30 Quick And Simple Summer Meals (Plus Easy Summer Food List Ideas)

Let’s talk about summer food — I mean, we all need quick and simple summer meals that make dining a breeze! I’ve got 30 summer dinner ideas for you, plus summer food list ideas for other meals and prep tips to help you keep your cool and spend less time in the kitchen. This list is great when you want to do monthly meal planning.

While summer cooking might still mean using the stove or oven at times, our goal is to streamline the process with easy prep food for fast summer meal ideas. I’ve also included a list of the kitchen tools I use every day to make it all super-simple.

Whether you want to make summer meals on the grill, toss a quick summer salad, or prepare a fast bake dinner recipe, each dish brings ease and flavor to your summer table. Let’s enjoy these delicious, time-saving meal options and embrace the simplicity of summer dining!

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30 Simple Summer Dinner Ideas

Want to know our favorite summer meal? Grilled marinated boneless skinless chicken and zucchini. Hello, nothing could be easier or less mess!

Our family usually eats a meat-based diet, so you will notice that even our ‘lighter’ summer meals include meat of some sort. There are several lettuce-based salads on this list, which are really perfect all-in-one summer meals!

1. Grilled chicken — leg quarters or boneless, skinless

2. Grilled burgers

3. Grilled chicken or sausage & veggie kabobs

4. Grilled pork steaks or chops

5. Nachos

6. Grilled Bratwurst or Italian sausages

7. Cold tuna-macaroni salad

8. Chef salad

9. Taco salad

10. Oriental Chicken Salad

11. Easy Burrito Bowls

12. Italian Chop Salad

13. Pastor Ryan’s Pasta Carbonara

14. Easy Chicken Parmesan Bake

15. Slow Cooker Red Beans & Rice

16. Roasted smoked sausage, chicken & vegetables

17. Paula’s Smoked Boston Butt Roast

18. Bacon Ranch Chicken Bake

19. Kielbasa, Pepper, Onion, and Potato Hash

20. Kale and Chicken ‘Survival’ Salad

21. BBQ Ranch Grilled Chicken and Veggie Bowls

22. Grilled Easy Tin Foil Sausage and Veggies Dinner

23. Lexington (aka Carolina) Grilled Chicken

24. Outdoor fish fry

25. Fried rice with leftover chicken or pork

26. BBQ Chicken Salad

27. Deviled Chicken Thighs

28. One Pot Spaghetti with Sausage Sauce

29. White Chicken Enchilada Pasta

30. Baked Chili Dogs (I know, I know, hot dogs — but doesn’t it sound fun?)

11 Easy Summer Side Dishes

• Raw vegetables
• Grilled corn on the cob
• Crockpot-roasted baby potatoes & carrots
• Oven-roasted vegetables
• Grilled zucchini or other fruit/vegetables
• Deli-made coleslaw or potato salad
• Crockpot baked beans
• Quick-steamed vegetables
• ‘Texas Caviar’ & tortilla chips
• Rice (cooked in broth for extra flavor)
• Crockpot ‘refried’ beans

Ideas for Keeping Other Summer Meals Simple

Simple summer foods aren’t only about dinners. Keep your other meals and snacks simple as well! Here are some ideas, which you can adapt to your family’s preferences.

Summer Breakfast Ideas

• Yogurt with nuts & fruit
• Smoothie
• Eggs of any type
• Oatmeal — regular or overnight refrigerator oats (add peanut butter for protein)

‘Make It Easy’ Tip: Did you know eating similar food — or even exactly the same food — every day helps to combat decision fatigue? One prep, no thinking, leaving your mind relaxed and able to focus on other things.

Summer Lunch Ideas

• Leftovers
• PB&J
• Lunchmeat sandwiches
• Crackers & cheese

Summer Snacks

• Fruit
• Crackers & cheese
• Hard-boiled or deviled eggs
• Nuts
• Tortilla chips

Summer Desserts

• Frozen fruit
• Homemade ‘ice cream’ using fruit and yogurt
• Fruit salad (add mint for a delicious twist)
• Homemade popsicles
• Jello
• S’mores made outside over a fire pit

5 Stay-Cool Cooking Tips for Summer

1. Set up an outdoor kitchen. Aside from a grill, setting up a table near outlets for a roaster oven and crockpot will meet most of your summer cooking needs.

2. If you don’t have an outdoor space, confine your crockpot and roaster oven use to an infrequently-used room and keep the door closed.

3. Cooking and draining pasta produces a lot of steam and heat, so I usually save those dishes for cooler days. One-pot pasta is a little easier because you can cook it with the lid on the pot and you don’t have to drain the pasta. For cold pasta dishes, cook the pasta at night, assemble the dish, and chill until mealtime the next day.

4. Bulk-cook boneless skinless chicken in the crockpot. Chill, chop, and season to use later in salads or other dishes. You could also season and grill the chicken for more intense flavor.

