Summer's here and I don't want to turn on the oven!

[Darcy Baldwin]

How many of you think that each year?

Let's share some favorite summer meal ideas that don't require the oven heating up the house!!!

Today - we're doing chicken tacos in the crockpot with a jicama slaw

Other favorites:

Grilled chicken on a salad bed of oranges, raisins, sunflower seeds
Grilled chicken salad on hearty bread

Regular tacos with guacamole and chips - you can NEVER have too many tacos

Anything Russ makes on the grill

[ayaandjudah]

We do a lot of grilling in the summer. Chicken, steak, ribs, turkey loin. Anything that can go on the grill. Peppers, onions, corn, broccoli, cauliflower.

YUM.

[sarahbhb]

We made these crock pot potatoes last month...and they were pretty good. DH is wanting to make them again this weekend with some grilled steak and veggies.

http://www.5dollardinners.com/2012/0...-potatoes.html

[mariewilcox]

LOL - refer to your previous thread about sides for our summer meals We don't grill much except for veggies or a grilled pizza but I don't use my oven either. Mostly fresh veggies for us in cold dishes.

[Sherri Tierney]

I don't mind turning the oven on here. In the past I wouldn't use my oven in the summer but we have some great AC here and the oven doesn't make it too hot unless I'm standing within a few feet of it.

[marlathrall]

Originally Posted by Sherri Tierney

I don't mind turning the oven on here. In the past I wouldn't use my oven in the summer but we have some great AC here and the oven doesn't make it too hot unless I'm standing within a few feet of it.

This is me, too. My kitchen is actually always the coolest room in our house because of where our vents are located.

Tonight, I'm cooking for the harvest crew. I'm making spaghetti, green beans, some kind of fruit and fresh Italian wheat bread. For desert, I'm thinking banana pudding. I have a bread machine though, so I don't have to turn on the oven.

I do LOVE to grill though. Marinated steak on the grill is probably my favorite summer food.

[Leila]

Originally Posted by Sherri Tierney

I don't mind turning the oven on here. In the past I wouldn't use my oven in the summer but we have some great AC here and the oven doesn't make it too hot unless I'm standing within a few feet of it.

Same for me! We don't even own a grill, though I'm hoping to rectify that sooner rather than later.

[BrattyMeg]

we grill a ton in the summer too!!

we had the BEST BLTs for lunch today. Had the most beautiful tomatoes a local produce stand..was SOOO good

[Libby Pritchett]

We just took a class last week at the Asian Market (it was free) on how to make stir fry noodles. So, that's our current addiction right now.

Other than that, we do a LOT in the crockpot... stew, chicken tacos, chicken and dumplings, bbq pulled pork, pot roast, pork chops... a LOT.

[Libby Pritchett]

We also like to do a baked potato bar. We do potatoes in the microwave and then put out a bunch of toppings for everyone to dress up their own (cheese, salsa, broccoli, bacon bits, sour cream, and butter are options we usually have).

[BrattyMeg]

we do baked potatoes (in the micro) and a salad almost weekly..so yummy and easy!

[jessica31876]

For this reason I bought this:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...ndingMethod=rr

It is what I made our turkey in this year and it works wonderful. You can use it to bake pretty much anything you bake in the oven and it does not produce all the heat. We also have a crockpot and a griddle which plug in the wall that do not produce as much heat as cooking in the oven or on the stovetop. I dont mind using the oven now because we have a convection oven but it takes a lot getting used to and figuring out the right temps/times to cook stuff and not burn it.

[Darcy Baldwin]

Originally Posted by Sherri Tierney

I don't mind turning the oven on here. In the past I wouldn't use my oven in the summer but we have some great AC here and the oven doesn't make it too hot unless I'm standing within a few feet of it.

Our oven is dead center in our living space - so all the heat from it sits right in the middle of the room - thus we hate turning it on if we don't have to.

[Sarah8914]

Our oven is in the middle too. And the kitchen is already the hottest place (or, almost). How do you all grill all summer? We'd die from the heat of being outside in the hottest part of the day! Maybe if we had a gas grill it would be different? Just in and out? I don't know! Our back door is about 500 million degrees in the summer.

I love red beans and rice (I use a recipe from Kevin and Amanda but their website isn't responding for me right now: http://www.kevinandamanda.com/recipe...ins-style.html)

And this penne pasta with black beans and mango(we love mangos!): http://esrecipecorner.blogspot.com/2...and-mango.html

[lovely1m]

We have been eating sandwichs, crackers & cheese or hummus. I need to branch out a bit more though. Its too hot to cook. Though tonight, I'm probably just gonna grab something when we go to Target.

[Darcy Baldwin]

Originally Posted by Sarah8914

Our oven is in the middle too. And the kitchen is already the hottest place (or, almost). How do you all grill all summer? We'd die from the heat of being outside in the hottest part of the day! Maybe if we had a gas grill it would be different? Just in and out? I don't know! Our back door is about 500 million degrees in the summer.

