Recipes and food ideas

Peanut sauce on veggies and noodles or rice

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Chili oil on cold rinsed noodles (I like the lotus foods ramen from Costco) topped with green onion and a fried egg is :100:

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I love to prep veggies for big delicious dinner salads in the Summer. Are you veg? I can’t remember. If not, big batches of grilled chicken breast and grilled veggies, and then eat on top of salad all week.

Batched prepped deviled eggs are a nice summer food, egg salad, chicken salad, etc to eat with crackers, or on pita

For lunch I like to make a plate of like carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc with a dressing to dip, and then like crackers + tuna or salmon, or a wrap with turkey or chicken on the side, etc

Crock pot shredded spicy meat (pork, beef or chicken) eaten as tacos topped with a spicy cabbage slaw

There’s a PF Changs copycat recipe for turkey lettuce wraps that is also really good in the summer. There’s about 1000 versions of it online, but it’s super yummy

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Omg you made my mouth water.

You too, Elle, peanut sauceeeeee.

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We’re on the “veg friendly but not actually veg” train.

I think we probably eat some very similar foods in the summer… the batched salads in particular sound very familiar haha, plus the lunch plates.

I feel like there are multiple suggestions already in this thread that would be way, way easier with an Instant Pot (especially the shredded meats).

ETA: Do you have favorite spicy slaw variants? We make a lot of vinegar-based slaws for putting over tacos in the summer, and I have a few variations I like doing but it could be fun to expand my repertoire…

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Instant pot is OP for low heat summer cooking. I’ve Even done it in my car port before lol.

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places Instant Pot on wedding registry

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Just be warned. If you make your own beef broth and cook it outdoor in the summer, you WILL become acquainted with the local yellow jacket population when you release the pressure on your instant pot :melting_face:

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… I will keep this in mind in case we ever achieve outdoor outlets.

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Yessss the instant pot and grill are my two keys for Summer cooking. I use the instant pot way more than I ever thought I would. I also just got an air fryer and I’m excited to add that in, especially for single servings of things when I’m not in the mood to batch cook. I basically don’t turn on the oven from June-September haha, so it’s always nice to have alternatives

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Turning on the oven in AZ feels like tempting fate.

We use our toaster oven a lot in the summer for cooking small batches of things – like a tiny batch of brownies, or cooking a single piece of fish. It makes life so much nicer.

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You might like this:
Black bean diapoza Butternut squash and black bean dopiaza - Easy Cheesy Vegetarian

I’m able to find butternut squash already cooked and cubed in the freezer section of the grocery store so that saves the roasting in the oven step.

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Shit that looks goooood

couscous was a go to before the shadowy one developed an aversion. You can make it with water from a kettle, and it stores in the fridge very well. I like it with peppers, summer squash, roast sweet potato, orange segments, feta or goat cheese, nuts, hard boiled eggs, sliced chicken or other meats (including whole roasted chickens from the grocery store), tahini dressings, sumac or zatar dressings…

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Oh that’s a good one too- a premade rotisserie chicken can be a great summer shortcut especially.

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Ohhh excellent idea.

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I used to occasionally get a wild hair to do freezer prep every few months but now my freezer is bare and I don’t wanna. And the next few months will be busier so I do want a freezer stash again. What store bought things or minimal prep things can I do? Cooking options: oven, microwave, instant pot, panini press thing.

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Lots and lots of soups freeze well.

I like making my own freezer burritos. My faves are “Cajun” freezer burritos (red beans, dirty rice with bell peppers, blackened catfish, cheese – wrap in a big tortilla and then wrap in foil). They probably take 2 hours to make something like 40 burritos. Pop 'em in the oven for a while to reheat, and you basically have Trader Joe’s frozen burritos but with way, way less salt.

Whenever I make spanakopita, I always make a huge dish and then freeze individual portions. Again, reheat in oven. This works for a lot of different casseroles – shepherd’s pie, hotdish, etc.

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Most recent summertime recipe win: chilled cucumber and yogurt soup. Yes, it is basically just thinned tzatziki. Yes, it is delicious.

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What does feta go with? I have half a package of vegan feta and no idea what to do with it.

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