Too hot to cook!

In PA where I live a lot of the homes had stoves in the basement because of the heat back in the days before AC. My house had one down there when I moved in. I donated it to one of the local churches.
 
No a/c here, so we often don't cook in the hot weather. This week's "cooking" has included chicken patties in the air fryer (diced, put on a tortilla with bagged salad and voila, wraps for dinner), going out to the local Thai place (they have a/c, it was 100 here on Tuesday afternoon and we went out for a/c, didn't care where or what we ate) and last night we had chicken on the grill with bagged salad.
Currently, it's 30 degrees cooler here than what it's been the past few afternoons. Tonight, I'll cook.
 

It's not the cooking part, its the eating heavy food in the heat that gets me. Hubby grills a lot of chicken, hamburgers, etc. I eat a lot of salads. Right now, I'm not eating anything but soft food because I had what was left of my bottom teeth pulled about 3 weeks ago and am still sore and the dentures don't fit well. It's been my experience with partials that after about 3 trips to the dentist to get them adjusted, I throw up my hands and get the dremel out and fix them myself. Today will be trip #2 and I'm not holding out much hope but we will see. Meanwhile, I can eat shredded chicken and oddly, just about anything made with hamburger and grilled fish. Otherwise, it's soup, smoothies, canned ravioli and eggs for me.
 
I had cottage cheese and a low carb wrap. Works for me! Too hot for anything else. Boston weather is bi-polar, it was a high of about 70 last week and yesterday it was 102! Tomorrow back down around the 70's and the high 60's over the weekend!
Here in NJ I’ve had the a/c off and windows open up until this week, it was 100 yesterday. It’s annoying because it rained a lot on those 70 degree days, no rain for the 100 degree ones which means having to go outside to water.
 
I had cottage cheese and a low carb wrap. Works for me! Too hot for anything else. Boston weather is bi-polar, it was a high of about 70 last week and yesterday it was 102! Tomorrow back down around the 70's and the high 60's over the weekend!
And after 102 on Tuesday and high 90's yesterday, it is currently 68 degrees at 3pm and cloudy...
 
We do cold salads when it is “miserably hot”, Ie a Tuna salad (tuna, macaroni, peas, onion, celery, and mayo).

Our other 2 go-to salads when it is this hot are taco salad and chef’s salad. We usually have cooked taco meat in the freezer, so literally just needs to be defrosted and heated up.
 
We do cold salads when it is “miserably hot”, Ie a Tuna salad (tuna, macaroni, peas, onion, celery, and mayo).

Our other 2 go-to salads when it is this hot are taco salad and chef’s salad. We usually have cooked taco meat in the freezer, so literally just needs to be defrosted and heated up.
I made tuna pasta salad and chicken rice curry salad with mandarin oranges yesterday, the rice salad was a huge bowl (2 pounds chicken, about 6 cups rice), my two 22 year olds are home and I woke up this morning to a cup left. These were my mom’s go to hot weather salads.
 
One of my favorite things to make when it’s hot out is chicken caesar pasta salad. It’s so easy to make and so good. I also always make sure to have lunch meat, sub rolls, and toppings on hand when I know it’s going to heat up. We will often make sandwiches and have chips and fruit as sides.
 
I made tuna pasta salad and chicken rice curry salad with mandarin oranges yesterday, the rice salad was a huge bowl (2 pounds chicken, about 6 cups rice), my two 22 year olds are home and I woke up this morning to a cup left. These were my mom’s go to hot weather salads.
The chicken rice curry salad sounds awesome! Off to Pinterest to find a recipe!
 
I grabbed grilled chicken one day while I was in town this week to help keep that oven off.

I kept putting the towels outside to dry, to keep the house, cool.

Literally this week, I said, I could not live in Texas.
 
I grabbed grilled chicken one day while I was in town this week to help keep that oven off.

I kept putting the towels outside to dry, to keep the house, cool. I hang dry everything else in the house.

Literally this week, I said, I could not live in Texas.
 
The chicken rice curry salad sounds awesome! Off to Pinterest to find a recipe!
It’s rice, cubed chicken breast, mayo, curry powder, scallions, and a small can of drained mandarin oranges (it’s an oldy, I have it hand written by my late mother). It was of her most popular pot luck dishes.
 
It’s rice, cubed chicken breast, mayo, curry powder, scallions, and a small can of drained mandarin oranges (it’s an oldy, I have it hand written by my late mother). It was of her most popular pot luck dishes.
Thank you! I’m trying this tomorrow, we are expecting another hot day in our area. On my Pinterest trying to find this, I did in fact go down the rabbit hole, and found many chicken salad recipes that had curry, but none with mandarin oranges. Your post opened up (via the Pinterest route) so many chicken/curry options…I’m really excited to try a bunch of them!
 
I thought of another thing we make for hot summer days-a chicken salad that we put on croissants: the main ingredients are cooked chicken, celery, apples, pecans, grapes mayo with a little bit of hidden ranch powder. The recipe I use is from Pinterest, and is a copy-cat recipe from Fancy Nancy. (I have no idea who/what Fancy Nancy is.

We buy from Costco the almost 3 pound bags of cooked rotisserie chicken meat, and split it into 3 “almost 1 pound bags”, it freezes well, and is perfect for the salads on hot days!

And please, do not get me started on the almost 3 pounds. No recipe calls for 15.33 ounces of Chicken.
 














Save Up to 30% on Rooms at Walt Disney World!

Save up to 30% on rooms at select Disney Resorts Collection hotels when you stay 5 consecutive nights or longer in late summer and early fall. Plus, enjoy other savings for shorter stays.This offer is valid for stays most nights from August 1 to October 11, 2025.
CLICK HERE







New Posts







DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest

Back
Top