Well, it’s blazing hot outside.  If you’re like me, you try not to turn on the stove if you can help it.  Here are some tips to keep you out of the kitchen and keep your house cooler.

 1.  When it’s time to cook something that will freeze well (such as lasagnas, spaghetti sauce, casseroles, chili, etc.) make a double or triple batch for future meals.  These are also great for days when you’re in a hurry.  It will prevent you from spending money on eating out.  Check out my 25 freezing tips.

 2. Prepare larger quantities of meat in advance for future meals and freeze it.  I’ve done this before with hamburger.  When hamburger or ground chuck goes on sale, cook it and drain the fat, then freeze it into the portion sizes you need.  These will come in handy when making spaghetti, lasagna, tacos, shepherd’s pie, etc. 

 3.  Put the crock pot to use.  Toss the ingredients in the crock pot and come back in 6-8 hours for a nice hot meal.  Here are my favorite crock pot recipes or here’s a link to a carnival of crock pot recipes.

 4.  Try simple meals.  Eggs, omelets, cottage cheese with fruit, etc.  You don’t have to spend an hour cooking to enjoy dinner.

 5.  Turn on the grill (or get the charcoal started).  You can prepare your entire meal on the grill.  Grill chicken, potatoes, and vegetables all at once.  Here is the carnival of the recipes, grill edition that I hosted.  You’ll probably find some good recipe ideas there.  Sometimes I grill extra food for lunch the next day.  I also like to grill extra chicken so that we can have salads the next night.  Grilled chicken is yummy on salad! 

 6.  Take time to try new recipes for salads and sandwiches.  Salads and sandwiches don’t have to be boring.  Try this one for oriental ramen noodle salad.  It’s a great side dish and has been a top read at Thrifty Mommy for a while. 

 7.  Try canned foods.  Why spend hours cooking beans (and heating up your house) when you can buy them in a can?   

 8.  Look for frozen foods that you can use for meals.  Sometimes when I’m in a rush, I use the Delimex frozen taquitos.  Add some Mexican rice and canned refried beans and you have an easy meal that doesn’t heat up the house too much.

 9.  Share with friends.  When I lived in Virginia I had a really great friend to share with.  Sometimes she called me on the way home from work to see if I had anything good to eat.  I’d share my pot of chili or give her half a cake (we couldn’t eat it all, nor did we need to).  She would have us over for dinner regularly or she’d share with us.  Neither of us had children and it kept us from slaving over a stove and it was also a nice treat to try new things.

10.   Try convenience foods, within reason.  I’m not big on convenience foods because of the price, but sometimes they’re worth it.  This week I needed some cole slaw mix.  I decided it was worth paying $1.99 for the 1 lb package of pre-cut cole slaw rather than buying the cabbage and carrots and cutting it up.  It didn’t cost me much extra to buy it pre-cut.  Watch out for pre-cut produce or marinated meats.  They’re pretty costly.

11.  Enjoy fresh vegetables.  You can make a lot of different foods that don’t require much or any cooking.  Try making a pasta salad.  You just cook the rotini noodles and then you can add fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, and other fresh vegetables, then drizzle with Italian dressing.  Try sliced vegetables with a cold ranch dip.  Have a tomato sandwich to go with your pasta salad or add some ham if you need to have some meat.

12.  Try instant foods.  I use these very sparingly because of preservatives.  If you’re in a hurry though, you can open a can of spaghetti sauce, try some of the precooked rice, or mix up some Hamburger Helper.

13.  Cook your food at night.  It’s too hot during the day to try and cool my house while cooking.  Sometimes I will wait until the evening to do my baking.  Last week I waited until evening to make my husband’s birthday cake and the pasta salad and cucumber salad for his party.  It saved me some stress too!

14.  Try smoothies.  Just writing this makes me crave something cold and refreshing.  Take advantage of the fresh fruit we’re having and make a smoothie for breakfast or lunch.  Making smoothies also enables you to try fruits that maybe you normally wouldn’t buy.  Sounds like a great trick way for me to get my kids to eat their fruit!

15. Try using a toaster oven or small convection oven.  I grew up with my mom using a toaster oven and I love it!  I can use it to cook muffins, little pizzas, baked fries, chicken nuggets, and more.  Try these toaster oven recipes.  A great way to cook without turning on the stove.

I know I didn’t cover all the ways to keep from heating up the stove or working hard in the hot kitchen.  Please share your summer cooking tips in the comment section.  Thanks!

image from sxc.hu

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Revka Stearns presents Child-approved Corn Grilled in Its Shuck posted at Little Fun; Little Learning.  Revka gives us an easy recipe for corn that her kids love.  Easy, nutritious, and the kids love it . . . sounds good to me!

Revka Stearns presents Grilled seasoned potatoes posted at The Porch Light.  Another easy dish on the grill.  In case you’re wondering, Revka is giving us three recipes to make for a complete meal.

Revka Stearns presents Zesty Mustard Chicken at Rants, Raves, and Rejects.  This is Revka’s final recipe to give us a meal with three healthy grill recipes.  This recipe is from Taste of Home’s “Prize Winning Recipes “Clip and Keep” Recipe Card Collection.”  You know those Taste of Home Recipes are yummy!

