All of the recipes in the Summer Menu Plan are *good* summer dinner ideas!

Seriously, we include 72 recipes in a 12 week menu plan. There is a variety of cooking types with each week including at least one easy casserole recipe and a delicious dessert.

You will have plenty of choices on a hot day to make your time in the kitchen minimal! Check out a good list of recipes to start with right here.

There are 24 grilling recipes included in the menu plan. While the recipe suggests they be grilled, because it's summer, you can also cook on your stovetop or in the oven as well.

Take a look at this flat iron steak with gourmet butter. Again, you don't *have* to use the grill for the steak, but we love those grill marks! 

The "cook once, eat twice" means you are preparing a portion of your meal at one time to use in two dinners. 

The summer menus include several "cook once, eat twice" recipes. For example, when making the Grilled Teriyaki Chicken in week 1, the recipe calls for enough chicken to grill and enjoy dinner that night. Then for the next evening's dinner of Asian Grilled Chicken Salad your chicken is already done.

The grocery lists include the amount of ingredients you need for the week's dinners. The recipe card notes to either double cook or grab the portion from the previous night's dinner. 

There are 33 recipes in the menu plan that we considered "cook once, eat twice" dinners. Less time in the kitchen during the beautiful summer weather? CHECK!

The foil packet recipes in the summer menus are super easy to make! Think of it like a "dump" recipe but in an aluminum foil packet.

Just get the assembly line ready and literally dump your ingredients into the foil packet. Once assembled, just take the packets out to the grill and cook. 

There is so little cleanup involved - you can even eat out of the foil packets! This may be the best night to volunteer for dinner cleanup. You're welcome! 🙂

YES! There are 23 total summer salad recipes in the menu plan. These are more than the standard "lettuce and tomatoes" salads, too.

The salad recipes included are a combination of mixed lettuce, veggie, protein varieties, as well as a few pasta salads that are great for doubling and taking to summer cookouts.

There are also several protein-focused summer salads like a fruity chicken salad, a shrimp salad and a terrific tuna salad (seriously, that's the name).

And for good measure, because we love ya'll, we even include a dessert salad: Strawberry Pretzel Salad. You can eat as much as you want because it's a salad. 🙂