Light Meals for 100 Degree Weather and Also Saving on Groceries

Pasta is cheap and goes along way , as does rice , look online for pasta , rice and salad dishes , these can all be bulked out with some meat to make them a little more substantial.

I suggest the following for toasty-weather friendly meals:

Sub sandwiches. Buy the sub rolls in bulk from the bakery section when they are on sale and freeze them. Bread freezes VERY well. When you want them, you can just pull out a package and put it on the counter for about 30 minutes. Same goes for lunch meat. To some, this might not seem like "dinner," but my boys love them, especially when they can choose and make their own. We pretend our kitchen is Subway and they are the sandwich "artists."

Chicken salad. Next time you see those big bags of frozen chicken breasts on sale, pick up extra. When you plan on grilling outside, pull those out to thaw too. Lightly season them with Lawry's or Montreal Chicken Seasoning and throw them on the grill too. Then bag them up and toss them into the 'fridge for the next night's chicken salad. I usually buy a tub of organic spring greens. My kids love a spinach/strawberry salad with pecans. Watch for the sales on those bagged salads. Our favorite dressings are Marie's Blue Cheese (in the fresh veggie section), Girard's Caesar dressing, and Girard's Apple Poppyseed. Salad toppings are endless, and the kids have a lot of fun with it, especially if you happen to grow some things in your garden (tomatoes are a big hit, and easy!).

Anything on the grill. That will keep your house from heating up, and if you can keep from turning the food over and over (which causes it to dry out!), you'll only have to check it twice...so it'll keep you pretty cool too.

A rotisserie chicken from the grocery. I was shocked (last night, actually) at how cheap they were. For the price of a raw chicken, the time, energy, spices, electricity, water to wash the pan, and so forth to cook it, you can get a cooked one. It was about $4. Some corn from the garden (wrap in foil and toss on the grill) and you are all set.

Wraps. Basically big tortilla sandwiches. You can put anything in them. Chicken salad, lunchmeat, whatever.

Pizza "minis." Basically, you take a bunch of English Muffins, split them, toast them lightly in the oven, put a little Mayo on, then a slice of ham or Canadian bacon, a slice of tomato, and top with a slice of cheese. Put in the oven long enough to melt the cheese and warm the ham. Kids LOVE them (and so do I!). This requires all of about 10 minutes 350F oven time, or you could use foil and put them on the grill (probably on "low").

Finally, don't be afraid to go "a'la carte." Sometimes it doesn't hurt to say "It's leftover/fend for yourself night!" or "Make mom and dad dinner night." My boys usually have one night a week like this...they may zap a hotdog, make a sandwich, eat leftovers, whatever, as long as it's healthy. Last week I came home so exhausted (after working 17 days in a row...yay Army!), my 7 year old MADE me dinner (zapped hotdogs). He even asked (very sweetly) if I wanted some chips and a glass of tea! Now THAT'S SERVICE!

Have fun!

C.

Don't forget to check out Aldi too. It's not somewhere where I would do all my shopping, but I have been satisfied with the quality and the prices are great. Bring cash/debit card and your own bags because they only take cash and they charge you for bags.

Also check out Sprouts. The quality and prices are great for produce and meat.

I also recommend a crockpot. I have a Hamilton Beach Stay or Go 6qt that is fabulous. (It has manual dials, but there is an electronic one for a bit more money) I use it about once a week. Not only does it keep the kitchen cooler, slow cookers are great for cheaper cuts of meat.

Keep an eye on how many convenience foods you use and how much food you end up tossing from the fridge. There's a lot of waste there! Instead of snack packs, buy a regular box of snacks and portion them out yourself. Make a list of what is in the fridge so you actually use it instead of letting it go bad. Sign up for coupons. I'm not a fan as much as I used to be years ago, but check out Couponmom.com.

If you have a Sams or Cosco membership, use it carefully. It's easy to walk out of there with a lot of impulse buys. That said, I get some great produce deals at Costco. Example: one bag of romaine lettuce at the grocery is often around $3 (10-12 ounces) For that price, I can get six heads of romaine at Costco and it stays fresher longer.

Hope that helps!

As far as meals rotisserie chickens are awesome! You can break them up and add them to everything or just serve it cold if you do your shopping early in the day. Grill, grill, grill. We do after all live in Texas and can take full advantage of warm (OK HOT) weather, buy one of those grilling baskets if you don't have one already and throw veggies coated with olive oil in there. Onions, zucchini, yellow squash, peppers, asparagus, corn all work great. And cold grilled chicken or steak is great in a salad so I always throw at least one extra serving on there. One of my son's favorite things is shish kebab (he generally doesn't eat veggies without a lot of cajoling but he will this way) I marinate them in those Target marinades. We usually buy meat at Sam's because it tends to be cheaper. And one of my favorites, is cold tuna noodle salad. I use elbow macaroni, frozen peas that I dump in the water for a minute when I cook the macaroni. Finely chopped onion, a little fresh dill, and either a light mayo or mayo/plain yogurt mixture with a pinch or two of garlic powder. I make it in the am and refrigerate it till dinner. BLT's are always good, you can cook the bacon in the morning in the oven. (If you shop at Kroger, they send you customized coupons and we almost always get one for free Kroger bacon.)

