Weight Watchers Experts Give Easy Ways To Grill Healthier

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A lot of Minnesotans love to grill, but it's an easy way to blow your diet with hot dogs and cheeseburgers.

And the chips and brownies, all the goodies that go along with barbecueing. So with grilling season here, we reached out to Weight Watchers to find out how they recommend staying healthy.

Experts there said it's about making minor changes and moderation.

Summertime is all about grilling. You see hot dogs, chips and burger, but it doesn't have to be unhealthy. It doesn't have to be loaded down. The good news is that grilling is one of the healthiest ways to prepare food.

One of the things we can do is stick with lean protein. You can grill a flank steak and one of the things we can do to keep it healthy is watch the sodium.  Make a marinade that will tenderize the meat and add flavor. Using garlic, ginger, honey-lime and some soy sauce plus some red pepper flakes. Use some spice and get that meat marinated four hours minimum.

Stick it on the grill and you'll have great flavor.  Adding fresh veggies is also key. You can come up with a wonderful combo that your entire family will enjoy. Make a broccoli salad with a great combination of lemon, olive oil and garlic.  When you talk about flavor, you can put that on almost any veggie.  I'm happy to see carbs on the table. You can have a potato and watch the butter.

Get creative.  A lot of people like salsa as a topping or low fat sour cream. Back 50 years ago, the wine and dessert would be forbidden.  And now you can incorporate that.  Cheers to healthy living.

All of those recipes are from Weight Watchers cookbook that celebrates 50 years with updated recipes from old classics.