Recipe Ideas: Can't stand the heat!

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BeeSweet

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I have to stop using my gas oven for the rest of the summer. It’s so very hot, and the oven makes our little house even hotter, so it’s just insane for me to bake anything right now. It’s such a pity for me, because I prefer cooking in the oven rather than standing over the stove!

I need ideas for using the crock pot, toaster oven, stove top, or the rotisserie. I’ve never had a knack for cooking in the microwave though. Pasta is OK, but a big pot of boiling water turns the kitchen into a sauna.

Ideas? Oh, and husband and child don’t do salad. Sandwiches are met with a disappointed husband, since that’s what he usually has for lunch.

Thanks!
 
Crockpots are great. Google crock pot and you’ll get all kinds of ideas.

Another good one is the grill. My kids like boneless chicken breasts, marinated overnight in Italian dressing, cooked on the grill. You can make a salad and put the sliced, cooked chicken breasts on top==really good, cool & it won’t heat up your kitchen. Cube steaks are also good marinated in Ital. dressing & then grilled.

Chili is good in the crockpot, chicken, beef stew, mac & cheese, Italian sausage w/sauce & peppers (serve on buns). I agree, boiling water turns the house into a sauna. I have a small house, too, & dread running the a/c (too expensive!). :eek:

You could also choose to boil water one day, and make a large amount of say, macaroni salad, potato salad, or pasta salad, and then eat it as a side dish for several days of the week. Jello salads are good, too, for a side dish and/or dessert, and they use a very small amount of boiling water.
 
My two favorite spots for crock pot cooking are:


The Crockpot 365 blog (google will bring you to it).

Don’t forget your grill for keeping the house cool.

Cooking up a huge bunch of pasta or rice then storing it in the fridge for a week and using bits of it is a great idea (keep the lid ON the pasta pot to keep your kitchen from steaming up).

There are good recipes where you cook the pasta in the skillet with the meal - America’s test Kitchen did a good show with some of the recipes - if you google “America’s Test Kitchen One Skillet Meals”.

Bake potatoes in the microwave - that is so simple.

All Recipes has a good recipe for individual meat loaves done in the microwave.
 
Buy 2-3 different kinds of lunch meat (from the deli if you can afford it, or just use Oscar Mayer or whatever) and at least two different kinds of cheeses. Some really good bread, buns, or rolls (I like the Hawaiin kind that are flavored with pineapple.) The buns and rolls can be small (great for kids). A few condiments (mustard, mayo, whatever.) Maybe some iceberg lettuce leaves and sliced tomatoes and other sandwich veges if you have them (e.g., green peppers). Some good pickles or other relishes out of jars. And voila–sandwich bar! Pour out a few tater chips or fritos–yum yum. If you feel guilty about no veges, include carrot and/or celery sticks with ranch dressing (Lazy Man’s Vege Dip). And it all tastes good leftover.

It looks more appetizing if the lunch meat is rolled up instead of flat. Let the kids eat the meat rolls rather than forcing them to add bread. (Healthier.)

Great dessert idea. Use one of the BIG Tupperware bowls… Buy an angel food cake from your grocery store. Cut it up into bite size pieces. Cut up strawberries and mix with cake bites, as many strawberries as you like, and then mix in a container of Cool Whip. My kids adore this, and everytime I make it for a potluck, people ask for the recipe. It’s shameful to admit how simple it is. You can use fat-free Cool Whip if that’s your preference–I use the most fattening kind for potlucks! A very refreshing summer treat, and with berries so cheap now, a pretty good deal. Raspberries are good, too, but they tend to get crushed more easily.
 
The grill outdoors is not going to work for me, although I appreciate the suggestion. If we had a gas grill, maybe I’d think about it, but I’m not messing with charcoal for a regular weekday meal, and I don’t want to go out in 100 degree heat to stand in front of a fire. Besides that, my allergies are absolutely killing me lately with this dry heat.

One of my standby recipes cooked in the oven is a chicken and rice casserole. I usually throw it together with leftovers from a rotisserie chicken, along with cheese, peas or beans or sausage, sometimes a can of tomato, whatever. Is that something I could just throw in the crock pot, and if so, how long would I set it for? I have a real simple crock pot that has a low, high, and a warm setting. Ordinarily I only use the crock pot for frozen stuff like chili or gumbo.

I’m hesitant to just start trying recipes from the internet without getting reviews first from people with families. There have been times in the past with internet recipes that have left me with wasted effort, food, and money since husband decided to order a pizza after trying a failed recipe.
 
We bake a whole chicken in the crock pot almost every week.

I toss it in on HIGH, leave for 4-6 hours and it is done. The meat falls off the bone.

She does many chicken recipes over on crocpot 365 (if I was not on dial up, I’d link it for you).
 
