{HOT Weather Summer Dinners – Links to 17 Recipes & Printable Download}
I don’t know about where you live, but here in Michigan the summer has been HOT. Most mornings, my husband & I just ask each other, “What do we want to grill tonight?” It’s usually plain chicken, sometimes hamburgers — most often served with raw vegetables. Once in a while I’ll turn on the a/c in the house and cook something with pasta or potatoes.
I’m going to be totally honest here and admit that I was not going to make a monthly menu plan for August. If you check out my June menu plan, it pretty much covers what we eat during the summer. That menu also served us well during July, so I figured we would go with it for another month. We have burgers, chicken, and some sausage in the freezer, not much planning necessary to fill our bellies every night.
Then I started to think maybe we could try something a little different with the chicken that we usually just lightly season and grill. So I turned to my very favorite app on earth — Pinterest — and started searching for summery-type chicken meals. I discovered some delicious-looking new recipes, and decided a new monthly menu plan was definitely a good idea. Let me tell you, my printer got a workout this month!
Keep your cool this summer. Check out this August monthly #menu plan! #recipes #mealplan Click To Tweet
This page contains affiliate links. If you choose to purchase through an affiliate link, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. You can see my disclaimer here.
You will see from my menu that I’m becoming a little obsessed with foil packet recipes. Hey, anything to reduce the cleanup works for me! Plus, my family loves casseroles and one-pot style dinners with meat, starch & vegetables all mixed together. Foil packets are just like that–but cooked OUTSIDE (read: I prep, my husband stands outside in the heat and cooks 😉 ). I saw a brilliant idea on Pinterest to use tin pie plates as the bottom of the packet — that could be interesting! I’ve also read that if you’re uncomfortable with the idea of your food touching the aluminum foil, you can layer parchment paper between the food and foil.
Related posts:
How to Plan a Monthly Menu That Works For YOU
How to Grocery Shop for a Month
How much do we spend?
My monthly spending seems to naturally come in around $400, some months a little more or less. This amount feeds 3 adult-size people very well. Doing one big monthly shop and only popping into the store once or twice for milk and fruit saves my family at least $75/month compared to previous averages when I have carefully planned and budgeted, but still shopped weekly. My older son was home with us for a few months, but now he is back at college, so we’re back to feeding 3 people. We love that boy, but my husband is happy to be able to take leftovers again for his lunches. 😉
What do we eat besides dinner?
Breakfast – Not much. I’m a homemade iced coffee drinker during the summer — more often I make it the lazy way rather than the right way. (As long as it’s sweet & creamy caffeine, it’s all the same to me.) Sometimes my husband makes eggs and bacon on the weekend, maybe once or twice a month.
Lunch – Leftovers, pb&j, lunchmeat sandwiches, crackers & cheese
Snacks – Fruit, crackers, nuts, tortilla chips.
I usually do not make desserts. If we’re craving something during the summer, I’ll make rice krispie treats or some chocolate pudding to use up milk.
The Plan
As you will see, I have marked some of these dinners to be made more than once. I’ve also left open nights for leftovers and restaurant dinners.
Most dinners do not have a side dish listed. This is because it’s either an all-in-one meal, or my plan is to serve raw or grilled vegetables with the main course. August is usually our month to grill loads of zucchini and corn on the cob.
We have restocked our chicken supply, which is perfect for grilling season.
The highlighted links you see in the menu will take you directly to the website for each recipe. If you want to see photos of the linked recipes in one place, you can visit my Pinterest board for main dish recipes. I’m always pinning new recipes, so following my board is a great idea if you’re looking for dinner inspiration.
