4 Easy And Delicious Summer Dinner Ideas You’ll Love
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Last Updated on June 15, 2020 by Katherine
This week’s post is all about easy summer dinner ideas. Last year, I wrote about 17 Sizzling Barbeque Ideas. While I love a good barbeque, sometimes you just want something a bit simpler when you’re entertaining in the summer or even if you just want a slightly fancier meal without slaving away over a hot stove or barbeque for hours! So I thought I’d share with you four easy recipes that you can whip together in absolutely no time at all. The best part of all of these recipes? They are highly customizable if you don’t like an ingredient listed, sub in something else that you do like!
I’d wanted to do a dinner post, where I’d show you all the dishes you can make for a single dinner, and with the weather starting to heat up, grilling on the barbeque seemed like a smart option.
If you’d like a simple printable to help you plan out this meal for you, consider joining my email community and as a free gift, you can access my meal planning pdf. Details below!
Easy-Peasy Salad Rolls
I was introduced to salad rolls at my local Vietnamese restaurant and I love how fresh and simple they are. To get started you will need:
- Rice paper wrappers
- A variety of veggies julienned. I personally like:
- Carrots
- Cucumbers
- Sweet peppers
- Red cabbage
- Rice noodles (cooked)
Simply wrap everything up (check out this helpful video tutorial on Youtube from Lion Brand Rice on how to roll rice paper!) and serve with sweet Thai chili sauce or another favorite of yours! For added punch, you can even throw a little sauce into the wrap or add cooked shrimp. Don’t hesitate to experiment with different veggies, either.
Mom’s Tomato & Cuke Salad
I like to make this recipe and create the dressing on the side. That way everyone can choose the one they want.
- Tomatoes
- Cucumbers
- Green Onions
- Salad dressing
Simply toss all the ingredients together in your serving bowl and serve. This recipe keeps well in the fridge for a few days, mainly if you store the dressing separately.
Salad Dressing Ideas
Salad dressings consist primarily of three parts, oil, vinegar, and some spices. For some ideas, check out these healthy options from Wholefully, I’ve tried them all except the blue cheese one (not a fan of blue cheese), and they all go nicely with this simple salad.
If you’re entertaining a large crowd, you can toss the salad without the dressing and have your guests pick from a few choices of dressing!
Main & Side Dish Foil Wrapped
I love foil wrap recipes. They are easy to make and toss on the barbeque and serve. You can find oodles of recipes on the web, but here’s my family’s favorite!
- Ground beef
- Potatoes
- Onions
- Carrots
- Spices of your choice
Wrap in foil with butter and any spices you like. My favorite combination for ground beef? Sprinkle on some cayenne pepper (about ⅛ tsp for each packet), just a dash of red pepper flakes and as much salt and pepper as you usually add to your food.
Wrap everything up and cook 10 minutes per side on medium-high heat on your grill.
Blueberry-Lemon Chocolate Posset Shortcakes
The simplicity of this dish is delightful. I’ve made posset before, and it requires heavy cream, sugar, and acid (You might recall my earlier post that featured Raspberry Lime Posset). The best part of this is you can switch lemon for orange or lime and change your fruit choices. I have done a few desserts with blueberries and lemon, so I thought the addition of chocolate would be delicious, and I was proven entirely correct!
I cheated a little bit on the “no-bake” part. You do need to cook everything on the stovetop, but I couldn’t resist. If you simply must have a no-bake option, substitute posset for plain whipped cream (You can find an amazingly yummy recipe at Sally’s Baking Addiction!).
Blueberry Lemon Chocolate Posset Shortcakes
Posset is an English dessert. It's a lot like pudding (though much thicker and richer). Lemon chocolate posset combines with some blueberries and some shortcakes to make a deliciously simple layered dessert!
Ingredients
- 2 cups Heavy Cream
- 2/3 cup Granulated Sugar
- 5 tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice
- Zest of 1-2 lemons
- 1/2 cup Bittersweet or Semi-sweet Chocolate Melted
- Fresh Blueberries
- 6 Shortcake cups
Instructions
In a small saucepan, bring the cream and sugar to a boil while stirring constantly to combine them. Continue to boil for 5 minutes – be careful to watch it does not boil over!
Remove the pan from heat and stir in the lemon juice and chocolate chips.
Place posset in the fridge for at least 2 hours or until set. It will have a similar consistency to pudding.
Assemble your shortcake cups with blueberries and top with the posset.
Enjoy!!
Final Thoughts On Summer Dinners
In the heat of summer, sometimes it is nice to have options that either you can cook on your outdoor grill or simply not have to cook at all (except for a little bit of boiling that you need to do for the posset of course!). There are heaps of summer dinner ideas out there on the internet, so if none of these light your fancy hit up Pinterest for more ideas. I love how easily you can change these recipes to suit your own (or your family or guests) personal tastes. Changing one ingredient can make any one of these dishes into something completely different!
What’s your favorite summertime recipe? Let me know down in the comments below! Also if you try one of the above recipes, let me know how it went!
Also, I would greatly appreciate it if you would share this post to your favorite social media platform and pin it to Pinterest.
Next week, I’m going to look at some fresh DIY industrial decor design ideas for your home! Until then, stay crafty my friends!
