Eating in season is the most simple way to save money and eat locally. Zucchini, bell peppers and summer squash can be found for less than $1/lb, corn on the cobb at 50 cents or less an ear, and fruit just tastes better! Blueberries, strawberries and pineapple are all reasonably priced as well. However, when you have an abundance, what are you suppose to do with em all?
Kabobs
Kabobs are one of my most favorite summer time meals because peppers, zucchini and squash taste amazing with a little bit of flame action. I like to add pineapple or vidalia onion as well for a sweet spin on things. Pictured above is a BBQ skewer, with chicken, red pepper and pineapple brushed with BBQ sauce.
Sometimes, the more simple the combination the better they taste. Corn on the cobb is a great side for any dish cooked on the grill.
Left Overs
When I use the grill, I’ll cook most of the newly purchased veggies I have and keep the rest on hand for salads and bowls later in the week. Last week, I had chicken and veggies from the grill leftover. I thought about making an Asian stir fry but was out of teriyaki sauce. We still had 1/2 a pineapple left over from the skewers earlier in the week we attempted to make our own pureeing together pineapple, soy sauce, garlic, rice vinegar, ginger and a few other ingredients. It was very salty but worked. I will not be making it again however. We sauteed the chicken in the sauce after it had simmered for 5 minutes. We made quinoa and topped it with the chicken mixture and left over grilled summer veggies and fresh pineapple.
Salads
Why did it take a “fast food” restaurant like Panera Bread to introduce me to how good fruit really is in a salad. The Strawberry and Chicken Salad at PB is one of my new go lunches for only 340 calories. The dressing is a fat free poppyseed and the other ingredients are simply blueberries, mandarin oranges, pineapple, pecans and chicken. Why pay $9 at PB, when you can make it for less at home. I’ll probably omit the mandarin oranges for my homemade version to avoid using canned fruit.
What are your favorite summer dishes? Gotta an amazing recipe? Share it below and I’ll try to make it!
I love summer grilling! I just tried out a new recipe last night for coconut shrimp and it was delicious! It will be up on my blog on Sunday!
Yes yes I agree that fruit is the best and cheapest during this time! I especially get happy when blueberries, straws, and pineapples are inexpensive. My husband loves fruit more than any food so we need to buy lots of ’em 😛 And Panera’s salads are so expensive but so good. I try to remake them at home but I’m always missing tons of ingredients, hhaa.
It took a fast food restaurant to introduce me to the concept of fruit in a salad, too! For me it was a very similar one at Wendy’s -- the Berry Almond Chicken salad. It is delicious, so then I tried the Apple Pecan Chicken salad there and was totally sold. Have you tried the Fuji Apple Chicken salad at Panera? Hands-down, my favorite salad in the whole world. (There’s a turkey version too but I like chicken best.)