Your throw together chicken and rice - are you talking about cooked rice or do you put the rice in without cooking it?

If the rice is cooked, 3-4 hours on medium would likely cook it all together.
 
I have 3 appliances that I really love to use when it is just too darn hot to use the oven (and in South Florida, when isn’t it?!): my George Foreman grill (it has removable, dishwasher-safe grill plates), my crock pot, and my electric pressure cooker.

I grill chicken, burgers, steaks, veggies (whatever you would grill outdoors) on the George Foreman, and it never heats up my kitchen.
Fall-off-the-bones delicious ribs and baked potatoes take about 45 minutes to cook in a pressure cooker. Put the ribs and a bottle of bbq sauce in the cooker, wrap the potatoes in foil and put them in, too. Seal the lid, let it build up pressure, and you have a delicious meal, without heating the kitchen, in less than an hour. And they make pressure cookers with so many safetly features now, it is nearly impossible to have one explode (like the older ones you had to use on the stove top).
I make turkey, ribs, stew, chicken and beef roasts in my crock pot. However you would prepare and season them for the oven, do the same for the crockpot. Just last night I made a boneless turkey breast seasoned with a citrus dill seasoning blend and little black pepper. I set the crock pot for 6 hours (on one like yours, I would set it on low and let it cook about 7 hours or so; just check for doneness and let it cook longer if need be). I had the juiciest, tastiest turkey breast for dinner. Make whatever sides you like on top of the stove, but instead of cooking the veggies in a pot on the stove, put them in a bowl or on a plate and microwave for 3-4 minutes (or however long it takes to get them nice and hot in your microwave).
 
Oh! I just thought of another favorite recipe. I usually heat this in the oven, but it can also be done in an iron skillet on the stove. Use either your leftover rotisserie chicken, or pre-cooked diced, seasoned chicken breasts. You can cook your own, if you like, using boneless, skinless breasts seasoned with Italian seasoning (if you do this, cook the chicken first, before going on to the rest of the recipe).

The following is enough for 1-2 people. Adjust up for more, or larger portions:
Dice 2-3 bell peppers (I use a mix of colors)
Use 1-2 small cans of fire roasted tomatoes (I use the ones with garlic) drain very very well.
1-2 cups of baby portabella mushrooms (about one cardboard box from the grocery store).
Shredded mozzarella cheese.
Heat the skillet (don’t use any oil or butter).
Place the chicken and all the veggies in the skillet. Add whatever Italian spices you like (I keep it simple: garlic, basil and oregano).
Cook until thoroughly heated (mushrooms and peppers will get nice and soft). Drain off as much liquid as you can, if it gets watery.
Once everything is good and hot, cover with mozzarella cheese and let the cheese melt.

If you do choose to use the oven, heat it all (cheese included) at once, in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes.
 
kage_ar said:
Your throw together chicken and rice - are you talking about cooked rice or do you put the rice in without cooking it?

If the rice is cooked, 3-4 hours on medium would likely cook it all together.
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I usually cook the rice first. So I’ll probably be trying this on Tuesday for the first time.

I’m able to do burgers and kabobs in the rotisserie, but I’ve never tried that before. My husband’s most common comment when asked what he’d like for dinner is: “Just give me something I’m used to…” So my repertoire over the years has decreased rather than increased, most especially since having children!
 
Black Bean Wraps

2 (8oz) packages cream cheese softened
2 cups (8oz) montery jack or pepper jack cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp. onion salt

2 15oz cans of black beans rinsed and drained
1/4 cup salsa
12 (8 inch) flour tortillas
1 10oz package spinach (frozen thawed or fresh)
2 (7oz) jars roasted sweet peppers (optional) drained course chopped
2 carrots shredded (optional

beat first 4 ingrediants together in large bowl (electric mixer is nice but not needed)
Mix bean and salsa and peppers together (and spinach if frozen, if fresh lay spinach on tortilla) then spread the first mixture then the second on the tortilla. (also you can mix the second mixture in with the first for easier spreading) these are supposed to be rolled up and then cut in to rounds for an appetiser, but we eat them for a light, cool, meatless dinner. and we halve the recipe for just the two of us and then there are left overs.

pulled pork barbeque

put some onion in the bottem of the crockpot
then your pork (however much you want)
then water about 2 cups or so it never boils off
cook on low for 7 to 8 hours.
then drain for water
meat should easily shread
add Sweet Baby Rays barbeque to taste
optional teriaki sause, mustard, worsteshire sauce
(if you are not ready to eat you can keep it warm in the crockpot)
serve on buns, bread, or tortillas with cheese 😃

hope these help
 
*Hi BeeSweet;

In addition to the other great ideas mentioned (I love crockpot cooking – yum!)

I bought for the holidays, one of those indoor grills…Mine is a Bella Cucina, and it is truly FABULOUS!!! I can’t believe all of the various things I can make using this, that are healthy, and don’t require the oven.

