It is SOOOO hot here in central CA that I haven't really been feeling like cooking or eating lately....so here's today's homework. Please post your favorite summer meal plans with recipes if applicable.
One of my favorites is pasta salad with grilled chicken or grilled fish. My pasta salad has really gotten creative in recent months. The one that I made this weekend had ww pasta, radishes, olives, cucumbers, grated carrots, yellow bell pepper, grape tomatoes, and Paul Newman's balsamic vinaigrette for a dressing. It was SOOOOOOOO good! last night I had a bit for a snack with a tablespoon of feta on top....it was DELISH!!!!
What are your favorite summer meals?
Blessings,
Lori
Re-committing myself to a healthy lifestyle that will include regular (and increasing) exercise, and following the baby steps rule on food. 6/17/08
Posts: 3149 | Location: California | Registered: March 11, 2004
Well, call me crazy, but I don't like cooking on summer days...and sometimes making the pasta salad may involve cooking...FOR ME...as I usually don't plan ahead...SIGH.
What I LOVE to have on summer days..is simple. I like having a chocolate protein shake with ice cubes and 1/2 a banana in it (sooooo yummy)...with some strawberries on the side. It's iced, cools you down and is good for you. Perhaps not "normal" summer fare, but i love it!
Any kind of salad with or without grilled chicken breast. We also love to grill out A LOT in the summertime.
Not a meal but some of our favorite summer foods are ice cold watermellon, cantelope, strawberries and fresh sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. Mostly if we grill the main course we will have some type of salad and/or fresh fruits as sides.
I also like chicken salad sandwiches w/fruit. Iced teas, lemonaide and popcicles are also summertime staples.
It seems like it's always hot here in FL. And with today the beginning of hurricane season, I"m dreading summer. However, my favorite memory of a summer meal was when Mom would go to the local farmer and get fresh tomatoes, corn, green beans and fresh fruit. We'd have a vegetarian meal that was SO yummy. Pretty good except that she cooked the green beans in bacon fat...it's a southern thing (even though we lived in Chicago!!).
Mel
The miracle isn't that I finished, the miracle is that I had the courage to start. - John "the Penguin" Bingham [/I]
Posts: 593 | Location: Nashville | Registered: April 05, 2004
it does get hot in South Dakota, and is usually accompanied by humidity that makes it worse. So we will go for the easiest thing possible.
We eat many wraps, almost like pizza without the sauce. Even my boys like them. I put a tray of vegetables, meats, and cheese out, they create their own. I have sauces like ranch, honey mustard, salsa and balsamic vinegar out to use for dipping or put right on the sandwich.
We'll grill meat, and then just have a couple of side salads to eat. Fruit, green vegetables, grilled green beans.
My motto is in hot weather, either make it cool or eat out. Up until last year we didn't have AC in our home, so it was a lot of 10:00 meals just to be able to eat something and not feel hotter for it.
It's never too late to get it right.
Posts: 3473 | Location: Central USA | Registered: March 11, 2004
OK, so not terribly balanced meals, but they were fun!
Also in the category of not healthy but a fun meal that my brother and I fondly remember...banana splits for dinner. It only happend a couple of times a year but it was a favorite treat! My nieces still don't believe us when we tell them Grammy gave us banana splits for dinner...hehe!
I used to use that a lot before we joined dinner coop. I used to bake potatoes in it and then make potato salad and a sandwich. One time, I made a lasagna... but the dog got it.
It is more like crock pot cooking than oven cooking... but I REALLY liked not using the kitchen. It is great for chili and brown rice.
Denise
Posts: 8722 | Location: Silicon Valley, CA | Registered: March 17, 2004
Originally posted by Coaster Girl: I've been in a fish taco mood on warm days. Hot hasn't happened yet. I just grill some fish (seasoned with salt & pepper), spritz with lemon, flake and place on a tortilla with whatever I happen to have on hand. Very tasty.
Laura
OOOH! I think that we'll have fish tacos with our mahi mahi tonight!
Blessings,
Lori
Re-committing myself to a healthy lifestyle that will include regular (and increasing) exercise, and following the baby steps rule on food. 6/17/08
Posts: 3149 | Location: California | Registered: March 11, 2004
I've been in a fish taco mood on warm days. Hot hasn't happened yet. I just grill some fish (seasoned with salt & pepper), spritz with lemon, flake and place on a tortilla with whatever I happen to have on hand. Very tasty.
Laura
Life is like a roller coaster, with lots of ups and downs, but the curves, spirals, loops and corkscrews are what make life interesting.
When I was growing up in Pennsylvania, my mom had two special summer meals that were designed, I think, to keep my sister and me busy and to minimize cooking time on hot days. One was strawberry shortcake. Yep, Mom would bake one big shortcake (which may be an oxymoron, but that's how it worked at our house)and sis and I would clean and hull the berries till we were red to our wrists. And that was dinner.
Later in the summer, we'd have corn on the cob and only corn on the cob for dinner. We'd be out on the back porch steps shucking a dozen or so ears while Mom boiled as many as the pot would hold at a time. My dad was usually good for at least five ears.
OK, so not terribly balanced meals, but they were fun!
Ditto me too on the pasta salad. I use ww pasta with two colors of chopped bell pepper (red and yellow usually), shredded carrots, chopped red onion, sometimes shredded red cabbage, sometimes cucumber, sometimes snow peas, and make a homemade vinaigrette of seasoned rice wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey and olive oil with fresh ground black pepper. YUM!
Also do a lot of grilling in the summer. For instance, for lunches this week I just grilled up some marinated chicken breast tenderloins and then chopped them and they're going on top of a big salad. No cooking in the house hence no dirty dishes...I'd just spent the afternoon FLYchatting to clean the kitchen so I wasn't about to dirty it up immediately. hehe
Also tend to do more quesadillas and homemade salsa in the summer because tomatoes are so good and I don't have to use the stove (I have a quesadilla maker that heats up and cools down quickly, so no hot kitchen).
Personal Healthy Habits Challenge - 10/1 to 12/31/08: 1. Exercise: Get back to consistently working out 3-5 X week. 2. Food: Get back to consistently preparing healthy lunches for the week with increased veg servings. 3. Behavior: Reduce intake of sweets.
Posts: 7336 | Location: Rehoboth Beach, DE | Registered: March 12, 2004
I'm not going to be too much help to you Lori as my favorite summer meal is also pasta salad: ww pasta, tomatoes, onions, green onions, feta cheese and Paula's roasted garlic no fat dressing. You can add olives and chicken too.
Out of our beliefs are born deeds; out of our deeds we form habits; out of our habits grows our character; and on our character we build our destiny.
