meal ideas for summer

[pixxi]

I'm a mom of 4 children (2,6,9,13 yrs). We have a lot of doctor/therapist appts after school. It's also starting baseball season. I'm looking for quick, easy meal ideas that the family will like.

Please share you summer meal ideas!

 

[encinc]

We're in much the same boat. We have evening activities every weeknight. I work until 4:30 two days a week, so on those days, we have all of 30-45 minutes at home before heading out again. In the winter, we rely heavily on the crockpot, but I tend to think of most of my crockpot meals as "winter foods" (chili, stew, soup ...).

For us, it's going to be make ahead as much as possible. I can prepare a salad in the morning. Salad with grilled chicken on top is pretty quick (and even quicker if the chicken is grilled ahead of time). I'm trying to prepare as many side dishes as possible in morning of. Wraps, burritos, quesadillas tend to be pretty quick, especially if the fillings are chopped/ prepped before hand. Pasta salad is a big hit here, and with chickpeas or tuna in it, it can be a full meal.

Looking forward to seeing others' ideas!

 

[averysmom]

This is a good book... it balances quick meals, with BBQ meals and the crock pot. Every meal in the book can be on the table in a hour, and lots in less than an hour.

http://www.cookingfortherushed.com/new/index.php/book6

 

[POOHsie]

Our family loves a cold Tuna & Noodle salad. There are never any leftovers. Make it with a large can of good tuna, drained. Mix with cooked and drained noodles (we prefer Wagon Wheel noodles, if you can find them), mayo, diced onions, optional chopped celery. Salt, pepper, and Celery Salt to taste. Use your own judgment for how much mayo & onion to use. Let the tuna stay a little chunky, don't mush it. Cover the salad and put in fridge.

The Celery Salt doesn't taste like much after just adding it. Later, when the salad is cooled, you should taste it much more. Add more S, P, Celery Salt as needed just before serving.

 

[encinc]

This is a good book... it balances quick meals, with BBQ meals and the crock pot. Every meal in the book can be on the table in a hour, and lots in less than an hour.

http://www.cookingfortherushed.com/new/index.php/book6

Thanks for the recommendation! I just requested it from our local library. An hour sounds like an awfully long time to get dinner on the table to me, but I'm sure there will be some good ideas that will work. I'm pleased to see that it has a summer focus.

I'm also looking for quick vegetarian suggestions if anyone has any. I find we eat a whole lot more meat in the summer time, simply because it's so easy to throw some meat on the grill and serve with a salad.

 

[Pesky]

shrimp scampi -- served with linguine; even our kids gobble it up

grilled chicken -- I just cut the thicker breasts in half to make them thinner (and cook faster), pop in a ziploc with some marinade and then put on the grill before I need to. Easy with corn on the cob and a salad. Or grilled asparagus.

Also, check out your crockpot recipes for pulled pork (pulled pork and coleslaw sandwiches), roast or BBQ chicken and the like. There are some easy time savers in there. Love America's Test Kitchen slow cooker one if only for the instructions about protecting against a crockpot's hot spot.

Also, as fruit is in plentiful supply, think about using that in your meals like in the salads, as a side or part of the entree like shrimp and pineapple skewers or roast pork loin with grilled peaches.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

We have "big salad" day once a week. I put all kinds of ingredients on my kitchen island and make a salad bar. My kids like making their own salad. We also do this with pizza and wraps.

 

[thebeesknees]

I use my crockpot more in the summer than in the winter. It is so nice to throw something in it in the morning and have it ready for whenever we wander in that night, and it doesn't heat up my kitchen like the stove or the oven. Taco filling, shredded BBQ chicken, etc. are easy to do with minimal fuss.

