Simple and quick summer suppers - ideas? I'm a winter cook!

[gerbo]

I'm pretty good at soups/casseroles/roasts, etc. but always find it hard to know what to make on a warm summer evening! I have two little ones, 3 and 15 weeks, so very little time and any ideas need to be simple and quick...

I do lots of casseroles as they can be made in advance (ie when baby sleeping) in winter, but clearly these aren't great in summer...

We eat pretty much anything bar fish (my weird taste I'm afraid) and we all eat together, so meals need to be toddler friendly.

I'm a true novice with salads so please please keep it super simple - we're also on a fairly limited budget...even your most basic ideas are welcome!!!

Thanks in advance.............

Pasta and homemade pesto?

Qaesadillas and a tomato salsa?

Baked potatoes with cheese and homemade coleslaw?

Pitta breads with falafel and salad plus a minty yoghurt dip?

I make fewer casseroles in summer but still do things like chilli, spaghetti bol - all pasta really. I did a roast chicken today but with new potatoes & asparagus rather than roast potatoes & veg.

Other things you could do are quiche & salad, omelettes, wraps, grilled or bbqd meat with salads or couscous.

one of my summer staples is BBQed chicken legs - you marinate chicken (doesn't have to be legs, breasts in chunks then made into kebabs is fab too) in runny honey, ketchup, grainy mustard and soy sauce. then cook in the marinade in the oven, delish! nice served with cousous, crusty bread and green salad.

couscous with tomato chutney stirred through and sweetcorn added is rather good with it. add fresh basil if you have it.

Yes to quiche.

Risotto can feel quite 'summery' especially it contains asparagus and is served with a pile of baby spinach leaves and/or rocket on top of it.

how about an asparagus tart? here is a recipe.

My new current favourite is chicken wings chucked in a roasting pan with bay leaves, lemon halves squeezed over them, some salt and pepper and olive oil. Cook for ages and ages until crispy.

My toddler loves the chewy stickiness of them. And chicken wings are not expensive.

courgette cous cous with a hard boiled egg salad.

Fry and onion in a saucepan, add finely chopped courgette, cook until soft.Take off heat. Add 200g cous cous , pour on top 9 fluid oz boiling water which has has a veg stock cube dissolved in it, add a knob of butter. Put lid on. Leave to stand 5 mins. Take lid off, fluff up cous cous with fork. Serve with simple salad and add hard boiled eggs on top. This gets wolfed down by my DH, me, 5 yearolf and two year old!

This is very cheap meal and it took me 15 mins to make last night

sorry that meant to say a clove of garlic not an onion (I've just been chopping onions in the kitchen.... )

Tagines and curries are still good in the summer. Just swap rice or cous cous for a big green salad and some warm pitta breads.

Kebabs are good, too - chicken, lamb, pork, halloumi, veg. Or try satay skewers (really easy - just mix peanut butter, crushed garlic, sweet chilli sauce, lime juice, soy sauce and a bit of creamed coconut if you have it and marinate chicken breast pieces in it).

Barbecued meats - jerk chicken, homemade hamburgers, sausages with jacket potatoes and bbq corn on the cob - very easy and tasty.

Summery pasta dishes? There are some good recipes here

You could make a chicken version of Salad Nicoise? Or a version of chicken Caesar salad?