Ah, Summer.  Sunshine- fleeting in the Pacific Northwest, outdoor activities, family togetherness, and who wants to be in a hot kitchen?!  Hope one of these tips helps you spend less time in your kitchen.

Here are some small appliances that make my summer easier in the kitchen.

Secura Electric Pressure Cooker/slow cooker/rice cooker- this multi-use gadget saves me having to use the hot oven for meat.  Great for roasts done quickly in the pressure cook mode, pulled pork in slow cooker mode, sloppy Joe’s, soup, rice. I purchased mine on-line several years ago and have used it several times a week since.  On sale now at https://www.amazon.com/Secura-Programmable-Electric-Pressure-Stainless/dp/B008A852ZW

Killer Meatloaf by Josh   Our son made this outstanding meatloaf and brought it for Father’s Day dinner.

1 lb. ground beef,  1 lb. ground bulk pork sausage

Add finely chopped and lightly sauteed veggies to your liking such as onions, carrots, mushrooms, celery
Wrap loaf with bacon and top with ketchup mixed with brown sugar
Put in loaf pan or cast iron skillet and bake at 350 for 1 hour 15 minutes.  Or put in Secura pressure cooker for 45 minutes using thickly sliced onion for a rack to keep the meat out of the liquid.  Tastes just like oven roasted, but faster and keeps the kitchen cooler.

Drain, slice, lay on baking tray and drizzle with more ketchup and brown sugar.  Broil to heat through.

Pulled Pork Carnitas   Our daughter-in-love taught me this delicious pulled pork recipe that I tweaked just a little.
Great filling for tacos, burritos, or Cuban sandwiches
Can be cooked on pressure cooker mode or slow cook mode

Combine and place in Ziploc gallon bag:
1 TBL chili powder, 2 tsp ground cumin, 2 tsp oregano, 1 tsp coriander, 3 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil, juice of two oranges and two limes, 4 cloves garlic peeled and chopped, 2 onions quartered

Cut 4-pound roast into 8 chunks and pierce. Place pork pieces into the bag of spices and massage contents of bag into the meat.

Marinate 4 hours or overnight

Cook in Sakura cooker or crock pot.  45 minutes for pressure mode or 4-5 hours on slow cooker high setting

 

Vacuum seal machine.  Berries are in season here and my vacuum sealer machine is my friend.  No more freezer-burned berries!  I also use it to preserve large Costco cuts of meat that I need to divide and freeze in smaller portions.  I often cook the whole roast and then freeze the ready-to-eat smaller portions for quick and easy meals for when I’m pressed for time.  I own a FoodSaver brand that I purchased at BiMart on sale, but Costco carries them, and sometimes runs a sale.  Cheaper here:  https://www.amazon.com/FoodSaver-Automatic-Sealing-Retractable-Handheld/dp/B00DI342B4/ref=sr_1_4?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1498093828&sr=1-4&keywords=foodsaver+vacuum+sealer

Ninja blender/food processor.  This powerful little machine handles ice well.  Smoothies, milkshakes- no problem!  Easy to clean.  The only downside is that adding ingredients with the blades running is tricky, well, almost impossible.  The very small lid is made only for liquid additions.  You have to take the motor and lid off in order to add more ice.

Microwave.  It’s fast and doesn’t make a lot of heat which qualifies it as a great Summer cooking tool.  I make our scrambled eggs in it for breakfast, cook frozen veggies in it for lunch and warm up leftovers for supper.  I use a glass Pyrex type lid and cover everything I put in the microwave in order to prevent splatters.  The lid is easier to wash than the inside of the micro.

Summer Meal Ideas

Cook once, eat multiple times.  Prepare enough to have leftovers.  Some leftovers freeze very well and make an instant meal in the future.  Cooked meats sealed in a vacuum pack machine cut meal prep time in the weeks to come.  Cookies freeze well and can be kept on hand for impromptu entertaining.

Stir-fried fresh vegetables take some prep time washing and cutting up, but the actual cooking time is short and therefore doesn’t heat up the kitchen much.

Fresh fruit is refreshing and healthy.  Make it a habit of eating some every day.  Early summer seems to be the season for delicious cantaloupes, so we’re enjoying them often right now.  Local strawberries are in season, but they are tricky.  Being delicate, they can quickly pass peak and become mushy.  I have decided freezing them isn’t cost or labor effective, so I’ll be buying bags of frozen strawberries from Costco for smoothies.  But for eating fresh the day I purchase them with biscuit shortcakes, nothing beats local strawberries.  Blueberries, on the other hand, are a bargain in our area in August if you pick them yourself and they are easy to freeze.  Besides, you can stand up to pick them and they don’t have thorns!

Kombucha is a great Summer drink.  It’s fermented tea and contrary to the sound of it, it is delicious and healthy.  I brew ours by the continuous brew method so we always have it ready to drink.  It’s loaded with probiotics and sure helps my digestion.  I drink a little before meals and as a pick-me-up mid-afternoon.  It isn’t an alcoholic beverage, but 8 ounces is the recommended max per day.  Comment below if you’d like more info or have a testimonial.

Salads make a great Summertime meal if you include protein and some carbs.  We love spinach (iceberg lettuce has little nutrition) with pretty much whatever is in the fridge on any given day.  Today we had spinach/orange/leftover corn (cut off the cob from Father’s Day dinner)/peanuts/leftover chicken.  Sometimes we use leftover pork, cheese, carrots, peppers, black beans, and spinach.  Using salad dressing in moderation (without preservatives) is fine because the oil actually helps your body absorb the nutrients in the salad.

Indulging in strawberry shortcake isn’t so empty calorie heavy if you makes biscuit shortcake instead of cake shortcake.  I just make biscuits with a tiny bit more sugar, break them up into a bowl, and add fresh strawberries and whole milk.  This isn’t everybody’s favorite.  (One of our daughters called it ‘soggy bread’.)  But most of our family and friends love it.

Keep in mind that grapes have a high glycemic index which means they are high in sugars which can wreck havoc on someone that has blood sugar issues.  Best not to give them to children on an empty stomach because of the sugar high/low swing.

Squashes of all types can be fixed in many ways and are budget friendly.  Soup, curries, and microwave with butter and brown sugar are a few ways that come to mind.