0 How Do You...Keep the Kitchen Cool in Summer?

How do you put food on the table in the summer without heating the entire house?

The air conditioning system in our house is old and not overly efficient.  When the mercury soars outside, it makes for a steamy afternoon inside.  In the winter, we love our large windows that let the sun pour in.  In the summer, it's not such a fantastic perk. 

My family still needs to eat, though, so we've developed a few coping mechanisms. 

I cook in the morning.  I'm a planner and an organizer so I always know in the morning what I'm serving for dinner in the evening.  If I need the oven, I use it in the morning when the house is still holding the cool(er) morning air.

I use the slow cooker. This is also an advantage on busy days because I can do all my prep in the morning and then let the appliance do the work while we're out of the house until dinnertime.  Some slow cooker dishes we've eaten this summer are Parmesan honey pork, cowboy beans, and sandwiches with wedding beef.

I cook on the stovetop or use a skillet.  This isn't totally heat-free, but it generates far less heat than the internal oven.  The kids love pancakes for dinner.  Our current favorites are cornmeal pancakes and oatmeal pancakes! We've also enjoyed Mexican casserole and Chinese honey chicken during the warmer months. Both are stovetop skillet dishes. 

And who can go wrong with tacos? It is my kids' favorite dinner, hands-down.  Cook some ground beef or chicken in the skillet, chop some veggies, open a can of beans, and we've got dinner on the table!

I serve raw veggies, a salad, or chopped fruit as a side dish with almost any meal.  It's filling, healthy, and requires no heating.  (Salads make a great main dish, too, but my husband usually prefers something a little heartier after working hard outside all day so I try to serve main-dish salads only a couple of times a month.)

What do you cook in the summer when it is too hot to turn on the oven?

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Today's post was the last of this year's How Do You...? series, but you can browse the archived index of past topics anytime!