How To Make Easy Marinade

Kitchen Trick: Easy Marinades
From the Zone Diet

In the mood for a tasty marinated steak, fish, or veggie dish? Avoid expensive - and seldom Zone Diet -appropriate - bottled marinades that are sold in stores and create your own instead. Marinades are easy to make, usually consisting of just three ingredients: an acid (such as vinegar), a fat (such as olive oil), and flavorings (herbs or spices).

Here are some tips for making marinades:

• Consider the kind of meat you're using. The denser the meat, the stronger the flavors of your marinade. For delicately flavored fish and seafood, make a marinade of white wine or lemon juice. For chicken, try balsamic vinegar or lime juice. And for beef, try hearty red wine or red-wine vinegar.
• Clean and prep your meat. Place your meat in a large, resealable bag with the marinade and seal.
• Put the bag containing the marinade and the meat (or veggies) in the fridge and let it sit for an appropriate length of time - longer for beef, shorter for chicken, and quickest of all for fish.

Try this delicious, fat-free recipe for Lime Marinade - enough for 1.5 pounds of steak: Lime Marinade

Ingredients
1/3 cup fresh lime juice (about 4 limes)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 scallions, thinly sliced (about 1/3 cup)
2 tablespoons minced, peeled fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon red-pepper flakes

Instructions
In a resealable plastic bag, combine all ingredients. Add steak, seal bag (place in a dish to catch any leaks), and marinate in the refrigerator, turning occasionally, for up to 1 hour. To cook steak on the grill, remove beef from the bag, allowing most of the marinade to drip off. The leaner the cut, the quicker it cooks. For a medium-cooked steak, allow 7 minutes cooking time on one side, and 5 on the other. Use an instant-read thermometer to test for doneness. It will read 115 to 125 degrees for rare, 125 to 140 degrees for medium-rare, 140 to 150 degrees for medium, 150 to 160 degrees for medium-well, and 160 degrees or above for well-done.