It’s summer! Hot, humid days, where you want to relax and soak up the sun, whether on the beach or in your own backyard. The last thing anyone wants to worry about is making dinner! You need easy summer meal ideas that will please everyone (even the picky eaters), without breaking a sweat or breaking the bank!
Whether you’re feeding a crowd or just feeding the kids, you want something light, healthy, and simple. Here’s some easy summer meal ideas from our own Little Pockets of Bliss house, some of our favourites, and great ideas we’ve found on Pinterest!
Easy Meat and Cheese Board
My kids love the choices, and I love the speed and simplicity of putting together a meat and cheese board. Add favourite deli meats to your grocery list, along with different cheeses (or visit a local cheesemaker like Mountain Oak Cheese). This is a good chance to try some new ones too! My kids love local Noah Martin Summer Sausage, Quebec Honey Ham, Buffalo Chicken, Smoked Turkey and Corned Beef. For more adult tastes, go for Rosemary Ham, Prosciutto, Mortadella, or Montreal Smoked Beef.
Grab a baguette, pickles, olives and nuts. And don’t forget lots of fresh veggies like carrots, celery, broccoli, sugar snap peas, peppers. You can also add fruit like sliced apples, grapes, strawberries and blueberries.
Putting it all together is easy! Just slice the cheeses, wash and chop fruits and veggies, and arrange everything on a cutting board. Add in dips, and small dishes for sides, and place it all on the table. Everyone can pick an assortment of their favourites and graze. Sometimes we all sit at the table, or go back and forth from table to couch if we’re watching a family movie.
You can scale this idea from serving just a few people to feeding a crowd, indoors or out! It’s also a simple meal that kids can help prepare, and a great way to get them to eat more fruits and veggies!
Fun Walking Tacos
Chips for dinner?!? My kids were so excited when they spotted individual bags of Doritos, and even more so when I explained we were going to eat right out of the bag! Easy prep and clean-up, not to mention a great meal on a budget.
Tip: If you cook the ground beef ahead of time and freeze, it’s quick to reheat without heating up the house on those extra hot days!
Summer Salads
Salads are a go-to for easy summer meals…no cooking, added healthy veggies, great for potlucks and picnics. Here are a couple of favourite summer salad recipes!
Summer Sandwiches
Picnics and sandwiches just go together, and scream summer! A great idea for parties, check out these adorable mini grilled cheese appetizer bites…
…or for even more sandwich recipes, check out Country Living’s 20+ ideas (#5 is my yummy vote!)
Instant Pot For The Win
A great way to avoid heating up the kitchen in summer is to use your Instant Pot (don’t have one yet? This one is my favourite.) One of the best summer meal recipes is pulled pork. Make up a batch and serve as pulled pork on buns with coleslaw, in pulled pork tacos, nachos, quesadillas…the list is endless! Also great for summer meals for a crowd! Here’s our favourite Pulled Pork recipe…
Remember Summer Food Safety
With all summer meals, parties, bbqs, picnics and potlucks, it’s easy to forget food safety! No one wants to ruin a great summer day with food poisoning. Here’s a great article with tips on food safety.
Here’s hoping these easy summer meal ideas will leave you more time to enjoy summer with family and friends! Got some other ideas you would add? Leave me a comment below!
Want to save for later? Pin it to your favourite Pinterest board!
Having the nachos in the bag is a terrific idea. Kids would love that. We made nachos before but never in the bag. Something I never thought of. I will have to try that. Rachel from https://www.explorekidtalk.com/
Great ideas! I have really been struggling to come up with new meals lately and this is a lot of help.