Russ does it on the front porch - pops out and throws stuff on, then comes inside until he needs to go back and do something. It's not the safest thing, but it's 104 right now - no way he's going to stay out there over a gas grill, too!!!

[kristijoy]

Originally Posted by Darcy Baldwin

Russ does it on the front porch - pops out and throws stuff on, then comes inside until he needs to go back and do something. It's not the safest thing, but it's 104 right now - no way he's going to stay out there over a gas grill, too!!!

I watched one of my friends houses go up in smoke when I was a kid. They were grilling under the eve. His Dad went to light it and it set the whole side of the house on fire. You better be careful!

[Traci Reed]

I have one of those roaster pans too, it's a lifesaver...you could even put it on the back patio to cook in if you're still worried about the heat!

[Keely~B]

My oven heats up the entire house, no way I use it when it's , let's see 107 at 6:48.

We eat a lot of salads and wraps. We grill a lot. I love to do spring rolls too and cold pasta and pasta salads. Various taco, burrito, tostada variations. Really I try to avoid cooking as much as possible

[taracotta7]

I just made chicken tacos (chicken cooked in crock pot. Shredded and add taco seasoning) w/ fresh pico and homemade guacamole. Seriously the yummiest dinner I have made in a LONG time. I think that was the case for many reasons but mainly because it was nothing that heated up my kitchen and fresher produce that are in season.

[Sarah8914]

ohhh grilling in the front, that's a good idea! We at least have shade from our house in the front... NOTHING in the back!

[YepBrook]

Originally Posted by FlirtatiousBrat

we grill a ton in the summer too!!

we had the BEST BLTs for lunch today. Had the most beautiful tomatoes a local produce stand..was SOOO good

We do BLT's or BLTE's (BLT + a fried egg) a lot in the summer... with chocolate milk shakes. I also get a lot of requests for BLT salad with basil mayo dressing from DH. I serve that with watermelon slices.

We also do tacos & homemade quacamole once a week. Our new favorite summer recipe is this grilled tilapia with mango salsa (FYI if you want to make this, I cut the amount of black pepper in half). I need to find more people with mango trees who like to share!!!

[Amber1279]

lots of sandwiches

[SweetMelissa]

We tend to grill at least two times a week. Hubby calls it "manly cooking". I call it a easy night for me. lol.

We've been doing "dinner & a swim" once a night with the kids. It was our 4 years old idea. We do a simple dinner (take out, sandwiches, wraps, ect) outside then the kids can play on the water slide (since its not a real pool we're not too worried about cramps). Plus since we're outside we've been eating a lot more fruit and letting the kids dip veggies in ranch as much as they want.

In fact we've been eating outside a lot lately (well not these last couple of days because of TS Debbie) but its been really nice.

[Sherri Tierney]

Originally Posted by Darcy Baldwin

Our oven is dead center in our living space - so all the heat from it sits right in the middle of the room - thus we hate turning it on if we don't have to.

I can understand that! We've had that in a few places we've lived.

When we were younger, DH and I both worked together at a cabinet factory. That place got SO hot inside. They didn't have AC and only had a few fans (because in certain areas fans were not a good thing as they could cause bubbles in the finish, etc.). The building was a big metal one and that place heated up so fast. The machines we used put off heat too which made it get hot even faster inside. On top of that, we worked the 3 to midnight shift so it was already mid-day hot when we got there. We carried a big cooler full of ice with us to work, added some water and soaked towels that we wore on our heads/necks to help stay cool. It was rough.

Because it was so hot at work, we didn't turn our AC on at all during the week. We turned it on on Friday right before we went to work and we turned it off on Sunday night before we went to bed. We were able to tolerate the heat a lot better than our friends who went from a cold house to a cold car to an oven of a building without giving their bodies time to adjust. We used fans at home and kept windows open for ventilation and it was bearable, but then again, we were in our early 20's too. Anyway, we didn't COOK anything during the summer. It was just too hot in the house to add to it. We ate tons of salad, cold sandwiches, fruit salad, etc. From May through September the only hot meals we ate were either at my grandma's, a restaurant or something we grilled.

Looking back, gosh, I don't know how we did it. Pretty much every day someone passed out from heat exhaustion at that place. We probably drank 2 gallons of water while we were at work (between DH and I) and we switched out our clothes every 30 minutes or so. We also bought those neck cooler things that swell when you get them wet and we would partially freeze those to use.

[origami]

Okay, it is super HOT here today with a heat advisory and I admit we're just going to pull out a convenience box of Trader Joe's pulled meat brisket, pop it in the microwave, heat it up for dinner, and serve on buns. It's too hot to even think about grilling outside. It is just too hot tonight. We rarely eat this way, but do keep a few emergency items in the freezer and tonight's the night!