By the Cottage Coach
Cooking breakfast outdoors on Ninja gear for my whole family was an easy win, since it’s one of my specialties. But preparing lunch outdoors could have been a different story. This is the cottage meal where people tend to do their own thing. People drift inside to cool off, the kitchen gets cluttered again, and you lose that sense of “togetherness” at the cottage.
Not this weekend. The Outdoor Cooking Challenge meant every meal stayed outside, and lunch was no exception. So here’s how I kept things motoring through the middle of the day with the Ninja FlexFlame™ Outdoor Cooking System.
Keep it quick. Keep it outside.
The trick to outdoor lunch is speed. Nobody wants to commit to a whole production in the middle of the day. People are swimming, fishing, or lazing in the shade, and they want to eat and get back to it. That’s where the FlexFlame’s grill and griddle functions came in.
Smash burgers on the FlexFlame’s griddle were about as fast and fun as cooking gets. I was also able to make quesadillas, grilled sandwiches, hot dogs for the kids—all in minutes, with the same edge-to-edge heat that made breakfast so easy.
The midday drinks situation
Once the sun was high in the sky and the day started heating up, the Ninja Slushi™ joined us on the deck. Frozen drinks for the kids at lunchtime were a huge hit. They love pouring their own, and it bought me about twenty minutes of peace. Later, when the parents were ready for our own version, the same machine leveled up for frozen cocktails.
An unexpected hit: the Fireside360
Here’s something I didn’t expect to be talking about at lunch, but the Ninja Fireside360™ has quietly become one of my favourite tools for keeping everyone outdoors. In spring and fall, when the afternoons get that cooler edge, the Fireside360 takes the chill off and keeps everyone comfortable enough to stay outside longer. It’s smokeless, instant heat, so you’re immediately enjoying the fire instead of having to manage it.
It’s not a lunch-specific tool by design, but if a lunch turns into a long, lazy afternoon, which is usually the goal, it’s exactly the kind of gear that keeps people from heading back inside. Any piece of equipment that extends the cottage season earns a permanent spot in my setup, and this is a great example of that.
The Cottage Coach’s take
Lunch is the meal that tests whether your outdoor setup actually works, because it’s the one most likely to get derailed. The FlexFlame’s speed means there’s no excuse to retreat indoors, and the rest of the Ninja lineup—the Slushi for the kids, the Fireside360 for the lingering afternoon—fills in the gaps that keep everyone outside longer.
That’s the bar for the Cottage Coach Seal of Approval: does it make life easier, keep people outside, and improve the experience without adding complication? For lunch, this lineup clears it easily.
Shop the Ninja FlexFlame™ and the full Ninja outdoor lineup exclusively at canadiantire.ca.