5. If you don’t have a roaster oven to use outdoors, adapt oven recipes to the crockpot. Something like ‘Easy Chicken Parmesan Bake’ would be a cinch to make in the crockpot.

Prep Tips for Simple Summer Food

Do this every weekend, and you will set yourself up for a week of stress-free summer meals:

1. Check the fridge to see what needs to be used right away.

2. Print new recipes.

3. Finalize your meal plan for the week. (Grab my Essential Meal Planning printables to keep yourself organized.)

4. Remove food from the freezer to thaw (use sheet pan lids to catch drips).

5. Cook chicken and ground meats for salads and other recipes.

6. Hard-boil eggs for snacks and salads. (This is the ONLY way I make hard-boiled eggs!)

7. Prepare vegetables – shred lettuce, chop onions & peppers, etc.

‘Make It Easy’ Tip: Purchase large bags of washed and chopped lettuce mixes from a restaurant supply store. Once you’ve opened a bag, place 1-2 paper towels inside to keep the lettuce fresher.

Related: Quick Food Prep Routine for a Week of Easier Meals

Your Summer Cooking Tool Arsenal

Keep-cool summer cooking is so much easier with the proper tools!

Crockpots — I find having a small crockpot and a large version is very handy.

Roaster oven — get some foil liners for even easier cleanup.

Heavy-duty sheet pans — great for roasting in the main oven and for carrying cooked foods in from the grill. I use both half-size and quarter-size sheet pans.

*Note: I have linked to aluminum pans, which I use daily even though they are almost the only things in my kitchen that are not dishwasher-safe. I would prefer stainless pans that can go into the dishwasher, but I have yet to find any that are highly-rated and warp-free. When baking, I use silicone mats or parchment paper sheets. When roasting, I coat the pan with oil.

Sheet pan lids — LOVE these for thawing frozen items and then popping into the dishwasher. They’re also great for covering a sheet pan and the universal size fits my different brands of half-size sheet pans.

Flexible cutting boards — Having several boards makes prep easy, and a ‘grippy’ back is a plus!

Knives — A good variety of knives is great for prep day, plus sometimes you can ‘cheat’ and run them through the dishwasher. I know you’re not supposed to, and I would never do it with expensive knives, but sometimes a less expensive knife set serves all of the necessary purposes and makes life a little easier.

Plastic storage containers — stackable is best for prepped foods, leftovers, sandwiches, etc.

Grill tools — tongs, spatula, sauce brush

Meat thermometer

Large mixing bowl with lid — I have two (one kept ‘pretty’ to use for parties and one everyday workhorse) — perfect for mixing fruit salad, mixing and seasoning vegetables before roasting, soaking beans overnight, storing a prepped dinner salad in the fridge, and all sorts of general kitchen needs.

My large bowls are older-style Tupperware and I’m not even sure they make those anymore. If I were buying bowls today, I would get this stacking stainless steel set with lids.

Silicone mixing spatulas — I have 2 large size AND 2 medium size; I use at least 2-3 of them almost every day.

Gallon freezer bags — they tend to leak less often than regular storage bags.

Heavy-duty aluminum foil — I like the 18” wide size for cooking on the grill and lining sheet pans for super-messy meals.

Kabob skewers – or – grill basket (this version is stainless steel with a removable wood handle, which means it can go into the dishwasher).

Food chopper — helps with chopping vegetables, eggs, or nuts  into smaller pieces for salads if you’re not great with a knife.

You may have noticed I did NOT include an air fryer on this list. If you love your air fryer, then use it! However, I don’t love them.

I bought a large basket-style air fryer last year and quickly realized it doesn’t work for my simplified cooking style. You can’t cook very much food at once (meaning multiple batches to make a single recipe), the food needs a lot of attention (flipping or shaking at least once during cooking), they are very messy and difficult to clean, and they take up a LOT of counterspace.

More Simple Summer and Food Inspiration

45 Summer Salads That Are Amazing Light Summer Meal Ideas

June Dinner Meal Plan – Monthly Menu Ideas For Warm Weather

How to Grocery Shop for a Month

August Menu Plan – Cool Summer Meals And Grill Menu

54 Tasty Crockpot Chicken Recipes For EASY Cooking

Get your summer planning done with the Simple Summer Planner — This printable planner encourages you to transform your approach to summer. Embrace the beauty of simplicity with guided journal prompts, a decision matrix for prioritizing, and plenty of practical planning pages for managing summer activities without the overwhelm. Make the most of every sunny day while you ‘Release. Refresh. Relax.’

Summer isn’t ALL about the food, but sharing good meals can be an enjoyable way to connect with friends and family while nourishing our bodies. With a smart plan and some basic kitchen skills, you won’t have to spend all day cooking only to get a few minutes’ enjoyment with the ones you love.

Remember, a simple summer is all about how to Release, Refresh, Relax.

You’ve got this!

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Updated May 12, 2024