You can grill steaks, fish, chicken, veggies, make hashed browns, pancakes, french toast, etc…(it comes with two griddles too for griddling things–is that a word? griddling? :ehh:)

I HIGHLY encourage you to check it out…we bought it at Target, and love love love it. I used it tonight to grill eggplant, and it’s just so quick and the clean up is a cinch. *
 
You can cook past in the very early morning before the heat hits (or very late at night) drain well and put a bit of olive oil on it to keep it from sticking. Short, open pasta like elbow noodles work excellent for this…spagetti not so much.

You can toss frozen meat balls and sauce into the crockpot around lunchtime on low should get you great spagetti. Don’t even worry about getting the pasta hot…mixing the hot sauce on will get it hot enough.

Garlic spreads on regular toast can replace garlic bread toasted in the oven.

Cold pasta can also make an excellent a cold pasta salad with cubed white and orange chedder, and pieces of salami, ham and peperoni add some veggies, green&red peppers, squash, eggplant etc.
 
Some very good crock pot recipes:

**Gone All Day Casserole **[crock pot recipe]
1 cup uncooked wild rice, rinsed and drained 1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrots 2 (4 oz.) cans mushrooms, drained
1 large onion chopped 1 clove garlic, minced
½ cup slivered almonds 3 beef bouillon cubes
2 ½ teaspoons seasoned salt 3 cups water
2 pounds boneless round steak, cut into 1 inch cubes
Place ingredients in order listed in slow cooker. Cover. Cook on low 6-8 hours or until rice is tender. Stir before serving. Variation: add a bay leaf and 4-6 whole peppercorns to mixture before cooking. Remove before serving. Variation: Substitute chicken legs and thighs (skin removed) for the beef. Variation: Brown beef in saucepan in tablespoons oil before putting in slow cooker for deeper flavor.

Ten Layer Slow Cooker Dish [crock pot recipe]
6 medium potatoes, thinly sliced 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
Salt to taste pepper to taste 15 oz can of corn
15 oz can of peas ¼ cup water 1 ½ pounds ground beef, browned10 ¾ oz can of cream of mushroom soup
Layer 1: ¼ potatoes, ½ of onion, salt and pepper
Layer 2: ½ can of corn
Layer 3: ¼ potatoes
Layer 4: ½ can of peas
Layer 5: ¼ potatoes, ½ onion, salt and pepper
Layer 6: remaining corn
Layer 7: remaining potatoes
Layer 8: remaining peas and water
Layer 9: Ground Beef
Layer 10: Soup
Cover. Cook on high for 4 hours.

Tuna Noodle Casserole (crock pot recipe)
2 6 ½ oz cans water packed tuna, drained 1 cup milk
2 10 ½ oz cream of mushroom soup 2 tablespoons dried parsley
10 oz package mixed vegetables, thawed
10 oz package noodles, cooked and drained
½ cup toasted sliced almonds
Combine tuna, soup, milk, parsley, and veggies. Fold in noodles. Pour into greased slow cooker. Top with almonds. Cover. Cook on low 7-9 hours or high 3-4 hours

Bonus: A great summer salad
Cucumber and Tomato Salad
(really good but measure the ingredients carefully for the dressing)
1 large cucumber (diced about the same size as the tomatoes)
1 pint cherry tomatoes cut in half ½ teaspoon chopped garlic
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons good quality olive oil
1 Tablespoon chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste
Combine garlic, vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Add cukes, parsley and tomato halves. Toss gently.

Second Bonus
Easy Cheese Cake
1 (8 oz) cream cheese (room temperature)
½ cup sugar
10 oz Cool Whip
1 Graham Cracker Pie Crust
1 can cherry pie filling
Mix cream cheese and sugar. Mix in cool whip. Blend well. Pour into pie crust. Top with cherry pie filling. Chill. This is ridiculously easy to make and is very light and fluffy.
 
Hi,

We make a lentils and kielbasa stew/soup in our crock pot, and the whole family loves it.

Here’s the recipe:

1 16 oz package of lentils
1 can tomatoes, drained
2 cans beef broth
3 cups water
1 carrot, cut up
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 lb. kielbasa - cut up in 1/2 inch slices

Rinse and drain lentils. Place everything in crock pot. Stir together. Cover and cook on high for 3 hours, or low for 6-7 hours.

You can play around with this, for example, I usually add several carrots, and don’t drain the tomatoes. We all really like it.
 
purplesunshine said:
You can cook past in the very early morning before the heat hits (or very late at night) drain well and put a bit of olive oil on it to keep it from sticking. Short, open pasta like elbow noodles work excellent for this…spagetti not so much.

You can toss frozen meat balls and sauce into the crockpot around lunchtime on low should get you great spagetti. Don’t even worry about getting the pasta hot…mixing the hot sauce on will get it hot enough.