TEX-MEX! The same few ingredients can be repackaged to look like a totally differant meal every day. You can serve a lot of it bar style with everything seperate so picky eaters can build thier own. $5 bucks feeds everybody.

Tacos, Enchiladas, Tostadas, Burritos, Quesadillas, Fajitas Chimichangas, Flautas, Taco Salads - All have the same grocery list. I often add these same things to my omelets on the weekend.

Meat - Grilled chicken, steak, ground beef, brisket, or black beans if you really want to go cheap.
Tortillas - corn, or flour. Soft or hard. You can also buy them prepackaged flat as tostada shells, or taco salad shells.
Cheese
Veggies - grilled oninons and peppers, lettuce and tomato. Also chop fresh onion, tomato, jalapenoes and cilantro to make pico de gallo.

When you're grilling, throw a couple extra pounds of seasoned chicken breasts on the grill and freeze in one pound portions. Make the most of your charcoal!
They can be sliced and put on top of a taco salad. Azteca sells the shells 4 for $1.50 at walmart in refrigerated section by mexican cheeses. Just form, bake for 10 min and fill with salad. It's fun and light. You can put two flour tortillas in a skillet with meat and cheese to make quesadillas. I slip grilled veggies in and serve with lots of lettuce, tomato and pico.
Serve grilled chicken or stk with grilled veggies, cheese, pico and sour cream and you've got fajitas.
Fill tortillas with beans, rice, cheese, lettuce and tomato and you've got burritos.
Roll tortillas filled with chicken up and put in a casserole dish, cover with green chili enchilada sauce and cheese and you've got enchiladas!
Use beef and red sauce for beef enchiladas.
Serve all with rice and beans to stretch your budget. You can make a big batch of white rice. Serve white one day and add salsa and seasonings to make spanish rice the next day.

Another healthy light option is fish. I buy Tilapia and salmon filets. Very cheap sold frozen in bags at Aldi, Kroger, and Wal Mart. Can be cooked in foil with just salt and pepper on the grill or it's just a quick 5 minute saute on the stovetop. This is another versatile one that keeps you from getting bored. You can get fancy and add a little white wine, and veggies to the foil packet. My husband likes when i coat it in cajun spices and cook in a dry skillet on the stove - blackened talapia rocks! Lemon pepper is great on it. Or olive oil and italian seasoning. Once you realize how quick, easy, inexpensive and healthy fish is, it starts to get fun playing with variations.

Pasta and rice (as Kate mentions) is cheap, but both really should only be used as side dishes instead of main meals because of the amount of carbs. Ideally, you'd serve it with a vegetable, a meat, and a side portion of those items.

If you don't have a membership to Sam's Club or Costco, it may very well be worth it. The money we save on fresh fruit/vegetables and meat alone is worth it. Plus, the volume of snacks you can get, cleaning supplies, etc. would probably benefit your family's budget.

The biggest issue with trying to go less expensive is that you tend to sacrifice healthy options. I know it sounds like I'm a tree-hugging fool, but I've worked in the world of Diabetes most of my career, and our kids' generation is the first on record not expected to live past their parents. The amount of processed foods, the sodium content, etc. has really put our kids' health at risk.

So, I'd recommend being flexible and making a few extra trips/week. In our case, we do a big fruit/vegetable run each Saturday morning at Costco. We try to hit Walmart/Meijer every 2-3 weeks for staples such as pasta sauce, soda, yogurt, etc. Then we go to Kroger for the other items we couldn't get (mainly because of quality) at the other stores. It's a hassle, but it does save money, and all are on our way to somewhere else and something else we need to do anyhow.

Jamie Oliver did the Food Revolution on ABC a few weeks ago and showed families in Huntington, WV how to eat better without making too many changes. I'd highly recommend watching it on ABC.com

Good luck!