Karen Weideman (that’s me!) presents My Favorite Easy Grill Recipes posted at Thrifty Mommy.  Karen gives us several of her favorite easy and nutritious grill recipes.

Shawn Lea at Everything and Nothing gives us a recipe for Grilled  Portabello Salad.  I really like mushrooms and this sounds great!

Niki Anders presents The-A-TEAM » Grilled Herbed Corn posted at The-A-TEAM.  Momma A isn’t too busy with her three kids to grill some delicious herbed corn.

Shinie presents Recipe Rant: Baby Back Ribs posted at “Well, I guess this is growing up”.  Shinie suggests putting the ribs on the grill before adding the sauce.  This helps give the ribs a BBQ taste.

Marsha Hudnall presents Healthy Recipe: Grilled Sweet Summer Corn posted at A Weight Lifted.  Marsha gives us a healthy recipe for corn at her weight loss blog.

Wee Wifey at 2 Fat Leaders presents A Trio of Grilled Desserts.  I’ve never heard of making desserts on the grill, but it sounds good to me!

The BBQ Brit presents Recipe: Beer Can Chicken posted at The BBQ Brit.  I’ve never had chicken grilled with beer, but the picture looks good.

Riannan at In the Headlights gives us Grilled Lemon Chicken.  This sounds more tasty than my recipe.  I just sprinkle on the lemon pepper seasoning from the grocery store.  lol

DeputyHeadmistress presents Grilling Shish-Ka-Bobs posted at The Common Room.  She gives us a great idea for hosting a shish-ka-bob get together.

Thelly presents Grilled Chicken Recipes – Chipotle Chicken Wraps posted at Chicken Recipes – Recipes for Chicken.  Thelly even gives us the calories, fat content, and other nutritional information.

Thelly presents Chinois Grilled Lamb Chops posted at Famous Recipes.

Kevin from Seriously Good gives us a recipe for Barbequed Beans.  Kevin is serious about these beans.  He says that “if it takes 7 hours to produce perfect beans, then sobeit”.  This recipe sounds like it would make some perfect beans which would go great with any of these other grill recipes.

Triticale the wheat/rye guy tells us how he makes Bratburgers.

Mommy the Maid presents South West Pork Kebabs posted at Mommy the Maid.  The ingredients she uses for the marinade sound delicious.

Other stuff

GP presents Sweet Impressions posted at INNside Innkeeping in Montana.  Looks like a yummy treat for summer!

Edmund Jarvis presents Puerto Rican Cuisine posted at Caribbean Island Cuisine.  Edmund provides us with a variety of recipes for a Puerto Rican Cuisine.

Amy Allen Clark presents My Vice: Starbucks Iced Peppermint Mochas posted at Amy Allen Clark.  Amy tells us a very thrifty way to get that Starbucks fix. 

Dr. Joel Fuhrman gives us Nutrient-Rich Breakfast Invasion at Disease Proof.  Joel provides three nutritious breakfast recipes.

Bill presents IHOP Buttermilk Pancakes posted at Pancake Recipes.

Bill presents Pork Chops Slow Cooker Recipes posted at Slow Cooker Recipes.

Matthew Stevenson presents Excellent Fish & Chicken posted at Food for thought, by archangelG.  This recipe combines eastern flavors with a Thai/Oriental flavour, while at the same time, obeying a western/european influence.

Meredith Mathews presents It’s National Chocolate Ice Cream Day! posted at Lemonade Stand.  For National Ice Cream Day, Meredith gives us a copy cat recipe for Ben & Jerry’s chocolate ice cream.

Kelby Carr presents Mango Canteloupe Homemade Baby Food Recipe posted at MomWiki Feed.  This mix of mango and canteloupe serves as a serious power homemade baby food. Both fruits are dense with nurients per serving. 

Next week’s carnival will be hosted at Ramblings of Silver Blue.  Visit the Blog Carnival site to enter your submission.

Wow!  That’s a lot of recipes.  I’m tired, but I’m looking forward to trying some of these.  I’m growing tired of the same stuff, so this will be a nice change.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Here are some of my favorite easy grill recipes:

Potatoes:

Wash potatoes, slice them (1/4 in?) leaving skins on, and cut slices in half. Place potatoes on a large sheet of aluminum foil. Add several pats of butter or margarine or spray with fat free butter spray. Sprinkle with McCormick’s Grill Mates Montreal Chicken seasoning. Fold the foil around the potatoes. (Sometimes I cover them again with another sheet to secure them properly.) Cook 30-45 minutes until tender. Be sure to turn the packet over every 10-15 minutes to help keep them from sticking.

Cabbage:

Slice cabbage and place onto sheet of foil. Top with pats of butter and season with McCormick’s Grill Mates Montreal Chicken seasoning. Close packet and cook on grill 30-45 minutes until tender. Turn packet every 10-15 to prevent sticking.

Notice these recipes are very similar? You can also follow the same directions using squash and zucchini. The McCormick Montreal Chicken seasoning has a great taste!

Post from: Thrifty Mommy