By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate

Your own pop doesn’t have to be the only one invited to your Father’s Day bash. Soda pop, in fact, can be an impressive accomplice at the grill and in other dishes when it comes to easily and economically infusing flavor.

First, even if Dad is trim as can be, consider sticking only to diet soda in your recipe repertoire. Usually, the taste difference is negligible, but the distinction in empty calories from sweeteners is major. This gives even a fit father (and other partiers) more room for healthy desserts and other treats later.

Think all diet sodas are flat-flavored, anything-but-gourmet last resorts? Think again. You’ve probably heard of wine tasting or even the comparisons of other upscale products like olive oils or sushi. You can do the same with diet sodas before choosing which ones to either serve or use as the foundations of some of your recipes.

Have a blind-taste test of categories like lemon-lime, cola, root beer and fruit diet sodas. Chances are you will find some variations when it comes to depth of flavor and quality of ingredients.

Next it’s on to using the sodas as marinades and other clever, economic ingredients for summer meals.

Nutritionists for major weight loss programs have already jumped on the bandwagon regarding saving time and calories with diet soda and often make such recommendations, like Lindora, the nation’s largest medically based program.

At the free recipe part of their website, Lindora.com/weight-loss-recipes.aspx, they have simple suggestions, including, marinating skinless, boneless chicken breast in Diet 7UP, along with chopped onion, basil, rosemary, sage and thyme before grilling (or covering and baking at 350 F for about 1 hour, either way until thickest part of breast reaches an internal temperature of 165 F); and soaking small cored apples in diet  raspberry soda before baking in deep dish at 350 F for about 45 minutes.

Here are some of my ideas for a Father’s Day meal that really pops:

• Include diet root beer, as well as a dash of red pepper flakes, in the marinade for your ribs before grilling.
• Add a can of diet cola, or better yet, one of the spicier-tasting colas, like Diet Dr. Pepper or Mr. Pibb Zero, to your chili.
• Marinate shrimp before grilling in diet peach iced tea, along with curry powder. Peach tends to be the most strongly flavored of all diet iced teas across product lines, including more than other fruit-flavored teas, like raspberry or mango.
• Cut fresh carrots into coin shapes and marinate in and then cook in ginger ale. Consider a stronger ginger beer, like Reed’s. You might be surprised at how much of a gourmet touch the good amount of ginger in ginger beer (which is nonalcoholic) adds when enjoying either as a cold beverage or a marinade.         
• In a saucepan, add a can of diet cherry soda to sugar-free chocolate syrup and cook down until thick. At end of cooking time, stir in some dried cherries or maraschino cherries. Use to top roasted marshmallows that are on top of chunks of antioxidant-filled dark chocolate or sugar-free chocolate or vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt.    

Fun fare like this also proves food and beverage 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, guests and Dad.

QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK: With vitamins often stored in the bathroom and meals held in the kitchen, perhaps sometimes the pills are forgotten. If you have decorative vases or baskets in your kitchen, consider stowing vitamin bottles there, as long as the areas are those that remains at room temperature. If not, perhaps think about a kitchen spice rack just for vitamin bottles or a designated spot in your pantry.

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.