I like pasta salads with tuna or immitation crab added. You could add chicken to it.

sub sandwiches, different kinds of pasta, potato or veggie salads. Throw meat and vegies on the grill. Kabobs. Fresh veggie tray or fresh fruit tray.

Grill lots and lots of veggies brushed with olive oil and a bit of garlic; they work well cold or room temp on top of salads or added to cooked pasta. The more the merrier on our pasta with chunks of mozarella cheese for protein or a leftover grilled chicken breast.

I either eat a sandwich or a salad when it is really hot. Just hate the thought of cooking, when it's as hot as it been here.

Moni

I have been craving my mother's tomato aspic. No one around here serves it :o(

Great thread Patti! This is hopefully going to help alot of us out! It is way to hot to cook in the 5th wheel and way to hot to even fire up the charcoal.....so I am thinking everyone just does what we have been doing...salads and sandwhichs....post your recpies....!! Stacy

Here's one of our hot weather favorites.

Some may call it quesidillos (sp) but we just call them cheese tortillas. lol.

Cheese Tortillas (easy sides follow)

2 flour tortillas with chedder inside. Cook in pan on stove until crisp & cheese melted. Cut in quarters.

COLD summer sausage, sliced thin.

One of those boxes of pasta salad, or fix a green salad.

Voila! What's great is the cheese tortillas are great left over and micro-waved.

I wish heat affected my appetite!

lots of tomato sandwiches....fresh bread, fresh tomatoes, vadalia onion sliced thin, kraft mayo, salt & pepper....best white trash cookin in the south....lol lol lol....oh you have to eat it over the sink and follow up with fresh watermelon....dang...bring on the heat!!!!!

shrimp and watermelon salad
grilled salmon
baby back ribs on the grill
steak or chicken on the grill

fresh fruit instead of potatoes on the side

I don't. I had ice cream for dinner the last 2 nights. LOL!

We eat the same, even if the weather is hot. Tonight I'm making chimichungas, smothered with green chile sauce, topped with lettuce, tomato & sour cream. YUM!

I like your idea, Bearcat! I thought about sitting in the bathtub all day and just add ice cubes when the water gets warm.

Linda, tuna pasta salad will be on my "make list" for sure. Glenda's aspic sounds good. I haven't had that since I was a kid and didn't care for it all that much if I recall, but it sounds good and cool. Harry usually has his 'mater sandwich for lunch. Unfortunately, NOT over the sink!

Here are some things I thought of. I can't get out of the kitchen entirely, but it'd help if I could get things done early in the day and put together easily for dinner.

Taco salad
Zucchini boats
Stir-fry
Tuna salad (I'll add pasta to that one)
Shrimp-rice salad
Zucchini boats
Cold soups (one drawback--too many calories since most of them use a lot of cream)
Ribs with corn on the cob
Chicken breast grilled with salad with strawberry dressing
Pimento cheese sandwiches
Ham salad sandwiches
Deli corned beef sandwiches
BLT's

I've been grilling on my stovetop griddle because our patio is on the west side of the house and it's too hot to go out there to cook on the big grill.

I bought a watermelon and cut the whole thing into chunks. I have two really big bowls plus a small one we ate last night. So we have enough watermelon to last a week at least.

So here I sit planning menus for the summer and haven't a clue what's for dinner tonight. Oh, well!

I like to make a stuffed tomato with chicken salad,(buy a roaster done from the deli) on a bed of Boston lettuce and serve grilled French bread slices w/it.
When I make shrimp salad-I use the tiny 'o' ring pasta, hard boiled eggs, celery, onion, shrimp and add a little Old Bay to the mayo as well as some Catalina dressing or 1000 Island. Yum!
Another is a "Cold Platter'..arrange lettuce on individual platters, add a scoop of chicken or tuna salad, a cigar roll of boiled ham, a scoop of mac or potato salad, and arrange hard boiled egg slices, pickled beets slices, cottage cheese topped w/fresh fruit, and serve w/a slice of crusty grilled artisan bread.

In hot weather I love BLTs for dinner. We also like main course salads -- a taco salad, chicken and cantaloupe, or June pea and shrimp salad. We sometimes buy lots of sliced cheese, cold meats and rolls and make submarine sandwiches (hero).

If none of that appeals to you, then just make reservations!

a fried green tomato blt is fantastic served on a buttered grilled hoagie and topped with mozzarella cheese

Haven't made that in years, but so good.

I tend to like to eat out more when it's really hot and humid. Relax in the air conditioning. Otherwise I like to make pasta salads, macaroni/beef hotdish (served hot or cold) sandwiches, salad/slaw. Something cool and crisp often goes well on a hot sticky day. Cold fried chicken or the like is good too. Picnic food. Tacos, quesadillas or wraps. I like to make a "pizzadilla" where I use tortillas, sausage, pepperoni, mozzarella, parmesan (basic pizza toppings) add some pizza sauce and microwave or pan fry. Might even put something into the Nesco and have a hot meal and leftovers served cold. Or cook it, refrigerate it and eat off it for a couple days (pot roast, ribs etc)

You all have some great ideas. I hope it's helping all of us get through these hot days. I especially like the "eat out" posts! ;-)

Unless we're grilling I don't cook at all when it's hot. We do takeout like Togo's sandwiches, salads or just go out and eat somewhere with AC.

Taco salad, chicken salad (sometimes curried sometimes just plain chicken salad sandwiches), egg salad sandwiches, grilled chicken Caesar salad, antipasto salad, hamburgers with macaroni salad or cole slaw and potato salad, gazpacho, white gazpacho, pasta with fresh tomatoes and fresh basil, quesadillas, BLT's. Mostly quick meals. Tonight it was Caesar chicken salad for DH and antipasto salad for me.

since I live alone,most of the time I just have a few pieces of cucumber,tomato,some cheese and a fruit

if I am not alone,its the bbq all the way!

I thought about going out today but decided against it. Thought I'd just snack or skip. Then I got this powerful hankering for spaghetti. Don't know why, but I just wanted spaghetti. So, I just made the one pot version so I wouldn't fill the place up with steam. Yes, it was warm in the kitchen but it sure tickled the tastebuds. And an hour or two later the storms moved through and the temp dropped about 15°-20° in about 10-15 minutes. Lots of lightning and LOUD thunder. Cat was a bit upset. She likes watching lightning and distant thunder but this was loud enough to bother her a bit. Much cooler right now albeit humid. There's leftovers in the frig... maybe a midnight snack??

Cynic, cold spaghetti is a good thing!

We needed gas so we stopped at Subway and split a sandwich last night. I like Publix subs better, but it wasn't bad. Had raspberry sherbert, too. Now THAT was good!

We're supposed to get down to the high 80's early next week, and maybe we'll feel like food again. Harry, who always as cereal with banana and strawberries just had a banana and watermelon for breakfast this a.m.

I don't change my cooking much when it is hot. I don't cook chili soup but do like bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches. my kitchen isn't hot usually. It is only hot in the winter.

Sue

Gazpacho is one of my summer favorites.

Glenda, thank you for the reminder about tomato aspic. I might make that my "project" for tomorrow.

Eat the same thing as on other days but sometimes I just feel like eating a sandwich and eating something like watermelon or cantaloupe.

Hot weather hasn't effected my appetite at all, I can eat anything, even hot soup.