Help!

I guess I have the summer time blues with cooking...nothing I usually make sounds good or I feel too hot to even turn on the oven. The only thing that really sounds good is eating out - but since that isn't an option every night - I was wondering...does anyone have any great summer time meals they make? I am trying to get more into salads too. I welcome any and all ideas!

Quick and Easy Alfredo Sauce

With Jason gone this week I couldn't get to the grocery store (because of nap time) to get Alfredo sauce in a jar, so I found this recipe on-line that had ingredients that I had around the house. It was really easy and really yummy! I cut the recipe in half because it was just me and the boys and we still had leftovers. I then added some spaghetti noodles (because I didn't have fettuccine noodles) with chicken and broccoli.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 cups milk
6 ounces grated Parmesan cheese
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS
Melt butter in a medium, non-stick saucepan over medium heat. Add cream cheese and garlic powder, stirring with wire whisk until smooth. Add milk, a little at a time, whisking to smooth out lumps. Stir in Parmesan and pepper. Remove from heat when sauce reaches desired consistency. Sauce will thicken rapidly, thin with milk if cooked too long. Toss with hot pasta to serve.

chocolate blender pie

I've made this pie for girls' night before. It's super easy, and it's a favorite around our house. Oh, wait--do I say that about every dessert I post? Probably. Well, on the night I make it, it tends to be the current favorite.

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.

1 small can evaporated milk
3 1/2 tbs cocoa
1/2 stick butter, melted
2 eggs
1 1/4 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 pie crust
Cool Whip

Put first 6 ingredients in the blender and mix until ingredients are combined. Pour mixture in pie crust and bake for 40 minutes or until center doesn't jiggle. Serve warm and top with Cool Whip.
I've made this with the light evaporated milk and light butter, and you can't tell.

peanut butter pie

I got this recipe from a girl in my class. She made this one night when we all brought stuff for dinner, and her pies were the talk of the class. Everyone was raving about the peanut butter pies. And the best part is, they're so easy to make. I've made them w/ low fat peanut butter and light Cool Whip, and they still turn out great.

1 1/2 c powdered sugar

8 oz cream cheese

1 c peanut butter

16 oz tub Cool Whip

2 graham cracker crusts

Mix cream cheese and peanut butter with a mixer. Gradually add powdered sugar. Then gradually mix in Cool Whip and beat on high until mixture reaches a moosy consistency. Add to crusts. Her recipe says to freeze them over night, but I've found they're actually better just chilled an not frozen.

I've also made them with a chocolate crust and drizzled melted chocolate chips on the crust before adding the peanut butter mixture, and it's really good that way too (as I'm sure you can imagine).

homemade hummus

I love this stuff and could eat it every meal. I get a loaf of fresh french bread and cut it up into bite size pieces and then dip it in the hummus. Yum! This is my friend Julie's recipe:

• 1 can of chick peas (save liquid or I just use water)
• 1/4 c.-1/3 c. sesame tahini (I found this in our health food store but it may be in the grocery stores there since mainland stores tend to carry random things like that. But this is the key ingredient)
• juice from 1/2 lemon (sometimes I omit this because it definitely changes the flavor, so you can experiment)
• salt or soy sauce to taste (I use about a dash of soy sauce)
• 1-2 T. olive oil
• 1 clove garlic (crushed)
  

Mix in a blender. Add water to thin it out just a little bit. Serve right away or can be refrigerated for a few days. Fresh is best though.