Beyond Rice and Tofu

I am hosting this week’s Gluten Free Menu Swap and the theme I have chosen is “light and easy” for summer. Here in New Mexico, it has been brutally hot. Surprisingly, we normally don’t hit triple digits, except for maybe a couple of days in July or August, but we have had many triple-digit days already this year. And now other parts of the country are dealing with hot temperatures too. So I thought we should highlight some of our light and easy favorites for summer, to give us all a break from the hot stove and oven, and even the grill, which is even too hot to stand over.

Here are a few of our light and easy favorites:

Spicy Ginger Noodles – you only have to boil some pasta.

Wild Rice Tabouli – you only need to cook the rice. Try a rice cooker to avoid turning on the stove.

Lentil Salad Provencal – turn on some lentils to simmer and then walk away from the hot stove. Or you could use canned, rinsed lentils or cook some up quick in your pressure cooker.

Moroccan Chickpea Salad – one of our favorite no-cook meals, minus the pita, of course.

What are your favorite no-cook or light-on-cooking recipes?

This week, we are having:

Three Bean Tacos – this is one of those meals that you make once and eat on it all week. Perfect.

Three Bean Taco Salad – using the leftovers from above to make taco salad.

Quinoa and Black Bean Salad – cook up the quinoa in your rice cooker for no fuss.

Tofu Fried Rice – subbing in whatever leftover vegetables we have on hand. Cooled rice is best, so cook the rice the night before in the rice cooker and let it cool in the frig.

Here’s what everyone else is up to this week:

Heather over at Celiac Family says that they try to keep it light and easy ALL summer. Check out her tips on how to do it. And check out her menu. I am digging her Seven-Layer Salad – it’s been ages since I’ve made that – and she kicks it up a notch with a dill dressing. Sounds light and refreshing to me!

Over at Celiacs in the House, Wendy is trying to keep it cool too since the temps are forecast to be rising during the week. Her Asian cucumber and carrot salad topped with salmon sounds right up my alley (hubby would have to fend for himself – sorry, dear!). As well, her menu reminds us that omelets are a quick, delicious and light summer dinner. She also reviews Stephanie O’Dea’s new Totally Together Journal, which covers menu planning. Check it all out.

Claire over at My Gluten Free Home is trying to stay cool in the Dallas heat. She went light and easy this weekend and hung at the pool! Sounds nice to me. And she’s doing the light and easy thing by eating down the freezer – her tamales sound delicious to me!

For plenty of inspiration, check back later in the week to see what everyone else will be eating. Or head over to OrgJunkie (but hosted this week by Finding Joy in My Kitchen) on Monday for (literally) hundreds of menu plans (not necessarily gluten free or veg).