No Cook Recipes

do you have a microwave?

One of my favorite meals at the local coffee shop that I also mean to recreate at home and never do is called the "Lite Plate". They have a cup of lettuce with your choice of either (1/2 cup) chicken salad or egg salad on top of it, and the two side dishes are 1/2 cup of cottage cheese, and about a cup of seasonal fruit. I know there is nothing healthy about the coffee shop version, so when ever I get around to making it at home I plan on swapping out the mayo in the salad to a little mayo, greek yogurt, and mashed avocado and plan on adding carrots and celery and pickles to give it a crunch.

I would agree with missymakayla on cooking a bunch of meat once a week so that you have them to use throughout the week.

We have a stovetop smoker that we use all the time during the winter as it gives an amazing smokey, grilled flavor to your meat and vegetables. It does not smoke up the house at all, but you will smell the smokey flavor for a few hours. That may bother some, but personally we love it. No worse then a wood fireplace or stove would be. I love summer for all the flavor that you can add just by grilling and smoking your food. I would recommend the stovetop smoker to anyone. Added bonus to it is that it has a rack that you place in it so the smoke will engulf your food on all sides. This allows all the fat drips off your meat and it does not cook into it.

An actually no-cook recipe would be a cold plate night. We slice up different deli meats, variety of cheeses, and all kinds of veggies and fruit. Make a couple low-fat dips such as greek yogurt with ranch seasoning, hummus, greek yogurt with chocolate pudding for the fruit, etc. I usually make a loaf of beer bread to cube up and go with it all, but you could substitute crackers or skip all together. All of it goes on a big platter in the middle of the table and the four of us just grab and eat as we want. Only thing we have is a little plate to put our dips on as we are trying to teach the boys manners and not to double dip. It's a huge hit with our kids (7 and 5) as it is all finger food and they can create any combination that they want.

Looking for some healthy no-cook recipes -- it's too hot to use the stove or oven and too dry out to use the grill (we live in the middle of the national forest = fire ban). Nothing processed...ideas?

Crock Pot - low heat over a long period of time, shouldn't make your house too hot. Make some chili or pulled pork or pulled chicken and eat some, put the rest in the fridge for later in the week & reheat in the microwave. Or crockpot some quinoa or rye berry and make quinoa salad or ryeberry salad with oranges. Sushi is also a good no-cook meal, hummus, three bean salad, tomato/cucumber salad, broccoli slaw.

I like sandwiches for dinner when it's too hot to cook.

Avocado, pepperjack, lettuce. Good enough right there. If you like vegetarian 'meats' the morningstar farms bacon cooks up quite nicely in the microwave (gets crispy), and is a nice addition.

Rye bread with swiss cheese, sauerkraut, mustard or horsradish. Add cold cuts or vegetarian cold cuts if you like them.

Mozzarella, roasted bell peppers, a little oil vinegar, salt & pepper.

Salads, of course, with whatever you like on them. Radishes, avocados, sunflower seeds is currently my favorite. Make into a wrap if you need some carbs.

Hummus or babganoush, grapes, raw cauliflower, crackers or pita.