Summer Dinner Ideas Please!!!

Crock pot pulled pork or beef. Tastes great, you can put the crock pot outside, and its easy to make enough for leftovers and cut out another night of cooking.

We grill outside. I have friends that use the crock pot though.

Cold salads (brocolli salad, peanut noodle salad, thai shrimp salad, pasta salad, quinoa salad, zucchini salad, tomato basil salad, corn/black bean salad, german potato salad, coleslaw, fruit salad, etc)
Sandwiches or wraps (To keep sandwiches fun make them different...use buns or croissants and different fillings)
Thai lettuce wraps
Spring rolls (the kind you wrap up that rice wrapping and don't fry. Yum)
Gaspacho soup (one of my favorites) - actually there are many cold soups.
Grill meat and veggies outside - we do this 50% of the time in the summer to keep the heat out of the house. Our grill has a side burner and we'll steam the corn in a big pot out there too.

Updated

Cold salads (brocolli salad, peanut noodle salad, thai shrimp salad, pasta salad, quinoa salad, zucchini salad, tomato basil salad, corn/black bean salad, german potato salad, coleslaw, fruit salad, etc)
Sandwiches or wraps (To keep sandwiches fun make them different...use buns or croissants and different fillings)
Thai lettuce wraps
Spring rolls (the kind you wrap up that rice wrapping and don't fry. Yum)
Gaspacho soup (one of my favorites) - actually there are many cold soups.
Grill meat and veggies outside - we do this 50% of the time in the summer to keep the heat out of the house. Our grill has a side burner and we'll steam the corn in a big pot out there too.

We do lots of salads (green, fruit, pasta) and sandwiches when it's hot. Really GOOD sandwiches, with fresh baguettes or foccacia bread, pesto mayo, special cheese/mustard, etc. BLTs are good too (you can cook the bacon in the microwave.) I have a panini press I got from Target for about $25 so if someone wants to "grill" their sandwich it's easy to do without turning on the stove or oven.
We also use the crock pot as much as possible and sometimes just have cereal or smoothies for dinner, especially if we had a big lunch at the pool.

Anything on the grill - steak, salmon, BBQ pork chops, burgers. Do some kebabs with veggies, like zucchini, squash, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms.

Anything in the crock pot.

Sushi or ceviche, if you are into that sort of stuff.

Love:

I would close my curtains before the sun starting beating down into my house to help keep it cooler!!

Dinner ideas?

Crock pot chicken - put a whole (unfrozen) chicken in the crock pot on LOW all day...add carrots and celery...even a chopped onion is good.

Salads - spinach - use the Tyson's chicken strips - all you have to do is heat them up or microwave them....

BBQ - LOVE BBQ!!! It helps that my husband is in charge of the BBQ!! (wink! wink!!)

Tacos and burritos - if you don't want to fry your meat up? You can cook it in the microwave....I usually have two lbs of Mexican Beef (with the salsa, onions, etc.) cooked in it - in a bowl in my refrigerator so all I have to do is warm it up.

Crock Pot Pork chops..

Chicken strip wraps...lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber, ranch dressing...
Beef strip wraps...again...lettuce, tomato, etc.

There is so much you can do!!!

Grill outside or crock pot.

We like salads when it's hot: Greek, Cesaer, Chef (green salad with ham, cheese and hard boiled egg).

Wraps are great, as are sandwiches.

As much as I don't like to cook when it's hot, I also don't like to eat hot food!

What about a whole big bowl of Nachos?
Easy.
Good.
Fast.
And then get a roast chicken from Costco. Its already made for you.

Or yep, BBQ outside.

You can use the microwave to brown hamburger (I got a thing from Pampered Chef) and make tacos, sloppy joes, etc.

Do make your own sandwich night.

Grill individual pizzas on tortillas and the kids can make their own. Grill burgers, steaks, chicken, etc. You can do corn, potatoes in tinfoil, asparagus so no heating up the house.

First of all I would invest in some blackout curtains if it makes it too hot to cook. We got some for our back sliding glass doors and it makes a HUGE difference.

Use the crock pot or the grill. My dad grills all the time and loves it, my husband doesn't like to stand in front of the heat of the grill so we don't get it too often at home - good thing we live 10 minutes from my parents!

Cook in the middle of the day (if possible) and just reheat.

