Grilled Caesar Salad

Grilling: A technique that guarantees to make any and every food taste exponentially more mouth-watering.

Apply said technique to classic Caesar, lettuce and all (but not the dressing), and boom! you've a lunch that makes people say "interesting," think "weird" and then pronounce "delicious" upon taste.

 I recommend serving it up on a back deck with my favorite Caesar twists: bell peppers and almonds in place of croutons.

Dinner: Grilled Veggie Pasta

Marinated summer veggies on the grill. Colorful red pepper, zucchini, red onion, and mushrooms. I could make a meal of just those beauties.

But in order to make it a "real" meal, I served it with the simple, fresh flavors of penne pasta, Parmesan, and fresh basil. The addition of a grilled chicken breast was optional depending on how much you like meat. Leftovers are fantastic cold; I chopped some chicken to toss into the pasta for lunch the next day.

I recommend chopping the veggies in advance so that all you have to do to prep is grill, cook pasta, chop basil, and put it all together.

Also, this picture isn't all that pretty, but it was pretty darn attractive in person.

Recipe: Black Bean Burgers

I have always opted for the juicy beef burger over the veggie burger when eating out, but this recipe provides tons of flavor in a grilled patty that fills you up without weighing you down like cheese-laden beef. A cool dill-spiced relish of red pepper, red onion, and cucumber meets the hot-off-the-grill, savory burger between the bun. It makes the perfect summer lunch and is best eaten while sitting in sunshine with good company.

I cut up the veggies and let them relishify the morning of. The burgers just required smashing black beans together with egg, bread crumbs, and spices and then getting your fingers a little gooey to form patties. The guy in the picture got a little extra char but still tasted just fine.