I’ve heard it said that the summer heat and humidity can be brutal here in almost-Dixie land come August. So far I’m loving most of these hot and humid days, but I know that there will come a point when the fact that I was brought up in Seward’s Ice Box will catch up with me, and will affect the kinds of food I put on my table. As it is, Scott and I aren’t generally hungry for steamy bowls of soup by the time that dinner rolls around on hot days, and if I don’t plan ahead, we tend to snack on any random thing that strikes our fancy. This can mean for some amusing and sometimes not highly nutritious meals on a more regular basis than is probably best.
Besides a good green salad with all the fixings, Taco Salads and Pasta Salads and lots of smoothies and sandwiches are showing up these days, and I have a mind to eat watermelon almost every day for the next few months, if I can get my hands on it! Knowing that it will only get hotter, the closer we get to August, I’ve been pinning up (a new fad is it?) a little stash of good looking eats to add some variety to our summer time meals.
The good thing about Summer meals is that it is easy to keep it simple, and yet satisfying. I’ve got some tried and true favorites I’m adding to our menu, and a whole lot of new ones on my want to try list , but what I really want to know is what do you tend to turn to when the weather gets hot? A girl can’t have enough ideas when it comes to menus, right?
I doubt we’ll go all summer with out some hot food…namely, pizza, of course. But here’s to eating well, keeping it simple (by planning ahead, and remembering that easy doesn’t mean lazy, in my case) and staying cool during these next few months of summer fun and sun.
BBQ Chicken Salad (which I think I’m going to make tonight, since I wasn’t on top of things enough for the planned crockpot meal)
Lettuce
Black Beans
Corn
Chicken (shredded or cubed)
Cheese
Equal parts Ranch and BBQ sauce
Top with crushed tortilla chips and enjoy!
I would love some new ideas, too! No way I’m turning the oven on in this weather.
-Tex-Mex (fajitas, quesadillas, etc.)
-chicken salad
-egg salad
-bean salad
-cucumber-tomato-dill salad (or add the feta and olives for Greek salad)
-squash and other veggies, stewed on the stovetop
-homefries
Turkey sandwiches! With REAL farmer’s market tomatoes and spicy brown mustard on them! We skimp on other things so that we can buy fresh sliced turkey meat from our grocery store’s deli.We have them sandwich slice it about four pounds at a time then separate and Ziplock bag it into one pound sets when we get home. After that, one pound goes into our refrigerator and the other three go to our freezer to be pulled out pound by pound as we need it. You can’t tell a difference between the frozen and the fresh stuff after its been thawed and it keeps it all good and yummy between grocery trips. A must for me with two in diapers.
I’m really looking forward to checking out everyone’s ideas! Thank you so much for sharing!
Much Love!
I love just eating out of the garden- fresh peas, sauteed zucchini and onions, steamed greens (or make them into a stir fry over rice!)
Any kind of salad we can think of
Burritoes/fajitas
And we cook a lot out on the Bbq. My sis even makes pizza on the bbq now. Mmm!
For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been eating South Carolina peaches like crazy! They are so sweet and delicious that it is like eating candy.
I wish I could live on watermellon….. But we live 30 miles from town and I have only one ‘fridge, so it must be rationed!
Banana shakes—yougurt, frozen bananas & other frozen fruit/berries in the blender. (Or just the frozen bananas!) Sometimes I can get spotted bananas for 0.19/lb at the store, and I freeze a bunch.
Whole meal salads—-noodles or brown rice, beans, cheese, veggies, olives, etc. with olive oil/vinegar dressing. Potato salad is good, too, both the egg and mayonaise type and also made with peas, olives, and oil/vinegar dressing.
Scrambled eggs—-because my hens are laying well!
Hot dogs for a treat!
Frozen Rhubarb dessert…..
I am always looking for new ideas for recipes!! We love making tacos of fajitas for starters. But, another favorite is “Taco Rice”. It’s basically a build your own meal made of rice, meat, lettuce, tomatoes, avocados, jalapenos, shredded cheese and topped with either salsa or sour cream. We usually eat it with chips!
Here is something my mom found for me. My family LOVES it, and I’ve been making a gallon a day as my Dad, brother, sister and I remodel the house. It’s very similar to the expensive, but delicious Snapple. If you guys are iced tea fans I recommend it.
Boil 16 cups of water.
Add four lipton or generic tea bags, and three flavored. (Peach and strawberry are the favorites so far.)
Let them steep for an hour.
Remove them and add one and a half cups of sugar.
Stir until sugar dissolves and let it cool uncovered for another hour.
Add two-thirds cup of lemon juice.
Pour into containers and let it cool in the fridge.
Pesto!! We eat a lot of pesto pasta and it is very quick and easy to make