Well, here we are in the dog days of summer. This year seems hotter than usual to me, maybe because I’m getting older and less tolerant of temperature swings. Or, maybe because 100 degrees is just plain H.O.T.
On days like this, it just feels too hot to cook. Cranking up a stove or oven and standing over it seems impossible.
The hard part is, my kids still want to eat when it’s hot outside. Imagine that?!
I’d love to share with you what we eat when it’s just too hot outside to cook.
A HUGE salad! This is actually one of my favorite dinners, hot outside or not. We chop up whatever we have in the fridge, toss it in a large bowl, and call it dinner. Our very favorite salad is fresh lettuce from the gardens, chopped leftover chicken, bacon, cucumbers, peppers, carrots, sliced hard-boiled eggs, avocado, and toasted pecans, all tossed with Ranch dressing - check out our recipe here. We’re fortunate that our kids love this meal, too. They usually have a piece of fruit alongside.
Outdoor Grill. This is a summer staple for many. We love to grab some grass-fed burgers and chop up some vegetables for an easy dinner that keeps the heat out of the kitchen. We chop and skewer onions, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, and zucchini, then brush with a little oil, salt and pepper, and boom! An easy meal everyone loves!
Smoothies and Popcorn. I mean, we all have those dinners where we throw stuff at our kids and hope it will fill them up, right? This is our version. We take some frozen fruit, almond or goat milk, yogurt, a little honey or stevia, and some collagen (for extra protein), and blend it up. The kids feel like they’re getting a treat, and we only spent a couple minutes whipping it together. The popcorn is quick and easy to make on the stove-top. Our kids especially love that we grow the popcorn ourselves as it always feels like a treat.
Snack-y Dinner. This is hands down our kids favorite. It’s easy to fill plates with whatever you have on hand and call it a meal. This could include string cheese, leftover cooked chicken, raw veggies with dip, fresh fruit, and crackers. This is especially popular in our home if we put everything on a big platter in the middle of the table and the kids get to grab whatever they like. In our home, the veggies are the first to go, especially if there’s Ranch dip or fresh goat cheese around.
So, there you have it…a sneak peek inside our kitchen when it’s just too hot outside to cook. I know we’ll be longing for these hot and humid days in a few months time, so for now we’ll enjoy them as much as we can while trying to stay out of a hot kitchen.
What are your go-to meals when it’s too hot to cook? Comment below!