Cooling Foods for Summer
Hiya folks!
I have a medical issue where I can't regulate my body temperature properly, and I rely on external cooling quite a lot - fans, and constantly sucking on ice lollies throughout summer.
I've been thinking about what I'm going to eat this summer and worrying as I've started using my slow cooker a LOT recently as I'm severely disabled and can't cook easily, and if I spend the energy to cook, I then can't eat.
So a slow cooker is ideal for me. One outlet of energy early, and then hours of recovery til I have to spend energy to get the food out of the crock and onto a plate / into a bowl.
Anyway, I've been pondering summer foods. In the UK we just tend to have salads a lot, and burgers (bbq). There's no real heatwave summer food, because we simply don't get that hot (though it was 30 degrees C the other day and it's still May!!). But because of my problem with body temp, even warm is hot to me!
I know in Japan they eat cold soba noodles, and there are various cold noodle dishes around the orient.
Can anyone think of any other good cooling, refreshing foods?
Eating hot food to sweat it all out and 'beat the heat' will not work for me. I'm at serious risk of heatstroke at only around 23degrees C.
Bonus points if it can be done in the slow cooker :-)
(I'm a vegetarian, but I can adapt recipes. I'm also going gluten free [health has been really tough and not allowed me to manage the switch over yet], but again, I can adapt things)
Cross-Posting this to the What a Crock comm, so slow cooker specific q here:
Can I use the slow cooker as a large saucepan for the purposes of cooking noodles?
Like in the saucepan I'd just put water in, and the noodles... can I just fill the slow cooker with water, put it on high for a bit and cook noodles in it?
I can't stand and watch a pan on the hob, but I'm happy leaving the slow cooker to do it's thing without supervision.
Thanks in advance!
I have a medical issue where I can't regulate my body temperature properly, and I rely on external cooling quite a lot - fans, and constantly sucking on ice lollies throughout summer.
I've been thinking about what I'm going to eat this summer and worrying as I've started using my slow cooker a LOT recently as I'm severely disabled and can't cook easily, and if I spend the energy to cook, I then can't eat.
So a slow cooker is ideal for me. One outlet of energy early, and then hours of recovery til I have to spend energy to get the food out of the crock and onto a plate / into a bowl.
Anyway, I've been pondering summer foods. In the UK we just tend to have salads a lot, and burgers (bbq). There's no real heatwave summer food, because we simply don't get that hot (though it was 30 degrees C the other day and it's still May!!). But because of my problem with body temp, even warm is hot to me!
I know in Japan they eat cold soba noodles, and there are various cold noodle dishes around the orient.
Can anyone think of any other good cooling, refreshing foods?
Eating hot food to sweat it all out and 'beat the heat' will not work for me. I'm at serious risk of heatstroke at only around 23degrees C.
Bonus points if it can be done in the slow cooker :-)
(I'm a vegetarian, but I can adapt recipes. I'm also going gluten free [health has been really tough and not allowed me to manage the switch over yet], but again, I can adapt things)
Cross-Posting this to the What a Crock comm, so slow cooker specific q here:
Can I use the slow cooker as a large saucepan for the purposes of cooking noodles?
Like in the saucepan I'd just put water in, and the noodles... can I just fill the slow cooker with water, put it on high for a bit and cook noodles in it?
I can't stand and watch a pan on the hob, but I'm happy leaving the slow cooker to do it's thing without supervision.
Thanks in advance!