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Cool Kitchen Organizing Ideas for Hot Summer Days

image By Professional Organizer Lea Schneider

Along with sunny skies, bare feet and soaring temperatures comes the food doldrums.

When it gets too-hot to cook, kitchen organization can take a nosedive. Everyone still needs a meal but it is hard to get motivated to whip something up. However, summer time, with the availability of fresh produce is the perfect time to liven ho-hum meals.

Here are some of my favorite fast tips for the summer!

Planning: Even though there’s not homework or a flurry of evening activities to work around, take time to plan out a week’s worth of meals. Many summer-friendly dishes don’t take long to make but should be made ahead and allowed to chill.

Shop: Buy a week’s worth of ingredients at one time. Take that menu and make your list. Save time buy purchasing already chopped ingredients for a casserole or salad meal from the store’s salad bar. For example, you can pick up clean and sliced mushrooms and diced green pepper for a stir-fry and dinner is a snap. Ask the butcher to cube or slice your chicken, beef and pork. There’s usually no charge for this service. The meat is ready to drop in the pot and cook. Bags of grated cheese are usually as cheap as bar cheese.

Double up: Double your meat cooking. Making baked chicken breasts? Bake twice as many as you need and use the rest in a casserole or chicken salad. Make a double batch of meatballs. Use on batch with spaghetti and serve the next batch on hoagie rolls with cheese for meatball subs.

Grilling meat? Extra grilled meat makes great stuffed potatoes, sub sandwiches or turns a tossed salad into a main dish salad. Brown ground beef and ground turkey in a plastic colander, set inside a bowl, in the microwave. The bowl will catch the drippings to be discarded. Both items can then be popped in the dishwasher for a fast clean up.

On shopping day, grab two rotisserie chickens. Use one that night for dinner with a couple of side items and refrigerate the extra one. The next day, pull the meat from the second rotisserie chicken. It will make a great chicken salad. Or: Wrap in tortillas with cheese, salsa, lettuce and tomato; top shredded romaine with the chicken, parmesan and Caesar dressing for a chicken Caesar salad; or toss the meat with cooked penne pasta and bottled Alfredo sauce for chicken Alfredo.

Tangy Fresh Green Beans

I like to prepare these tangy beans in the oven while meat is on the grill. Serve any grilled meal, steak, chicken breast or pork loin, with these beans. Round out the meal with sliced summer tomatoes and slices from a French baguette and butter.

Enough fresh green beans for family
1 purple onion, sliced in rings
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Minced garlic
Balsamic vinegar

Directions: Spray a 9 x 12 casserole with PAM. Add washed green beans. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Add quite a bit of garlic- perhaps 3 Tablespoons. Toss. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes, stirring every five minutes. Beans should be crisp tender. Return to oven if not done. When done, sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, toss and serve.


Fresh Fish Express

This light summer fish dish just bursts with citrus flavor. I usually serve it with a rice pilaf and what ever vegetable strikes my fancy at the local Farmer’s Market. For the rice pilaf, cook your long grain rice like you normally do but substitute chicken broth for the water. Toss in a couple handfuls of your favorite chopped veggies- onions, bell peppers, celery, or mushrooms. Cook as usual. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Note: The fish and rice take about the same cooking time. As soon as the broth boils and you add the rice and veggies, then pop the fish into the oven too.

For the fish:

1 boneless fish fillet per person (both catfish and tilapia are great)
1 T. orange marmalade per fish fillet
Seasoned bread crumbs
Salt
Cayenne Pepper
Margarine, olive oil or butter
1 fresh lime, cut in wedges


Directions: Place fish on a greased baking sheet, or use the new stick-free foil on the baking sheet. It is a really great product that saves time. Heat the marmalade in the microwave for 30 seconds to one minute so that it softens and is easy to spread. Brush or spread the marmalade on each fish fillet. Sprinkle each fish fillet with the seasoned bread crumbs. Sprinkle the fish with salt and a light dusting of cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper counteracts the sweet of the marmalade. The more you like it hot, the more pepper to use. (Go lightly the first time you make this.)

Top each fillet with a pat of margarine or butter or a drizzle of olive oil. Place in a 400 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish fillets. They are done when fish flakes with a fork. Serve with the wedge of lime.