Garlic spreads on regular toast can replace garlic bread toasted in the oven.

Cold pasta can also make an excellent a cold pasta salad with cubed white and orange chedder, and pieces of salami, ham and peperoni add some veggies, green&red peppers, squash, eggplant etc.
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*The cold pasta and mixing cold cuts and veggies…mmmm…that sounds so good!! Thanks for sharing. *
 
Here is a good one from the Hillbilly Housewife website:

hillbillyhousewife.com/farmers-supper.htm

FARMERS SUPPER

1/2 onion
2 to 3 slices of breakfast ham
1/2 green pepper (optional)
2 small potatoes (cooked - leftover baked or nuke em)
4 eggs
Start by dicing the onion, ham and green pepper. Get out your iron skillet and let it warm up over medium heat. Add a little oil to the pan. Add your diced ham, onion and pepper and allow it to cook until the veggies are tender.

If you have leftover baked potatoes, use those. If you don’t have any leftovers, get out 2 small potatoes, poke some holes in the skin with a fork and then microwave them until they are tender (about 7 minutes). Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Slice your potatoes and add them to the pan. Cook them until the potatoes are warmed through.

Get out a small bowl and add the eggs. Scramble them well. Add the eggs to the pan and cook until they are done, stirring and scraping with a spatula as needed.

I make this simple skillet meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For breakfast I serve it with sliced tomatoes and toast, for lunch and dinner with a green salad.
 
jilly4ski said:
pulled pork barbeque

put some onion in the bottem of the crockpot
then your pork (however much you want)
then water about 2 cups or so it never boils off
cook on low for 7 to 8 hours.
then drain for water
meat should easily shread
add Sweet Baby Rays barbeque to taste
optional teriaki sause, mustard, worsteshire sauce
(if you are not ready to eat you can keep it warm in the crockpot)
serve on buns, bread, or tortillas with cheese 😃
Click to expand...
This sounds like a husband please-er. What sort of pork would you use? I don’t cook with pork very often, I’m not that good with it.

I tried my chicken and rice casserole tonight in the crockpot, and it went very well! Actually, it was better than my ordinary method, because the crockpot is easier to clean than the Pyrex dish is. What a difference it makes on keeping the house cool. OK, not cool, but at least not heated up more than it is already!

I’m going to try re-heating our July 4th bbq chicken in the toaster oven tomorrow night, I hope there’s enough room in there. We have lots of potato salad and cole slaw left over too.

I really appreciate all these suggestions. I like the suggestion of ribs from the pressure cooker too, but I only have a cheap stove top pressure cooker which I’ve never used, and I’m sorta scared to try.

I wonder if a lasagne could be made in the crock pot? With those no-bake noodles? Or maybe a pasta bake sort of thing with penne or rigatone noodles? Anyone ever try something like that?
 
I use many of the types of recipes already stated in my crockpot - in addition to putting it on my back porch to keep the heat level down all day. It’s over 100 a lot here in AZ and every little bit of not heating up the house helps the elctric bill.

As for the prior one with pork, I’d use a pork loin roast, they turn out great the 1st and 2nd time around (1st as roast w/veggies and 2nd as BBQ)
 
BeeSweet said:
This sounds like a husband please-er. What sort of pork would you use? I don’t cook with pork very often, I’m not that good with it.
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A good size pork shoulder (sometimes called a “Boston butt”) makes fantastic pulled pork bbq!
I really appreciate all these suggestions. I like the suggestion of ribs from the pressure cooker too, but I only have a cheap stove top pressure cooker which I’ve never used, and I’m sorta scared to try.
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I wouldn’t use the old fashioned one if you are afraid to use it. That recipe is also very good for the crockpot, though. Use just enough bbq sauce to coat the ribs (instead of the whole bottle), set the crockpot on low and cook about 8 hours for country ribs (they are the ones with lots of meat on them). Heat the rest of the sauce in a pan on the stove and pour over the ribs once they are on a platter. (That way, you don’t get all the fat from the ribs messing up the sauce in crockpot).
Don’t do the potatoes in the crockpot (they may not come out the right texture). Instead, parboil them or microwave them (poke LOTS of holes in them!) until they start to just get soft, then finish them in the toaster oven or broiler. It takes much less time that way.
I wonder if a lasagne could be made in the crock pot? With those no-bake noodles? Or maybe a pasta bake sort of thing with penne or rigatone noodles? Anyone ever try something like that?
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I’ve never made lasagna in the crockpot, but I’ve seen recipes. I imagine it would be pretty good with either pre-cooked (cook them until they are almost al dente) or no-bake noodles. I have made other pasta dishes in the crockpot. I just use previously cooked pasta, meat (usually ground beef or sausage), spices and lots of cheese.
 
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