As if it isn’t enough for food stamps, SNAP benefits, small budgets, supply chain issues, inflation and gas prices to have their own say on what and how we eat, the weather gets a voice too. So, I am going to do a post with tips for eating when it is too hot to cook.
No cook meals- salads, sandwiches, wraps, bagels, subs, roll ups, cereal, trays- cheese and cracker, fruit, veggie
Partial take out meals- We can't afford to get whole meals out but sometimes we can get elements to fill in around the edges. For example, picking up chicken and filling in with sides from home. Grab a pizza and fill in with a salad or veggies and dip from home, especially if the salad is the big component and the pizza is a side dish. Or picking up $1 burgers, but skipping the fries and drinks and eat chips and drinks from home.
Cooking outside- grilling, plugging up crockpot, instapot etc outside, cooking over a fire or you can get really crazy and make a solar oven out of a pizza box.
Cook the quickest way possible. Making a quick egg on the stove creates much less heat than making something in the oven. I did a few blog posts about microwave cooking cooking pasta in a microwave, cooking rice in a microwave, and breakfast in a microwave. You can even cook rice by bringing a covered pot of water and rice to boil and then turn the stove off and let it cook in the residual heat.
While making this weeks meal plan, I failed to take into account how stupidly hot it was going to be this week. We don’t have air conditioning, so cooking makes a huge difference inside our house. So I decided I needed to amend our meals. Failure to plan effectively has come back to bite me this week.
I went ahead and made Monday's meals as planned, except I made double the pasta and tripled the rice. I also boiled a dozen eggs. We had taco rice bowls twice and I used the extra pasta with spaghetti sauce. I figure if I am going to heat up the house already, might as well get as much as I can out of it. I scratched the cabbage and chicken and instead made a big bowl of coleslaw. With it being so hot, we weren't all that hungry most days and we filled in a lot with peanut butter crackers. I ended up having to buy tortillas, cereal and lunchmeat, ugh. I will definitely do better next time.
Monday-
- Breakfast- Leftover pancakes, banana
- Lunch- Tuna Pasta Salad, crackers, carrots and celery sticks
- Dinner- Taco Rice Bowl, Cucumber Salsa
Tuesday-
- Breakfast- Oatmeal, banana
- Lunch- Sandwiches, cucumber salsa and chips
- Dinner- Microwave burritos
Wednesday-
- Breakfast- Cereal, toast, banana
- Lunch- Tuna Pasta salad, crackers, carrots and celery sticks
- Dinner- Taco rice bowl, salad
Thursday-
- Breakfast- Oatmeal, banana
- Lunch- Leftovers or sandwiches, crackers, carrots and celery sticks
- Dinner- Easy Vegetable Stir Fry
Friday-
- Breakfast- Toast, cereal, banana
- Lunch- Sandwiches or Ramen, crackers, canned peaches
- Dinner- Spaghetti, green beans
Saturday-
- Brunch- Fried egg and bologna sandwiches, pretzels, sliced tomato
- Dinner- Coleslaw, deviled eggs, bread and butter, corn
Sunday-
- Brunch- Pancakes, homemade pancake syrup
- Dinner-Lunch meat subs, chips, veggies and dip
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