The peaches were so juicy and bursting with flavor. Harper kept running around with peaches in her hand, asking for more. Hubby and I topped some toasted sourdough with ours while we waited for dinner to come off the grill – it was the perfect appetizer.

This time of year begs for fresh flavors, crisp veggies, and overall light and quick meals. Really, who wants to turn on the stove anyway?! And less time in the kitchen means more time outside, or at the beach, lake or pool. Sign me up!

This is one of my favorite salads right now, I love to whip up a batch enough for a day or two. You just slice up some English cucumbers (or you’ll need to de-seed the traditional ones), red onion, a squeeze of half a lemon, salt, and Trader Joe’s Everything But The Bagel (EBTB) seasoning. C’est tout! Ours doesn’t last long, but it held fine for me with fresh cucumbers for 2 days.

To make this a full on meal, here are some suggestions:

• Chopped or sliced chicken
• Turkey Meatballs
• Tuna
• Citrus roasted salmon
• Hard boiled eggs
• Red kidney beans

Food poolside always feels like such a challenge to my creativity – kind of like when you’re trying to have a picnic and have to come up with something easy to eat, clean up and something that can hold up to the hotter weather.

Now, you want to get the grill super hot – up to at least 500. This will ensure that your pizzas cook in just 5 minutes. The cheese melts, the bread crisps and the tomatoes are just every so slightly warmed. It’s seriously perfection and just about the easiest thing to enjoy poolside.

Now, you know my secret weapon is that Costco brand pesto. Don’t fight it. It’s the best pesto around, tastes like summer! Really the only thing better is making it yourself but you need SO much basil to do that. This is definitely a condiment that’s worth buying once you’ve found a favorite.

I like to strategically pick my weeknight dinners, usually opting for something that has to bake or simmer for at least 15 minutes. This gives me time to get at least one chore done while we wait for our dinner to be ready – love to switch the laundry, put a load away, do a load of dishes, or, more often than not, wash my face and put on pajamas.

Once dinner is made, I’m kind of down for the count. I’ll play with the pups, or work on a new recipe or do some “research” for “inspiration” on Pinterest. The last thing I want to do at night is clean! So, I get in a few minutes to tidy up while dinner does its thing.

These meatballs pack in so much flavor with all the herby goodness we chop up and get in there:

• Mint (trust me on this one!)
• Basil
• Chives
• Oregano, when I have some fresh handy

I love to finish them off with more fresh herbs, usually extra basil, a dash of lemon juice and most likely more salt – always with the salt. Like a little crunch to finish, but I digress.

So, while your oven is preheating to 425, you mix up an egg and panko crumbs. Once mixed well, you add in the salt, pepper, grated garlic, chopped herbs and meat and mix that all together. I personally use a stand mixer to do all the mixing for me – seems to just hold better together!

Once I’ve got the meat mixed well, I use a 2 tsp cookie scoop to form the meatballs and pop them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silpat. The key is to not crowd them! I give the meatballs, I’d say, 1-2″ of room between them so they bake and don’t just steam.

I like to serve the meatballs over couscous, with a salad and some homemade ranch (like right on the suckers – so good!).

It’s such a simple idea that once you make a few different variations, you’ll have them in your back pocket when you need a quick meal or are having one of those no-idea-what-to-make-for-dinner kind of nights.

To make the actual toast, you want to skip the toaster. We’re going to drop a pat of butter in a hot pan and sear these slices up right in that pan. It is 100x better than toaster toast that you put butter on after the fact.

Last week, I shared this boursin cheese appetizer with the Trader Joe’s antipasta tomatoes and we’re using them again for this! You can find them at TJ’s by the canned/jarred olives, and I’ve been scooping them up every single trip to TJ’s – they’re so good! They’ve got a bit of sweetness that is so perfectly balanced out by the buttery bread and savory ricotta!

The ricotta, you’ll just fluff up with a fork and a dash of salt to really bring out those flavors. Then, top each toast with a little bit of basil and you’re done! A meal ready in about 5 minutes.

