Grillin' Veggies on the Barbie

Happy 4th of July to all of my family & friends in the USA! I hope you're enjoying your holiday Monday and getting to spend lots of quality time with all of the people who are near & dear to you. How cool is it that we Canadians got a long weekend because Friday was Canada Day and now our neighbours get Monday off to celebrate their nation's birthday!! I love when the holidays fall on a Friday or Monday, so our weekends get extended - I guess some things are just meant to be!

After all of our barbecues, beers and indulgences this weekend, last night was the first time we'd eaten a real meal at home since our brunch on Friday morning, so I decided to pull out my all-time favourite barbecue accessory ~ meet the Barbecue Wok.

We bought this wok for under $15 at WalMart last year and it is definitely one of our most used and most favourite things to cook with in the summer. Last night I wanted something light and healthy for dinner and a barbecued stirfry was just what the doctor ordered!

Barbecued Balsamic Stirfry with Roasted Garlic Quinoa
Serves 4

I have to warn you that I can give you a guideline for this stirfry, however I didn't measure a single thing! The carmelized veggies paired with a splash of balsamic is a total party in your mouth. I was so happy with the way this meal turned out.

4 - 6 c. chunky chopped veggies
1 - 2 tbsp olive oil
4 - 6 tbsp balsamic vinegar or balsamic salad dressing
2 tsp minced garlic
1 bulb of garlic
2 tbsp of Earth Balance (butter)
1 c. quinoa cooked according to package directions

Turn on your barbecue and pre-heat to medium-high.

To make the roasted garlic quinoa:
The first thing you need to do is get your garlic roasting for the roasted garlic quinoa.
Chop the top off of your garlic bulb. Drizzle with olive oil (1 tsp at most) and then wrap the bulb in tinfoil. Place the bulb onto your barbecue grill and let it cook for about 30 minutes ~ until cloves are softened.

Remove from heat and squeeze out the roasted garlic. Add it, as well as the Earth Balance, to your quinoa and mix well.

To prepare veggies
Place your chopped veggies into a large mixing bowl. Add the minced garlic, 1- 2 tbsp of olive oil and about 3 tbsp of balsamic vinegar to the veggies and mix until they are just coated. You do not need an over abundance of oil and vinegar because you don't want a bunch of sauce dripping through the wok into your barbecue grill causing a big smoky disaster!

Place the wok on your heated barbecue grill and add the veggies. Cook for approximately 20 - 25 minutes, making sure to stir often, until all of the veggies are softened. I like mine to be nicely browned and carmelized.

Remove the veggies from the barbecue.

To serve, spoon out some quinoa onto a plate and top it with your veggie stirfry. I like to add another drizzle of balsamic to my veggies right at the end to give them a little oomphf! Derek likes to add just the veggies as a side to his dinner. I had a stirfry with quinoa and he had a steak, baked potato and side of stirfried veggies!!! We were both very full & very happy :-)

This entire dinner was great, but those mushrooms were amazing!!

They soaked up all that balsamic-y goodness and were soooooo goooooddd!!

I was super excited when I had a bunch of leftover veggies. I was able to take a stirfry to work for lunch today and I just polished off a veggie wrap for dinner - ah, life is good!
How do you like to use up your leftover stirfry veggies?
What do you do to celebrate your nation's birthday?

Have a fabulous Monday evening,

Andrea