Favorite Summer Food

I’m joining the Blended Blog today in a blog hop where we are sharing our favorite summer food. If you are coming from Christy’s blog, welcome!

Summer means lazy, relaxing, hot days here in NE Florida and my favorite foods reflect my attitude of trying to keep things easy (lazy), quick (relaxing) and cool (hot)! Plus since it’s bathing suit season, I like to keep things as healthy as possible while still “indulging” a bit. Here’s how I do it:

Favorite Summer Food

Grill

Although we grill year-round because, Florida, I especially like to grill in the summer because that usually means my hubby is the one cooking. (Did I mention “lazy”?) Plus things just taste yummier and summerier when they are grilled! Although I am eating a lot less corn (because “corn fattens pigs”) I do love grilled corn so I will splurge and eat it a few times in the summer. Other favorites are grilled chicken, pork tenderloin and pizza.

Salads

I usually have hubby grill extra protein so we can use it in salads. My favorite formula for salads goes like this:

Greens + Protein + Nuts + Cheese + Veggies (or fruit) + Vinaigrette

So it might look like:

1. Spring mix + chicken + sliced almonds + feta + cherry tomatoes (or strawberries) + evoo and balsamic
2. Spinach + pork tenderloin + pecans + goat cheese + cucumbers (or raspberries) + evoo and lemon juice
3. Romaine + grilled kebab leftovers + walnuts + blue cheese + roasted beets (or whatever leftover roasted veggies, like cauliflower or broccoli or I use fruit like blackberries) + evoo and white wine vinegar with dijon mustard

You get the idea…

I don’t always add every part of the formula but it’s usually tastier when I do. Cook once, eat twice. Lazy. Quick. Easy. I don’t like pre-made salad dressings. They always add yucky stuff to them so I just make my own. Like this one for black currant mustard vinaigrette.

Smoothies

I will often have something cool and easy for breakfast, snack or even lunch. Smoothies fit the bill. I like to follow the Trim Healthy Mama recipes but when I’m winging it and creating my own, I have a basic formula I follow!

“Milk” + protein source + fruit (or other flavor-maker) + sweetener + ice

So it might look like:

1. Almond milk + protein powder + frozen berry medley + homemade truvia blend (HTB) + ice
2. Coconut milk + integral collagen + frozen banana (plus a little bit of banana extract) + HTB + ice
3. Almond milk + protein powder + cocoa powder + hazelnut extract (or defatted peanut flour, or natural peanut butter) + HTB + ice

Sometimes instead of one of the milks I’ll use Greek yogurt and then add some water. I have a vitamix so everything gets blended up pretty well! I often add a small handful of spinach just to hide a little extra goodness in my already good-for-me smoothie.

Cocktails

In the summer I like drinking cool refreshing drinks. My go-to favorites are homemade (healthier than mix) margaritas, mojitos, Pimm’s Cup, and Sangria.

I linked to my homemade not-as-bad-for-you margarita recipe. Hubby is the mixologist. I’m the taste tester.

Here’s a recipe for Pimm’s Cup Cocktail that looks more like the traditional one. However, in the spirit of trying to reduce my sugar intake and still participate in some of my favorite drinks, hubby will create a simple syrup out of my HTB and use sparkling water in place of the gingerale/7up called for in the original recipe.

I grow a lot of mint in my herb garden so we can make lots of mojitos in the summer.

I’ll share my favorite Sangria recipe with you tomorrow!

Those are my top favorites! What are yours? Join our link up or if you don’t blog, tell me in the comments! Then click on over to Shelly’s blog to see what her favorites are!