Chef salad or salad nicoise w/ good bread or rolls.

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have suggestions for what kinds of things to purchase (and where that are already cooked? We have two other couples coming for lunch this weekend and I have no idea what to serve. I'm a terrible cook. Thanks

As long as you have a microwave or oven and some serving dishes to transfer food into, Trader Joe's is good for pre-made but tasty food. If the guests are into Indian fare, I would recommend a couple packs of the garlic naan to serve with eggplant curry as a starter. You could do any number of their other meat curries as mains, or switch to something like the heat and serve sesame chicken with a side of any of their veggie medleys/stirfries. If you're more of a cheese and charcuterie crowd, you can pick up the assorted meat pack with the Saint Andre in the deli section pared with a baguette, or even heat up one of their flatbreads and cut up for apps. They have several pasta entrees that are good for groups. They also have good frozen dessert options that are either heat and serve or serve as is. You could do sorbet with sliced fruit, or serve coffee/tea with their pastries. Lots of options there - we use them to stock up for when we don't have enough time/energy to cook but still want to entertain.

Maybe try doing bahn mi rolls? I got a great series of recipes from "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen", which the public libraries have here. Separately, you could do a cheese-free balsamic-tomato-garlic-basil bruschetta on toasted bread as an app, maybe cold shrimp salad or shrimp wraps? For low-fuss meals I get large filets of fresh fish from Grand Mart and bake for 40 min with a soy-ginger glaze or use Costco's Yoshida marinade. Incidentally, said marinade is good for all proteins and veggies I have tried, to include broiled short ribs.

Vietnamese summer rolls

gazpacho

Anyone have suggestions for what kinds of things to purchase (and where that are already cooked? We have two other couples coming for lunch this weekend and I have no idea what to serve. I'm a terrible cook. Thanks

Chicken Salad:

Pull/chop some chicken meat into little pieces (about 3 rotisserie chicken's worth for your crowd, or a comparable amount of however you cook it).
Toss with 1 cup of mayo; 1 cup of sour cream; 1 cup of red and green grapes, halved; 1/2 cup of diced celery; 1/2 cup of diced red onion; 1/4 cup of chopped parsley; lots of salt and pepper; 1 tsp (more to taste) curry powder.

Serve with rolls, deviled eggs, fresh fruit salad, potato salad vinaigrette (too much mayo to do mayo based with the chicken salad), crudites, and grilled summer veggies.

This is delicious and really easy.

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/5546/zucchini+slice

Quiche! Its great served at any temperature.

Chicken salad on croissants or other soft bread is a great idea (I make my chicken salad with mayo, green onions, celery, craisins, a bit of curry, and salt and pepper). Also - fruit salad, room temperature wild rice or cous cous salad with julienned vegetables and a lemony viniagrette. Grilled vegetables with (watered-down) hummus drizzle is yummy. Tomato-basil-mozzarella ball skewers.

my go-to standards:

poached salmon
Marbella chicken, made with boned breasts and served cold
cucumber salad
carrot-ginger salad
tomato, mozarella, arugula, basil sald
quinoa salad loaded with veggies, nuts, dried fruit

We're having a lunch for 8 adults and 12 kids. Its indoor causal sit-down. I have a rotation of recipes that I usually use, but 1) i am getting bored and 2) its going to be hot, so I want some new "summer foods" Anyone have any exciting warm weather recipes?

No BBQ and no dairy please.

I'd love an awesome chicken salad recipe or a rice side dish or some veggies I can serve at room temperature.

Thanks!