Do You Cook When it's 100 Degrees?

I don't know about you but when I encounter several days in a row of 100+ degree temps, the last thing I want to do is turn on the stove or oven.
I'd been running out of 'no-cook' dinner ideas. There's only so many times you can let your kids have cereal and fruit for dinner without starting to feel guilty.

My kids aren't really big on salads so I figured I had to make it fun if I was going to get them on board. We had done 'make your own pizza' and 'make your own taco' night before and they were both a big hit.

I decided to do make your own salad this time since it required very little cooking, and qualified as a healthy meal.

Here's our salad bar...

We had lettuce, strawberries, grapes, blueberries, cucumbers, dried cranberries, avocado and grilled chicken. Yeah, I had to cook the chicken but it was fast and didn't heat up my kitchen like cooking an entire meal would have. There were also croutons and sliced almonds, not pictured.

It was interesting to see what the little ones would choose to put on their plates. Oddly enough, Gia who loves chicken and avocado, chose to just do a fruit salad.

She treated it like a piece of art. After this was gone she did have some cucumbers and some shredded cheese. At least she got in a little protein.

Tia, my little (mostly) vegetarian made up this masterpiece...

No protein here!

I was a little disappointed that they didn't venture out a little more and try something new (like some protein!), but overall the idea was a hit. The kids liked having control over what was on their plate, and creating it themselves. Everyone got in a substantial amount of fruit and veggies, so that's always a plus.

Oh, wanna' see my plate? How could I forget!

This Mama's no fool. I know the health benefits of lean protein, avocado, and of course berries! It was dee-lish.

Thankfully today the heat wave has broken. I guess that means I'm back to cooking regular meals at the stove.

Happy Summer eating!