Ovens and Summer Don't Mix

I try my hardest to not use the oven during the summer. When I use the oven during the summer all it seems to do is make my house hot and my electric bill go up. Here are a few of our most recent non-oven recipes that we've tried.

This first link is a recipe for Honey-Lime Grill Chicken.
http://www.plainchicken.com/2011/09/honey-lime-grilled-chicken.html
It was so light and refreshing. I'm thinking about making it again to go in a salad.

This second link is the dessert we brought to Shirley's yesterday. http://purplechocolathome.blogspot.com/2011/10/peanut-butter-chocolate-eclair-cake.html
It is super easy to make and no oven :)

This last recipe was an experiment for me that actually turned out quite well. Tyler tells me that all my experiments turn out well, but I can tell you stories of brownies in waffle irons that come out as crumbs and others that have gone equally wrong.

We were having sandwich week at our house and I was planning on making meatball sandwiches. I couldn't find meatballs at the store that weren't an arm and a leg. I also couldn't find any recipes that didn't require an oven so I thought I would wing it.

I didn't want to use egg to bind my meatballs together, because I was planning on cooking the meatballs in the crock pot and I didn't want to make anyone sick. I started by tearing a slice of bread into piece. I placed that in a bowl with a clove of garlic, salt, pepper, fresh basil and oregano (thanks to Kristi and Jordon!), and just enough milk to make everything stick together. This is what it looked like.

I then added my hamburger and mixed everything together really well with my hands. I formed the meatballs and placed them in the crock pot. I cooked them on high for 4 hours. I added some homemade spaghetti sauce that I had frozen. I cooked everything for another hour. I served the sauce on buns with a little cheese.

They were a hit at our house. Taylor even had a meatball and she doesn't like to eat meat, unless it comes on pizza or from a fast food place.

Enjoy!!
Heather