okay, I'm having problems with dinner/lunch. it's been hot here and it's not letting up. it's supposed to be 100 tomorrow. now here's the problem. I'm tired of the crock pot. I of course don't want to cook at all, but we have to eat and I can't afford to eat out every day. any ideas would be very helpful. oh yeah, my kids don't seem to like cold salads of any kind.

what do you make when it's hot and you don't want to cook?!

allgirls

__________________
allgirls, mom to 3 girls

It's Girl Scout Cookie Time

My kids are still kinda young and love hot dogs. So, in the summer I find myself making a few batches of salads for the week and grilling most nights. I'll lay out a zip lock of of chicken breasts or pork chops in the morning. About 4 oclock when it's defrosted, I'll dump in a marinade or some olive oil and fresh herbs from my garden. Then about 7pm when it's cooling off outside, I'll toss them on with hotdogs for the kids. Add a side of Easy mac or some frozen veggies for the kids and you have a meal in 15 minutes.

It's still kinda hot when I'm outside cooking, but it only takes a few minutes for a chicken breast and it's better that the heat is outside then in the house, especially since we don't have AC. Plus there is basically no clean up. I'll load the food right on the paper plates we're eating off, so almost no dishes....

yesterday I grilled about 8 chicken breast just so I would not have to cook due to the heat... i just make other things to go wtih it rice..... microwave frozen veggies... thers is no way the oven is going ob. I made 2 large dinners back to back and we are eating left overs....

__________________

We are trying to grill as much as possible. Yesterday we had steaks, today it is hot dogs and brats. Probably will do chicken and burgers later this week. We do alot of chips and potato salad and macaroni salad as sides.

__________________
~Happiness is a large family~

I HATE cooking in the summer. Okay, I'm not much of a fan of cooking anytime of year, but especially when it's hot!

I make a lot of throw together meals where we just throw together whatever we can without cooking. Today for lunch we had chex mix, a cucumber and a pear. Not too bad health wise, no cooking and super easy. In the summer we eat a lot of sandwiches or even just crackers and cheese with fruit or cut up veggies, maybe some yogurt or cottage cheese. Think about what you might serve as just appetizers without cooking - fruit, veggies, cheese, crackers, tuna dip, tortilla roll-ups, etc. Put 2-3 of these together and you've got an easy, healthy, no cook meal.

I also do a lot of cooking once - eat 2-3 times. My favorite one is to grill a bunch of chicken breasts and serve with fettucine the first night. Next night is cut up chicken with cheese in tortillas. Next night is grilled chicken salad. Cooked once - 3 meals. My son won't eat a 'salad' but if I just give him some of the ingredients separately he will eat them.

My former DH would never eat like this but he was not home much for meals anyway so my DS and I have always just eaten quick simple throw together meals like this.

Lou

__________________
Better to give your kids the values you have
than the valuables you can't afford.

Fruit salad with cold sandwiches. Serve it with a green salad and you've got your nutrition!

__________________
Make someone's heart smile today.

We tend to do a few things when it is hot.

1. Pick what you want meal: This is my ds favorite. We buy shrimp when it is on sale and freeze. Then we have shrimp, fruit, cheese, bread , veggies and dips. You pick what you want to eat and it doesn't heat up the kitchen.

2. We also have antipasto: salad with coldcuts and dressing.
Add some bread sticks, bread and it is a complete meal.

3. Pasta salad is another fave. Prep it in the morning and add veggies, cheese, salami, pepperoni : what ever you have in the fridge and add italian dressing.

We grill alot, hamburgers, hot dogs, bratwurst, we also do alot of coldmeat sandwhiches or grinders, if its something that requires using the oven I will cook it early in the morning(like4 or 5) when its not as hot then we reheat it in the microwave.

We grill alot, like burgers and chicken. We also have meals that are light. One night we may have chicken salad with sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and onions in vinager, and bread. Another night it would be tomatoes stuffed with tuna salad, pasta salad and corn on the cob. We also make a diner pasta salad with leftover chicken, cheddar cubes or crumbled feta, olive slices, cucumber pieces, diced tomatoes or grape tomatoes and broccoli with Ken's greek dressing, it's a whole meal in 1 bowl loaded with veggies and protien not to mention it's easy clean up with that meal. We also do alot of BLT's to take advantage of wonderful summer tomatoes. HTH

__________________
~*JAMI*~ GO RED SOX! WORLD CHAMPIONS!

Bump

this has a lot of great ideas for summer cooking!

__________________
~~Sonja~~

My 3lynns~ Ashlynn-7, Brooklyn-4 and Kaylin-3

Want to get CREATIVE but don't know where to start. Check us out in the Hobbies and Home Forum and let your Creative Juices Run Free! http://mommysavers.com/boards/hobbies-home/