What's for dinner? The question that plegues every home when there is no idea what to cook. It gets even more difficult when the outside temperature has made your house almost as hot as the cooktop you use to boil water. So what does one do when cooking inside is a miserable expierence and outside cooking for over many days becomes the same flavors?
I live in Western Oregon and we don't get a lot of heat but when we do it comes for a while and often hot. Most of the houses don't come with AC so that makes cooking in the summer a very creative event. So I have a meal plan for this comingweek of forcasted hot that will keep my family cool and optimize the ability to have hot food, most nights, but not have to eat BBQ every night.
OUTDOOR COOKING
I will be cooking Hotdogs, seasoned chicken and hamburgers on the grill. That takes care of our BBQ quota for the week. I have planned those meals for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday- the hotter days. I will serve them with potato salads and fruit to keep the need for heating anything to a minimum. With the chicken I will grill enough for lunches and will serve a Spinach, raspberry, nut salad with a vinegrette dressing.
For the other days I will make Thai curry and enchiladas on Monday and Thursday because I can make the ingrediance in advance and reheat over my camping stove or my microwave. (Please if you use propane use it OUTSIDE ONLY) That plan is that I will make the ingrediance at night when it is cooler.
Saturday and Sunday will be left over meats or normally hot foods either repurposed into a cool food or reheated in the microwave or on my outdoor stove top.
ENCHILADAS
For the enchiladas I can boil the chicken in my croc-pot then keep it in the fridge until I am ready to reheat it. For the sauce I can use the microwave to heat the veggies and peppers then blend in the blender. I use my bullet. There is also the option of using a canned sauce then there is no need to heat it over the stove. Then all that is left is assembly and I can do that individually then heat to melt the cheese in the microwave. The rice and beans can be prepared at night or early morning, whenever the coolest part of the day is for you.
THAI CURRY
This is just a matter of stewing to soak in flavors. I can prepare the sauce, chop the veggies, and prepare the meat (I use chicken). Then when I want to reheat it I can heat in either the crocpot or in the microwave. If you have a rice cooker you can use that to make your rice or prepare it in the coolest part of the day.