Hoisin sauce is a staple of Chinese cooking, prepared with soybeans, garlic, chile peppers, and spices. It adds a flavorful, authentic Asian touch to numerous dishes and pairs especially well with salmon and can be bought in most grocery stores these days in the Asian cooking aisle. Hoisin paired with orange juice and honey adds a sweetness to the marinade, which the kids will just love. If you need to make dinner in a pinch this is your answer — just ask Red Tricycle’s Managing Editor who makes this dish every time time is tight and bellies are hungry.

Ingredients: 
1 tablespoon orange juice
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 teaspoons honey
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
4 8- to 10-ounce salmon steaks, 1 inch thick
Vegetable cooking spray

Method:
1. Preheat broiler. In a glass measuring cup, whisk together orange juice, hoisin sauce, and honey.

2. Season salmon with salt and pepper. Place on a broiler pan lined with aluminum foil. Spray top of broiler pan with cooking spray. Brush half of the hoisin sauce mixture over to coat.

3. Broil salmon about 4 inches from the heat source, basting once, until opaque in center, 10 to 13 minutes.

Recipe courtesy of Everyday Food.

Make good use of the grill before summer ends. And we can’t think of a better way to do this than by throwing dinner on a spit and roasting it over an open flame! If you and your kiddos prefer other ingredients than what’s listed below then by all means, substitute substitue substitute! Prep time is next to nothing, which means more time with the family enjoying the last of these sunny days.

Ingredients
meat (any of your choosing- beef, chicken, pork) cut into chunks

fresh pineapple, cut into chunks

2 bell peppers, red and green

handful of medium sized mushrooms

1/2 of a large yellow onion

2-3 zucchinis

marinade (make your own! Try herb and garlic, or whatever flavor you’re craving)

Directions
1. Put meat chunks in a baggie or in a bowl and marinade for about two hours. This can be done right when the kids get home from school, or right after you get home from work. If you don’t have two hours to marinade the meat then aim for 30 minutes or so.

2. Cut up remaining ingredients into chunks.

3. Layer onto a skewer.
Tip: If you don’t have a metal skewer, use the bamboo ones, but soak them in water first so they don’t burn on the grill.

4. Stack everything on the skewer in an alternating pattern and throw on the BBQ! Grill until meat is done.