Fast, Easy Meals For The Summer - A Whole Weeks Worth Of Meals and A Snack #recipes #dinner

Life is busy. My schedule is my kids schedule so when they are in school, I am at work and when they are out of school, I am off but they are home which means not a lot of down time. I love cooking and while my kitchen is super small with zero work space I manage to make meals every night.

Here are a few that are super easy and can be done without a whole lot of pre work:

Beef and Bean Dip with Nacho's or Taco Shells

I open a can of Keystone Beef into a pan with black beans and onions. I also add, fresh Oregano, salt and pepper, Adobo and Sazon. Once it is all bubbly I toss some yellow American cheese on top, cover and when it is melted it is ready to eat.

Usually I put a platter of nachos, tacos and bowls of sour cream, taco sauce, lettuce and tomatoes and everyone makes their salad or tacos! It takes literally 15 minutes to make and we all love it.

Salad Platter (this was mine the kids don't like olives)

Sometimes salad is the perfect dinner especially on those days where it was 88 degrees, the house is showing me 85 degrees and I can't even think about cooking.

I just clean some mixed greens, slice some cherry tomatoes, pull apart some cold cuts, slice some cheese and add some crackers. It is a delicious, cool dinner that fills you up.

Hot Dogs and Hamburgers:

I cannot eat hot dogs anymore they do something to my stomach. It has been about 4 years. I love the smell though so I don't mind making them for my boys. These days they love Boars Head or Black Bear Natural Casings Hot Dogs. I love a burger every once in a while just seasoned with Adobo and pepper with my favorite Swiss Cheese on it.

My husband's dog usually has American Cheese with diced red peppers, potatoes and onion on a wrap. He loves it!

Zucchini Burgers:

I shred Zucchini, add Parmesan cheese, bread crumb, eggs, Cayenne pepper, onion or scallions and grill them on low or put them in a pan on the BBQ.  Then I add mixed greens, tomatoes and BBQ sauce instead of Ketchup. It is probably my favorite way to eat a burger.

Campanelle Pasta Salad:
 

Make your Capanelle pasta according to the directions. I use Barilla.

Cut up red and green peppers, onions, and tomatoes. I also add green olive, black beans, corn and mixed greens a little olive oil, salt and pepper, oregano and basil from the garden and for my husband's we add tuna. It is so fast and easy.

Eggplant Pizza:
 

My daughter calls it that but really it is just unstacked eggplant Parmesan.  Cut the eggplant, dredge them through an egg bath and then put in bread crumbs that are seasoned however you like. We do salt, pepper, Cayenne Pepper, Adobo, Sazon, oregano, rosemary and basil.

Please them in a lightly greased baking pan, put some tomato sauce and cheese on top and bake for 12 minutes. She eat the whole thing!

Easy Peasy Cheese Steak:

I opened a can of Keystone's Beef and sauteed with some onions and peppers. Then I added cheese and put it on a wrap. So easy and delicious.

Meatlovers Pizza (I also made a vegetarian one for my daughter with just fresh basil on it but forget to get a photo)

We used the Bobolli Pizza Crust that was on sale at Shoprite. Browned some chopped meat we had left over from burgers. Tossed it on a sauce and cheese covered Bobolli, added some crumbled bacon that I cooked in the microwave and cooked it according the the Bobolli crust instructions. They kids and my husband are asking me to make them again this week.

Stuffed Peppers:

My husband never had stuffed peppers but when he called home I asked him what he wanted for dinner. He said, I don't know, we don't have anything. I  will figure it out. 

When I saw the peppers I thought...hmmmm let's go there.

I still had a can of Keystone Ground Beef and left over rice from his dinner last night. So I cooked the beef, rice, diced peppers and onion together. Cut the peppers open. Filled with the meat mixer through sauce over it and cooked at 350 for an 60 minutes. For the last 10 minutes I added shredded cheese.

He loved it and asked me to make it again this upcoming weekend.

 Cheese Platter Homework Snack Platter:

We love cheese and I was excited to try some new ones. Swiss is by far my favorite cheese and Jarlsberg is definitely my favorite brand. It is always in the fridge. My son loves cheese even more than I do. We loved trying the new Cheese Crisps Crackers by Jarlsberg and the Ski Queen which I haven't figured out a way to use it yet other than just sliced.

If making this for myself I add olives but for the kids I just do cheese, apples, pears and some almonds for my daughter. 

So there you have it. If you make any of these please let me know what you thought of them.

Disclaimer:  I received complimentary Keystone Meat products to try out. I also received some swag from Jarlsberg. All opinions are my own. No monetary compensation was offered or received.