 

[lovemygoofy]

A couple of our favorite veggie things in the summer:

black bean/veggie chili mac

diced up squash green or yello or both
diced up tomato(I use both big one and little ones)
diced onion and jalepeno and bell pepper
corn either cut off the cob or however you have it
small can of tomato sauce
chili seasoning(either homemade or pkt)
elbow macaroni

I saute up all the veggies while boiling the noodles. Once noodles are drained, I add in tomato sauce, chili seasoning, and veggies. I cook for an additional 30 mins on low. I serve with shredded cheese, sour cream and corn bread muffins


Taco pasta salad

any summer veggies diced up(squash, tomatoes, onions, etc..)
cooked pasta spirals
1/2 cup sour cream
taco seasoning(either homemade or pkt)

I mix noodles and veggies with the sour cream taco seasoning mix and serve as a side at grill outs.


Stuffed tomatoes with tuna salad and baked sweet potato fries

Sliced portobella mushrooms grilled up with onions and peppers served as "cheese steak"

Portobella mushrooms stuffed with tuna and baked with cheese as a melt.


Other quick ideas:

"boiled" egg omelettes--take sandwhich size ziploc bags and put in your egg mixture with whatever veggies/toppings the kids like. Zip each bag and put into a boiling pot of water for about 6-8 minutes. Serve with fresh fruit.

Rice and bean burritos served with salad or fresh fruit

Smothered sweet potato fries--saute up small chunks of favorite summer veggies with any kind of sauce(I use a spicy tomato sauce with chili powder) and top with cheese

Sloppy joes--we make ours with half ground turkey and have diced veggies. This is really good on the sweet potato fries also! Serve with fruit and green beans

Homemade pizza--use a store bought crust like pillsbury or even the trader joe crust and make the way you want. I can have a pizza made and ready to eat in under an hour.

Veggie lasagna--this can be made ahead of time. I use whole wheat noodles and splurge on a white sauce.

Veggie quesadillas made with thawed, drained chopped spinach,mushrooms, onions cooked up in a little olive oil and then mixed with cheese and warmed in a tortilla. I serve with a black bean and corn mixture.

 

[brymolmom]

Two things: Prepping ahead of time and leftovers!

While the kids are in bed on one night- brown some ground beef or turkey for tacos. After that's done it's about a 7 minute prep the next night - microwave the meat to warm it up and throw out on the table salsa, lettuce and cheese and any other fixin's your family will like.

On the weekends - make a double meal. If I make a lasagna I make a 2nd pan full of the same. It does take awhile to cook still -but prep work is all done. If you have a programmable oven you can put it in and leave for a practice or whatever and have it start up and cook while you're gone.

We save stuff from every night and have one or two leftover nights a week. Sometimes I might make mac and cheese as an extra side - but we'll use up a couple leftover tacos....Some leftover pasta with sauce...And dh and I might have some leftovers from lunches during the week. Kids love that they get to choose (which they don't on other nights) and it is just a quick warm up and ready to go.

 

[ilovepete]

One of our favorites:
Blackbean Tacos with Lime & Avocado
These are really simple, and I made up the name, but wow they were good! I chopped an onion and sauteed it in the pan with some olive oil. Then, once the onions were almost done, I added a can of black beans and the juice of half a lime. I put garlic powder and salt to taste and cooked them just until they were heated through. Then I used whole wheat tortillas and put some colby jack cheese on the bottom, then the hot beans so they would melt the cheese, and then topped with avocado, tomato, and sour cream. All of us really enjoyed them! It is easy to double if you have a larger family.

 

[shortbun]

One of my shortcuts for a busy week is making a big salad and one night it's a chef salad with chicken,ham,cheese, egg. The next night, the same salad gets garnished with browned ground turkey with taco seasoning,shredded cheese, crunched tortilla chips, avacado and a can of black beans. I might make a double batch of taco seasoned ground turkey and then two nights later make burritos with refried beans and shredded cheese. A large fruit salad will garnish one night and be a main dish the 2nd. My husband and I have spent a Sunday afternoon making enchiladas, lasagna, quiche and chicken-noodle casserole for reheats later in the week. An extra piece of any of this makes a great lunch too!! I keep hardboiled eggs in the frig for salads, egg salad, garnish, lunches.

