Pesto Lime Marinated Kabobs

 I love making kabobs in the summer and a month or so ago I wanted to make some shrimp kabobs for my husband and I but knew the boys would rather have beef or chicken. I had some stew beef left in the freezer but knew if I was going to use that I needed a nice acidic marinade to help tenderize the beef. I had lots of fresh basil I had just picked and made pesto with and thought I could whip up an easy citrus/basil marinade. 

This was so easy and delicious.  

Ingredients for marinade:

1 jar pesto (mine was homemade but I'd bet it was around 1 or 1.5 cups)

 2 jars lime juice (ours were 4.5 ounces each)

1/4 cup olive oil 

2 Tablespoons honey

salt & pepper to taste 

Ingredients for kabobs:

Stew beef/ chicken pieces/ shrimp

Pineapple- cut into chunks

1 red onion- cut into chunks

2 green peppers-- cut into chunks

1 red pepper-- cut into chunks

1 yellow pepper-- cut into chunks 

 

First I mixed up the marinade: dumping my jar of pesto into a small bowl.  I added the lime juice, oil, honey. salt and pepper. 

I set my marinade aside and made my skewers. I tend to put all meat on some, all shrimp on others, and then the fruits and vegetables separate since it makes it much easier to cook them. I typically put the beef ones on the grill first then the fruits and veggies and only put the shrimp on for the last couple of minutes since they cook up so quickly. But I have definitely made them with chicken/beef and mixed veggies/fruit all on one stick before so that is up to you.

 Today I kept them all separated. Once I had the shrimp and beef ones done I put them into my two rectangular containers and poured 1/2 the pesto/lime marinade into each container. 

I made up my fruit/veggie kabobs and added them in with the meat/seafood. Then popped them in the fridge. I like to make my kabobs in the morning and let them marinade all day; I do go in and flip them over/ baste them with marinade a time or two throughout the day too since I can never seem to make up enough marinade to cover them in my large bins. I want to make sure they are evenly coated and have absorbed a lot of the marinade flavor. 

I heated the grill up to 350 and put the beef on first. After turning them once I added the vegetables and then when the meat was about 145 or so I added the shrimp onto the grill too. Once the meat hit 160 I pulled it off the grill and by then the shrimp were nice and pink and finished cooking as well. 

We like our vegetables and pineapple a bit more on the crisp side but if you prefer them well cooked you could add them onto the grill at the same time as the meat. 

As you can see the pesto and marinade stayed rather well on the meat and shrimp so they were really flavorful.

I served our kabobs with rice and the boys had just beef  while my husband and I had shrimp and a couple of pieces of beef (I wanted to see how it tasted!). It was really yummy. My husband doesn't even really like pesto and thought they were great. All of my guys have asked me to make this again so that's always how I know a recipe is a keeper. 

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