I have to say, right at the moment I am jealous as all get out... food prices in our area are through the roof (I shop at 5 different stores just to get good prices, and yes the gas is worth it when I can get 1/2 gallon of milk for $2 at one store -but everywhere else is $5... just the milk savings alone pays for a full tank of gas every month... oy. So there's ONE solution for you. Shop around for the best prices. I save a couple hundred every month just by not buying everything at one place. If you have a deep freeze you can REALLY save some money by buying meat on "holiday sales" (several turkeys during thanksgiving at $0.11- 0.25 a lb, several corned beef flats over patty's day, loads of chickens when they go on sale, etc.) We also, whenever we can, go on a farm fresh egg run... Eggs laid that week are good for several months... so I can get 12 dozen eggs (about 1.5 month supply for us) for $8 at the farm... or pay $2-$4 per single dozen at the grocery store depending on which store I'm at. All these little savings reeeeally add up. $30 here, $20, there (plus hundreds of dollars in meat savings... if you have the space and can afford the initial cost, think about purchasing 1/8th -1/2 of a cow. You get steaks, ground, roasts, soup bones, ribs, the whole shebang. For a fraction of the price of buying individual cuts). Buy in bulk & fresh & store it... and you can cut your bill in half or more. But even with all of this... food costs are so high that 600 a month for 3 people is squeeeeeeeeezing every last penny and stretching it.

Also... try buying your spices ethnically. I spent $80 at an indian spice store 3 years ago and not only do I still have several years left... but all the spices were pennies on the dollar for even the cheapest of the cheap. I'm talking $1 for 2 pounds of pepper corns. $2.50 for a gallon ziplock of cinnamon. I look at the teensy little glass jars at the store for $6 and just laugh.

We live in the cold damp northwest right now... but when we lived in the heat (god I miss it)... when I had to cook... i'd cook late at night for the next day, or early in the morning. Things that could either be served cold (like quiche, gaspacho, boiling potatoes for potato salad, roasts for sammies, baked or fried chicken, cornbread, casseroles, etc.) or heated up quickly (soups for soup and salad, baked mac'n'cheese, meat strips for stirfry, pasta -boil the pasta at night, drain, put in a ziplock in the fridge with a little olive oil to keep them from sticking, grilled onions to go in or on top of stuf, etc.) Since I didn't have to cook THAT night... since we were eating what I'd cooked the night before, cooking late wasn't an extra chore I was too exhausted to accomplish.

I'd usually be bbqing though, at least 1/2 the time.

Hi K.! We are also on a tight grocery budget, and being a Texan I totally understand about not wanting to heat up the house with the oven! Usually around this time of year I bust out the crock pot, quesadilla maker, and panini maker. I find that using the crock pot it is SUPER easy to just set chicken, beef, or pork in there and let it sit throughout the day, and then we can have pulled meat sandwiches or tacos for dinner. Also, let me just say that the microwave is your friend! I buy precooked frozen chicken breasts from Sam's and heat them up in the microwave on the defrost setting so that they don't get too tough. I would suggest investing in a panini maker if you don't have one. It is a LIFE SAVER!!! You can even use it for grilled cheese sandwiches (which are a staple in our house).
We do eat a lot of cold pasta in the summer too. I would suggest getting some boxes of "suddenly salad" from the grocery store. I know I can usually find them on sale for about 1.50 a box. You can add meats or veggies to them and they are quick and delicious!

Hope this helps!!

Gazpacho with a side of warm crusty bread...Yum!!!

My favorite no-cook summer meal is a salad of cucumbers cut up into plain yogurt (plus diced sweet onion if that's something your kids will eat), seasoned with a little salt and a generous sprinkling of dill weed (or dried peppermint). Serve with crusty bread or in pocket bread, olives on the side. Yum!

I do a lot of crockpot meals. Then you don't heat up the kitchen. We also grill.
As far as inexpensive meals, I have a meal "schedule".
Monday- meat
Tues- Pasta (no meat)
Weds- sandwich, salad
thurs- meat
friday- pizza
saturday- sandwich/salad (lunch) breakfast for dinner
Sunday- eat out (lunch) grill (dinner)

If you can plan out what kind of meal you will eat, you can buy just for that meal at the store. You can match the sales up with your menu. I was surprised to find that my husband is just as happy with grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken soup as he is with a big roast. And it's way cheaper. Also, everyone likes pancakes. It is an extra treat to have them for dinner.

Do you guys have bulk stores in tx like Costco? I save a ton by buying in bulk. They also have bulk snack items, like the chex mixes, nuts, cookies, chips etc. I know this sounds weird though but the snack stuff at the dollar stores are just as good. I bought 4 bags of dollar animal crackers at target's dollar spot becuase both my husband and kid likes them. They tasted the same as the name brand to me.
Im not sure about no cook meals but when it's hot I usually jurt try to to make meals where only one thing is cooked. Like quick tacos, the lettuce, and tomatoes and such are all cold, and I just cook the meat. If I do have to cook something, I try to use my crockpot because the oven heats up my house even more. Good luck! =)