 

[luv2sewtjr]

I very seldom spend more than 30 minutes getting dinner ready...but I definitely am a planner.

My favorite quick, low meat, ideas:

Shish kabob (assemble the night before and marinade overnight)

Stir fry (prep ahead of time)

I make sure to have fresh fruit cut up and ready to eat. Same with veggies and hummus.

You can also buy a thick cut ham slice and toss it on the grill. Serve with green beans, grilled pineapple or potatoes.

Grilling/broiling seafood is another quick favorite, but I make that once every 10 days or so.

And every once in a while, I just have to give everyone a hearty snack on the way to wherever we are going. Then we'll come home and have sandwiches or breakfast for dinner (my kids especially love that).

Good luck! I have found that it does, indeed, get easier.

 

[crazelion]

Grilled hamburger and grilled veggies

pasta salad and fruit

Chef salad and fruit

Tacos and watermelon.

All do in the summer and fall is grilled out because it hot to cut the oven on. I have gas grilled and george forman.

I worked two jobs in the summer and I rarely have time spend in the kitchen. So I grilled and prep ahead a lot.

 

[cornflake]

Vegetarian quick meals -

Someone mentioned quesadillas and they're really an endlessly changeable option.

You can do spinach, mushrooms, thinly sliced tomatoes, any roast peppers or asparagus or such, refried beans, etc.

Just lay out a tortilla, toss on a little cheese, add a layer of your whatever ingredient, some jalapeno if desired, more cheese, top with another tortilla and you can throw them in a hot oven for 15 minutes, do them in a sautee pan on the stovetop with a bit of oil, or on the grill.

You cam do a salad thing by keeping a bunch of different beans (whatever you like), some chopped onion, sliced mushroom, corn if you like, etc. marinating in the fridge in dressing. Then just take a bag of greens and chuck some of the bean mix on, add some cheese, toss, dinner.

You can also do a giant fruit salad. If you buy fruit and cut it all up at once (couple melons, pineapple, kiwis, berries, etc.) and store well, you can add some just-then stuff (apples, banana, etc.) and dish up big bowls and serve with greek yogurt. Take the plain yogurt, add a bit of honey or sweetner, some vanilla extract, and it's a fantastic fruit dipping thing, with lots of protein.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Scrambled eggs and bacon or sausage.

Brown up enough hambuger for 3 meals. One half can be seasoned for taco's. The other half add pizza sauce too and make pizza burgers- I take hamburger buns and depress the centers and spoon in the meat, top with shredded mozzarella and a couple of peperoni's. Toast them in the oven of 10-12 minutes. The 3rd batch can be used for sloppy joes.

Pasta and meatballs

Ham with macaroni and cheese.

Tyson Breaded chicken filet, macaroni and cheese and a veggie

Hot dogs wrap with cheese and then wrapped in a crescent roll then baked.

 

[mhsjax]

On Saturdays my mom never cooked, so she would go between grilled items and sandwiches. One thing she did do to break things up a bit was what she called "cold plate" It was just any type of lunch meat, no bread, or tuna salad, pickles , olives, cheese, slice tomatoes. maybe some potato salad and or cole slaw, chips, fruit. YOu get the idea. Everyone could put on the plate what they wanted and no cooking.

 

[nikkistevej]

We do tacos or taco salad almost once a week in summer. Grilled chicken caesar salad is easy also.

 

[mrsklamc]

I've been doing toasted sandwiches in our toaster oven.

Sunday I read in the paper a suggestion for lunches I'm going to try- A lady wrote in that when she gets home from the store she immediately takes a loaf of bread and makes PB sandwiches out of the entire thing, individually wraps them, puts them back in the bread bag and throws it in the freezer. I'm going to steal this idea, but add jelly. She said if you grab one on the way out the door in the AM it is thawed by lunch.

 

[TiffanyK]

Here's a post I wrote about Summer Crockpot Meals. Hope it helps!