June Exchange and Summer Guidelines

Four of the families in our group do not have air conditioning and so avoid using the oven in summer months. Since freezer meal heating tends to make heavy use of the oven this can be an issue. We added the restriction of no oven heating for summer months.

Like becoming vegan sometimes adding a restriction can seem daunting at first. One wonders what in the world  to make. But then with a little intention, thought and planning what seemed limiting loosens up a bit you begin to find an abundance of what you can make and enjoy rather then focusing on what is ruled out.

We have been doing dishes that are lightly pan fried-such as the burgers below. A bit more tricky are dishes that are microwave appropriate-any sort of burrito works well for this. Even better are dishes that require no heating-like desserts, muffins or cold dishes. We have also seen more dishes served on rice or pasta.


This month we exchanged:

Kale Pesto and Minestrone Soup (I used the spice mix for this recipe found about midway on the page.
Red Beans and Rice using tofurky
Carefree Curry Burgers and Freezer Slaw
Rajma
Kasha (an old family recipe from Wendy)