Use fans (the fan over the stove, fans in adjoining or close rooms, etc).

Eat a little later (though I don't recommend this, but the later you cook, the less heat there is from outside).

I guess we are weird, because it rarely gets too hot in our house to cook, but a lot of people say it does in their homes. If it got like that for us, I'd probably do al ot of salads, quick meals, and spend one day cooking meat and all so it just heated the kitchen once a week.

I use my BBQ grill. It keeps the heat outside and I love the smoked flavor. I use charcoal and mesquite wood for flavor. The heat stays outside and the aroma is wonderful. I do rotisserie chicken, or baked chicken, ribs, brisket, pork roast (pulled pork sandwiches, shredded pork salad, etc). Potato salad is a great summer time dish. I leave the skins on. Left over baked potatoes make great potato salad.

I don't much care for pork and beans, but pork and beans smoked on a BBQ grill, with smoked pork added to it makes it wonderful. I took my BBQ grill to a boy scout campout and started making ribs (St Louis style) when we arrived. A friend was assigned to make pork and beans. He asked if he could set 4 gallon sized cans on my grill and cook it along with my ribs. I had room so I said sure. We smoked the cans of pork and beans for the 8 hours I smoked the ribs. Then when we got ready to eat, the ribs were so tender the meat was falling off the bones. I chopped up the meat that fell off the bones and the juice/drippgs from the pans I was smoking the ribs in and put it in the serving pans with the cooked pork and beans. Normally I'll have a couple of tablespoons of pork and beans, just to be polite. And I'll eat them with some reluctance. This time, when I tasted them, WOW (!!!) happened. Instead of having pork and beans leftovers that we end up throwing away, the scouts and adult leaders finished off all 5 gallons of pork and beans. By the time we added the pork (rib meat) and the drippings and he added 4 large chopped up onions (sautéed in the rib drippings), we had almost 5 gallons of the blah pork and beans. EXCEPT they were no longer Blah pork and beans. They were wonderful. All of the pork and beans were eaten. Even the adults came back for seconds, thirds and fourths. I was amazed at how good it tasted and so was everyone else. They were smoky, and rich, and the onions and rib meat and drippings made them delightful. (BTW, If I want really good BBQ, but don't feel like cooking, I go to Famous Dave's.)

We also smoke turkey on my grill. I cook it to 170 to 175 degrees (meat thermometer) and serve it. I don't use a pop up thermometer because the pop up thermometer pops at 185 degrees. If you cook a turkey to 185 degrees, it will taste ok the first hour or two, then it is like turkey cardboard. If you take it off the grill at 170 degrees it will be moist and delicious even on the second or third day. The drippings from the turkey go into the giblet gravy and give it a wonderful smoky flavor. For the gravy, I take some white button mushrooms and wash an slice them and sautee them in the turkey drippings. I will also chop up an onion and sautee them with the musrooms. Then I add two cans of cream of mushroom soup and use milk OR fresh whipping cream or half & half instead of water. I bring it to a boil and add flour to get it to the desired thickness. I love smoky gravy.

For more ideas, I like going to allrecipes.com. You can sign up for their free service and get one post per day of all kinds of delightful recipes.

ETA: You have some wonderful BBQ restaurants there in KC. Look up the website for Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. Go to any of the BBQ restaurants they have reviewed and buy copped pork or pulled pork. You will be delighted. When I travel, I like to stop at one of the restaurants Guy has reviewed for lunch or dinner. I've always been delighted.

Hope you enjoy. Good luck to you and yours. (If anyone has questions about how to use a regular grill as a smoker, PM me.)

I have chicken in the crock pot now on a bed of chopped onions. Part will be for chicken enchiladas tonight and something else tomorrow.

Sorry with a late response but here's a few:

I recently found a a recipe with ground beef, drain and add 1 frozen package of
Birdseye Southwest Veggies. Makes great soft or hard tacos & serve with chips and salsa.
In a crockpot mix a package of taco seasoning with a jar of salsa add chicken breasts. The chicken is so soft, make tacos. Yes, I love Mexican food.
Saute some chciken breast in equal butter & olive oil, add minced garlic.
Boil pasta (any) and mix. Sprinkle with Parmesan & make a salad.
These were just a quick few for me. Hope you rec'd some good ones.