raised in a very health-minded house where our mom cooked everything from scratch and was often found whipping up her homemade granola (you may have read our other blogs where we often describe our parents as having been hippies—minus the drugs!). You’d assume that since our parents would be all for a lean cooking method like grilling or barbecuing, that we’d have done it often. Surprisingly, we were not that family you’d see grilling in the back yard every gorgeous summer evening. Instead, when we smelt the grill in our back yard, it was something special. It meant a big party and lots of guests. It meant, carefree days of running off into the woods in our back yard to play with the guests who were children- and with food in hands!— all grilled-up and delicious.
As you may imagine, our barbeques had a lot of vegetables, veggie burgers and some organic lean beef burgers, but our mom, being the health-conscious lady that she was, didn’t serve up hot dogs on the barby, as she admitted that although she loves the flavor of hot dogs, she just didn’t want us having preservatives and nitrates, and other additives, etc. that were added to them, so she didn’t buy them.
Now, as registered dietitian nutritionists, we find that for that very reason, we have followed in her footsteps and our barbeques are much the same as hers were. We also find that many of our clients grew up loving barbecues as we did and now realize that some of the traditional potato salads, hot dogs and Kool-aids, weren’t so healthy-and they ask us how to make their grilling healthy and delicious, without ruining the flavor.
If you’re like our clients, we’d love to help and we’ve got a lot of healthy barbeque tips like these on this blog—and maybe you’ve seen some of our recipes like Tangerine Chicken Skewers and Moroccon Grilled Shrimp Skewers and Grilled Peach Salad and Sweet Summertime Grilled Veggies to help!
And now, in addition to our usual summer festive foods that we eat and recommend, we’re so excited about an amazing, scrumptious and healthy find that no one can complain about! (Here’s looking at you, mom! 😉 ). OK—and maybe it’s not just our mom that we’re talking about! As you’ve likely noticed, we’re pretty particular about the quality of food that we put in our body and that we recommend to our clients to satisfy their taste buds, to look and feel amazing, and to keep their insides rocking with energy and health and to keep them free from disease. So, we never imagined we’d ever find a hot dog that we’d be grillin’ up. But thanks to Applegate, the nation’s leading natural and organic meat brand, we have—and in fact, we’re so over the moon about this find, that we’ve partnered with Applegate to tell you about it! The “Cleaner Wiener!” 🙂 Drum roll please…
The revolutionary hot dogs is Applegate Organics® The Great Organic Uncured Beef Hot Dog™, which is Non-GMO Project Verified and made with humanely raised, 100% grass-fed beef. This wiener is made without hard to pronounce ingredients like Erythorbate, Sodium Nitrate and Maltodextrin—the chemicals our mom wanted us to avoid. Applegate keeps it clean– we’re talking about 4 simple ingredients that don’t take a food science degree to recognize, just grass-fed beef, salt, water and spices.
We can hardly believe how awesome these hot dogs are—and as girls who honestly don’t remember eating a hot dog before as we’d never want to eat all of the junk that came with it, we can proudly say, we love these 100% organic, grass fed beef dogs—and so much so that we’re having a blast cooking up some recipes with them. These dogs leave your taste buds so happy and your body feeling satisfied and light! Cheers to these Applegate wieners and to our newest recipe– Bruschetta Hot Dogs!
Bruschetta Hot Dogs
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients:
1/2 cup diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 clove garlic, crushed, grated, or very finely chopped
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
dash of salt and pepper
4 Applegate Organics® The Great Organic Uncured Beef Hot Dog™
4 100% whole wheat hot dog buns
Directions:
1. Mix together the tomatoes, basil, garlic, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper in a bowl and let marinate while you prepare the hot dogs.
2. Place hot dogs on a hot grill or skillet and cook until the outside is charred and the inside is heated through (about 5-6 minutes).
3. Toast buns if desired, then place the hot dogs in the buns and top with the tomato mixture and enjoy! Or simply place hot dog in lettuce leaf, top with tomato mixture and wrap the leaf around the dog!
Nutrition Facts: (Wrapped in a lettuce wrap, the way we do it! 🙂 )
125 calories, 8 grams protein, 2 grams carbohydrates, 9 grams fat, 2 grams fiber
Nutrition Facts (served on a whole wheat bun):
255 calories, 14 grams protein, 22 grams carbohydrates, 11 grams fat, 6 grams fiber
We partnered with Applegate Farms to bring you this blog. This is a sponsored post but all opinions are our own. And don’t forget to check out Applegate’s Instagram, facebook and twitter
- ½ cup diced tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
- 1 clove garlic, crushed, grated, or very finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- dash of salt and pepper
- 4 Applegate Organics® The Great Organic Uncured Beef Hot Dog™
- 4 100% whole wheat hot dog buns
- Mix together the tomatoes, basil, garlic, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper in a bowl and let marinate while you prepare the hot dogs.
- Place hot dogs on a hot grill or skillet and cook until the outside is charred and the inside is heated through (about 5-6 minutes).
- Toast buns if desired, then place the hot dogs in the buns and top with the tomato mixture and enjoy!
