By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate

Salsa: Your summer solution. There doesn't have to be a jar or container in sight when you fire up the grill for homemade salsa, bursting with freshness. It's an easy way to take a meal, or even just a poolside chip 'n' dip hour, to a whole other innovative level.    

It can be as simple as tossing a mixture of vegetables into a grill basket and waiting for the quick smoky results. Instead, some vegetables - and fruits - are fantastic charred or blackened right on the grill.      

These differing methods then lend themselves to varying preparation techniques. After peeling, the blistered vegetables are excellent pureed. Grill basket gems are good chopped for a salsa of an entirely different texture.      

The shared attribute of any salsa you grill? The sublime signature smoky flavor. As experts recommend, consider wearing latex gloves when handling chilies and not touching your eyes during or afterward.      

Here is an idea to fill your grill basket:      

--- Sliced: zucchini, bell pepper, onion and chiles as well as fresh corn kernels. Once grilled, let cool. Chop the slices, leaving chunky, and combine with grilled corn kernels, fresh lime juice, cumin, chopped fresh basil and cilantro and dash cayenne pepper.      

These lend themselves to blistering on the grill:     

 --- Whole chiles. Halved: tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, eggplant, peaches or nectarines.      

Place everything skin side down. Let grill until all just begins to blister and the insides just begin to soften. Let cool. Remove blistered skins. Puree. Stir in minced garlic, rosemary, salt, dash of red pepper flakes and sprinkle of balsamic vinegar.      

Dippers matter, too:      

--- Sweet potato and root vegetable chips; baked blue tortilla chips; unpeeled sliced cucumbers and celery sticks that have been marinated in red wine vinegar.

Fun fare like this also proves food preparation can be easy, nutritious, inexpensive, fun - and fast. They take just 10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare. The creative combinations are delicious proof that everyone has time for creating homemade specialties and, more importantly, the healthy family togetherness that goes along with it!      

Another benefit: You effortlessly become a better cook, since there are no right or wrong amounts. These are virtually-can't-go-wrong combinations, so whatever you - or your kidlet helpers - choose to use can't help but draw "wows" from family members and guests.      

QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK:  Let your spice rack clue kids in on flavors from around the world. Cover the name of seasoning blends (such as Mexican, Italian and Chinese five spice) and let children sprinkle a dash on fresh vegetables and taste. Have them guess the locations and then try to identify the individual spices that comprise the mixes.

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food and nutrition writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the National Council Against Health Fraud and author of seven food books, including the best-selling The Tofu Book: The New American Cuisine with 150 Recipes (Avery/Penguin Putnam) and Turn Your Supermarket into a Health Food Store: The Brand-Name Guide to Shopping for a Better Diet (Pharos/Scripps Howard). She writes two nationally syndicated food and nutrition columns for Creators Syndicate and had been a longtime newspaper food and health section managing editor, as well as managing editor of Gayot/Gault Millau dining review company. Lisa traveled the globe writing about top chefs for Pulitzer Prize-winning Copley News Service and has written about health and nutrition for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Reader's Digest, Woman's World and Prevention Magazine Health Books. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.