In the Kitchen with Linda & Dinner Menu

I didn’t write a menu last week, on or off line. And boy did I flounder last week! Trying to figure out what to make at 5 pm when you don’t feel like cooking anything in a hot kitchen is not fun!

All it takes is one week of skipping a menu to renew my commitment to writing one every week.

Before Memorial Day, I baked 20 pounds of chicken leg quarters. My husband helped by cutting the legs and thighs apart.

Once these were cooled, I bagged four meal size bags. Three bags went into the freezer. I love, love, love having prepared meals in the freezer! It is such a time and money saver.

We ate the fourth bag the next day, on Memorial Day. We finished cooking them over the fire. So good!

In fact, they were so good I couldn’t get a picture without someone’s hand in the picture taking chicken! This happens to be my mother’s hand. So it wasn’t just the kids! lol We had Macaroni Salad, and stuffed eggs to complete the meal.

We had make your own salads twice last week. It’s been so hot in Kentucky. I don’t feel like cooking. And move of the family doesn’t feel like a big meal. My husband likes to have a big salad, actually a couple of big platefuls of salad, on hot days. This picture was from one night. We had romaine lettuce, roma tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions, grated carrots, shredded cheddar cheese, tuna, chicken breast, and cottage cheese. Another night, we had all that plus chopped green bell peppers.

We had fish filets one night with homemade tartar sauce. This was my plate. As you can tell, I love tartar sauce! lol I served them with mashed potatoes, and peas & carrots. I do admit that the mashed potatoes were from a box. I bought boxed potatoes for the first time when my mother was in the hospital. They were convenient for the kids to make when I wasn’t home. A kid, or two, have said they prefer them to mashed potatoes made from raw potatoes. My husband has even admitted that they taste okay. lol I don’t use them all the time, but they sure are convenient.

And, yes, I did read the ingredients. I buy the kind with very few added ingredients. I don’t like to sacrifice nutrition for convenience.

We always eat different in the summer than we do in the winter. In the winter we have soups, chilis, casseroles, and other things that have a long cooking or baking time. In the summer we try to turn the oven on as little as possible. So while I use my slowcooker in the winter, I will be using it more now. We will also be eating a lot more salads, too.

Do you cook differently during the summer?