Thursday: Grilled BBQ Chicken Wings

So excited! Sun! Rumour has it it will be short-lived, therefore am seizing the day, carpe chicken wing and all of that. I wrestled with making these, because fitting chicken wings into a healthy lifestyle can be a little tricky. Small crunchy amazingly greasy handfuls of joy with more calories than a decent-sized pizza. However, I am a big fan of using what I have and what I found in the freezer is these chicken wings and there we are. Since I am not intending to stop eating properly, I'm going to try and integrate these bad boys. With salad, lots and LOTS of salad.

These wings are sweet and a little spicy and a whole lot of amazing.

You will need:

3-4 lbs chicken wings, tips removed

2 c ketchup

1/4 c olive oil

1/4 c orange juice

1/4 c Chipotle pepper sauce

4 cloves garlic, pressed

1 tsp lime juice

1 tsp salt

Dump everything in a large plastic freezer bag, preferably something good quality. No-one wants this all over the inside of their fridge.

Squeeze out all the air and seal. Mush it around until all the wings are coated in sauce. Massage it a little through the bag. Go on, give it a grope.

Thrown in the fridge, let marinate for at least 6 hours. Reserve the marinade for basting while grilling.

I made 2.5 lbs, halved the recipe and ended up with chicken wings with a calorie count of 85 per. Say you had three, threw in a salad with some light goat cheese, that's not too bad, right? You probably wouldn`t want to do it ALL the time as that is not the best use of that many calories, but here and again, give it a whirl.

All crunchy from the grill

You can almost hear them...eat meeee!! Eat meeee!!

Sunday: Grilled Ribs with Homemade BBQ Sauce

I love this sauce! I've made several barbecue sauces over the years and this is my favourite so far by far. I had some side ribs I wanted to use up but of course, back ribs are the very best.

You will need:

Ribs - however many you want to feed you / your gang and whatever type
1 c ketchup
1/3 c soy sauce
3 Tbsp honey or agave
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 Tbsp Worcerstershire
Dash-ish cayenne

I didn't do any prep pictures, as this is pretty straightforward. First, if you are using side ribs like me,cut them into reasonable size pieces. If you are going with back ribs, you will want to peel the membrane off the back of the ribs first. To do that, cut the membrane, then slip a butter knife under one cut side and saw along. As soon as you get a decent amount up, hold onto it with a paper towel and pull it the rest of the way off. Then do the other side until it is all gone. Cut into 4's. I am no expert on ribs, but I wouldn't use baby back ribs, because they are expensive and tender and we are going to boil the Sam Hill out of these suckers

Put your ribs in a large stockpot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, skimming the foam that comes to the top. Let boil for at least an hour and a half, stirring occasionally. Tong them out and set aside.

Meanwhile! Sauce! Mix all of the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan, bring to a boil and let cook for two minutes until smooth.

Slather the sauce all over the ribs and let sit for a while. I like to do it overnight, but I couldn't say for sure that it makes a difference, so I don't always. The sauce makes about a cup and a half, so use whatever is left while grilling.

Grill your ribs until you get a little char on 'em, smear on some more sauce, enjoy! I like to make it a meal with beans, buns, steamed veggies and salad. The sauce worked out to approximately  22 calories a tablespoon and I estimated two small racks of four side ribs as 370 calories.

Enjoy!