For another toast idea, check out my mushroom bruschetta, which I make the same way just on bigger slices of bread

It’s all about the toppings with a good salad, isn’t it? For these, I just went with tomatoes, bacon, gorgonzola, hard boiled eggs, marinated grilled chicken and Trader Joe’s chili corn salsa (because I’m 100% obsessed with the stuff, but also because I forgot to buy an ear of corn). I’d also recommend throwing avocado slices on this guy, too!

These salads also make excellent dinner salads, and I’m all about a dinner salad, especially when my husband isn’t home for dinner. If you prep your toppings ahead of time, these come together in just a few minutes. Every Sunday, we grill a bunch of chicken for weekday lunches and I make a big batch of hard boiled eggs for breakfasts and quick snacks. You’re already half way there!

Let’s talk about this ranch dressing! Guys, you’ll never buy the store bought stuff again! All you need is buttermilk, ranch, some fresh herbs and a bit of garlic. This has so much flavor – honestly, the first time I tasted it, I thought, wow this actually tastes like real ranch dressing! Except, THIS is real ranch dressing!

Besides biscuits, now I have an excuse to keep buttermilk in the fridge. We’ve already blown through this batch, enjoying the ranch with salads and pizza! Do you put ranch on your pizza? It’s our fav, especially cold pizza.

Anyway, let us know if you make these for lunch or even dinner!

The ricotta is so creamy, and a little salty. The bread has the best crunch. A little basil whipped into the ricotta and dropped on top – so summery!

If you haven’t tried mayo in lieu of cheese in a grilled cheese, you’re really missing out. The mayo gets the bread nice and caramelized in a way that butter just doesn’t. And I’m pretty convinced it just imparts more flavor!

So, you’ll take about a cup of ricotta and a few table spoons of mozzarella and mix them up together. A dash of salt, garlic powder, red flake pepper and chopped basil added to the ricotta up the flavor x 10.

Get the bread good and crispy, then sprinkle some chiffonade basil over and serve with pesto. So simple!

You could even make these as an appetizer, just slice the bread after its cooked in smaller pieces!

Whenever we’re having people over, I like to have a few things that are super easy to keep the stress at a minimum. A cheese board is always pretty simple when you have a formula, and I love this little tomato and boursin cheese app to add to the mix. You always need to have picky food to get your guests settled while you finish up anything else you’re making!

If you’ve noticed at Trader Joe’s, near the jarred and canned olives, they have this cherry tomato antipasta. These are the key to making this boursin app so delicious!

Are you even ready for this?! Chop up the antipasta tomatoes, pop them on top of the round of boursin cheese and serve with some water crackers. C’est tout! There are so many tomatoes in that container, you’ll get probably 5 or 6 of these apps from just one. But really, I’ve been putting them on everything – good luck not doing the same!

If you entertain a lot during the summer months, or even go to friends’ and family a lot in the summer months, a solid pasta salad is perfect to have in your back pocket. With the right ingredients a pasta salad can be so refreshing and the perfect side dish for grilling.

The ingredients in this guy are so simple. All you need is 2 pints of cherry tomatoes, 16 oz of small mozzarella balls (TJ’s has the best price around us), a pound of pasta, a cup or two of arugula and your favorite pesto.

A pasta salad also holds up really well to making ahead! For this one, you’ll dress it with about 1/4 c – 1/2 c pesto. But if you’re going to make ahead, I’d say dress it with 1/4 c of pesto ahead of time and then once you are ready to serve it, dress it with another 1/4 c.

Easy, right?!

What I love about the simplicity of this breakfast idea is that you can easily riff on it for yet another, you guessed it, you-do-you recipe. You could throw in veg. You could sit the egg on a bed of sauteed spinach in the prosciutto cup. You can dollop with pesto or zhoug or top it with chives, cilantro, scallions – whatever you fancy!

I have to admit, I don’t do much meal prep but I’m trying to be a bit smarter about getting myself out of the house faster and not having to spend $15 on breakfast and lunch everyday. We’ve been making big batches of hardboiled eggs for quick breakfasts on the go or snacks, but these are a great alternative! And you can 100% make them ahead of time for some legit meal prepping.

These hold really well, you could make a whole bunch and keep them for the week in the refrigerator. Just heat them up in 30 second increments, or let them come to room temperature. We don’t have a microwave at home, so I’ll make them fresh for us during the weekends and take any leftovers to work and use the office microwave.