- Grilled BBQ chicken leg quarters (2 times)
- Grilled cheeseburgers (2 times)
- Grilled chicken burgers, *new recipe* Grilled Foil Packet Frozen Cheese Fries
- Grilled BBQ B/S chicken thighs
- *new recipe* Grilled Arnold Palmer Chicken
- *new recipe* Grilled Fajita Chicken Kabobs
- *new recipe* BBQ Ranch Grilled Chicken and Veggie Bowls
- *new recipe* Grilled Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Popper Stuffed Chicken
- *new recipe* Grilled Easy Tin Foil Sausage and Veggies Dinner
- *new recipe* Sausage, Potato, and Green Bean Foil Packets
- *new recipe* All-Purpose Buffalo Chicken
- *new recipe* Honey Sriracha Chicken
- *new recipe* Lexington Grilled Chicken
- Outdoor fish fry (2 times), homemade onion rings, sweet potato fries
- Oriental Chicken Salad
- *new recipe* BBQ Chicken Salad
- Tostadas (I just discovered Aldi now sells tostada shells! Oh happy day – I find them so much easier to eat than corn taco shells! Make these “refried” beans to use on them.)
- Nachos
- Smothered B/S chicken breasts
- Fried cabbage w/sausage or ground beef
- Easy Chicken Parmesan Bake (My new favorite easy dinner!)
- *crockpot meal* Red Beans & Rice
- *new recipe* Deviled Chicken Thighs, glazed carrots
- *new recipe* One Pot Spaghetti with Sausage Sauce
- *new recipe* White Chicken Enchilada Pasta
What’s your favorite summer meal?
Leave a comment or email me at [email protected] with any questions you might have! If you like this menu, click on one of the sharing buttons below to share on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.
Get the Printable Dinner Idea Collection
Enter your information now to receive your printable Monthly Dinner Idea Collection -- a list of dinner ideas for the ENTIRE YEAR with clickable recipe links.
Choosing to join the Filling the Jars email list means you will receive regular - usually weekly - email communication with news, tips, and special offers to help you on your journey to Build Your Best Life.
Filling the Jars Privacy Policy
Looks like lots of great new recipes. I had to laugh about your husband now has leftovers for lunch again since your son went back to college. When our son-in-law is visiting, there are NEVER leftovers for another meal! 🙂 If you’ve never posted on the #overthemoon link party, I’d like to invite you to do so. I am a co-host and we go live at 5 pm CST on Sunday!
Hi Cathy! I’m glad my post made you smile. 🙂 Thanks for the invite to the link party, I will definitely check it out!
Our family loves chicken and always looking for new ways to prepare and serve it. Thanks so much. Will be pinning so others can see these recipe links. Thanks for joining us at Let’s Get Real Link Up.
Hi Karen! Thanks for Pinning and I hope you enjoy the recipes! I’ll see you next week at Let’s Get Real. 🙂
Found your space through the Bloggers Pit Stop and absolutely love the resources here ?
Welcome! I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself here… that’s my goal. 🙂 I just popped over to your blog and it’s beautiful! Makes me hungry! Thanks for visiting.
I always look forward to our monthly menu plans!! Thanks for sharing at the What’s for Dinner linky – and don’t forget to leave a comment – if you comment and your post is featured next week, it will also get pinned and tweeted!
Hi Helen! Thank you! I also look forward to planning for the month, I can’t believe I almost didn’t do one this month! So glad I did!
This looks like a wonderful meal plan for August. Can I come eat at your house? LOL. I have never taken the time to do a monthly meal plan. I’ve considered it several times. I have this annoying trait where if I plan to eat something that by the time it comes to cook it by the end of the day I can’t eat it because in my mind I’ve ate it a hundred times already.
Hi Crystal! Your comment made me laugh! “…ate it a hundred times already…” In my mind I’ve MADE it a hundred times, which for some reason makes cooking it easier. Even though I have this monthly list of meals, I don’t usually plug them into certain days more than 4-7 days out. It feels flexible, but having all of the food on hand means I can change my mind and make something different on any particular day if I REALLY want to. And of course you can come eat at my house!
Julie – so great to see you here at #overthemoon! I know our readers will appreciate this post! I get so tired of trying to come up with something for dinner every night. this post helps!
Hi Cathy! Just having that list takes off a lot of pressure every day — glad my post could help!