HOT day meals? (it's in the 90's over here)...

[Oriole]

Can you share your favorite meals for a very, super, extremely hot day?

Thanks!

[Thursday Girl]

we NEED this thread!

we do the classic cook out in many different forms just because cooking on the grill means we aren't heating up our house.

Salads with the protein thrown in.

pasta salad, again w/ protein in it to make it a complete meal.

I'll raid my recipe box later, I have my box seperated into "Spring/Summer" and "Winter/Fall"

[Carhootel]

salads with grilled chicken on top, caprese salad, sandwiches, nothing interesting really...

[catnip]

My favorite hot weather dinner:

2 cups boiling water
2 cups bulghur wheat (swap in quinoa for extra protein and gluten free.)

1 bunch parsley, chopped in a food processor
1 sprig mint, chopped in a food processor

1/2 red onion, diced
1 clove garlic, crushed

1/2 cup dried fruit (I use a combo of raisins and chopped unsulphured apricots)
1/4 cup chopped roasted almonds
2 cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained

Fresh ground pepper
Juice of one lemon
2 TBS olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

Combine bulghur and water, cover and set aside for at least 10 minutes. I usually leave it for about an hour so it has cooled to room temp. Combine with the rest of the ingredients and chill.

I usually make this first thing in the AM so that it is cold and ready to eat at dinner time.

[JessicaS]

I like spring rolls with shrimp I usually just buy some cooked shrimp from NFS if I plan on doing that. I julienne cucumber and carrots and also serve sprouts, spinach and plum sauce. It might not be right or traditional but we like it and it is nice and cool.

We do like to grill when it is really hot.

I like a lot of salads and sandwiches and pasta salad.

Watermelon is fantastic when it is hot. I have bought two watermelons in the past two weeks.

When it is just unbearingly hot I do sometimes cook at night. I will make some soup or get things ready for salads like cook bacon, chicken, hardboiled eggs or beets.

[Magelet]

If it's really too hot to cook, I'll do sandwhiches or big salads.

If I can cook at some point (like a day in advance or something) I like to make a really big batch of lentil salad and we'll eat it for two or three days.

[lil_earthmomma]

Yay for the big salad!

Some of my faves:

BLT salad with a garlic aioli type dressing
Grilled chicken caesar salad
Ginger steak salad
Chimichurri steak salad
(great for leftover steak. Don't usually have leftovers? Throw 1 extra on and it will feed 2 or even 3 if some are littles!)
Honey dijon grilled pork chop salad
Avacado shrimp salad (no cook one!!! Defrost cooked shrimp, cube avacadoes (1/2 to 1 each) halve cherry/grape tomatoes or dice reg tomatoes, slice in some purple onion. Dress with green goddess dressing. To make it fancy, slice the avacadoes in half the long way, and mix everything else up and serve it in the avacado. I love doing this for company. It looks pretty and is SO yummy. Just make sure to squeeze lots of lime (or lemon) over your avacadoes so they don't brown.)
Southwestern grilled shrimp salad (I just make the dressing out of some of my homemade taco mix (will share recipe if wanted) sour cream, a dab of mayo, squeeze of lemon and shredded cheddar. Mmmmmmmmmm!)
Greek salad with grilled lamb
Cobb salad with warm bacon tarragon dressing

Other hot weather meals we do are:

Lettuce wraps. usually with shrimp, but sometimes diced chicken or leftover beef. Tomato, onion, shredded cheese, salsa, sour cream, peppers etc.

Pulled pork in the crockpot. The crockpot is great in hot weather as it doesn't really heat up the kitchen and you don't have to stand over it!

And obviously we grill! We grill EVERYTHING, or use our smoker bbq. Slow smoked ribs and caprese salad for supper tonight in fact!

[cristeen]

Taco salad
Chicken Tropical salad
Duck salad

Those are the 3 that DH is willing to eat in lieu of a meal. Although I can take sliced meat and put it on top of a salad and he'll eat that.

Beyond that, we're eating leftovers, whatever I cooked earlier in the day, or whatever I tossed on the grill/smoker.

[JessicaS]

I do like watermelon and feta for lunch but that isn't "meat!" enough for dh when he is here.

[JessicaS]

Originally Posted by lil_earthmomma

Lettuce wraps. usually with shrimp, but sometimes diced chicken or leftover beef. Tomato, onion, shredded cheese, salsa, sour cream, peppers etc.

Oh yes, we love lettuce wraps!

Pulled pork in the crockpot. The crockpot is great in hot weather as it doesn't really heat up the kitchen and you don't have to stand over it!

That is really the main thing I use the crockpot for Stick things in it with barbeque sauce.

[rhiOrion]

corn and blackbean salad
tomato and chickpea salad
bruschetta'

but, i say that, and today it's 91 out and i'm making vegetable soup

[Tuesday]

Originally Posted by abimommy

I do like watermelon and feta for lunch but that isn't "meat!" enough for dh when he is here.

I love this combo too - with feta or haloom cheese especially. And my DH feels exactly the same way as yours.

[Oriole]

Originally Posted by abimommy

I do like watermelon and feta for lunch but that isn't "meat!" enough for dh when he is here.

That's my worry.
DP loves veggies, but he's never really filled unless there is meat and carbs heh
I like the idea of wraps and salads with chicken.

Keep 'em coming!

[ledzepplon]

We do a lot of grilling. I'll marinate and grill a bunch of chicken breasts and have them for salads, wraps, sandwiches, and by themselves for the next couple days.

We also do salad nicoise (tuna, lettuce, tomato, potatoes, hard boiled eggs, and green beans--you can boil the eggs and steam the beans and potatoes in the morning when it's cooler, since the salad is served cold) or soft tacos (since it only takes a few minutes to sautee some ground beef, and the rest is cold).

I'm glad you started this thread, as I know it's going to be heating up around here very soon as well!

[rosie29]

Chilled canteloupe soup. Not super-filling, but good for those days when you don't feel like eating much. It also makes a good smoothie, or breakfast item, or side dish.