I feel like I feel less motivation to eat during the summer. I end up eating fruit and yogurt because neither requires cooking or dishes.

Still craving warm comfort foods here in the NW. Send some heat this way please! I would love to start enjoying summer foods and iced drinks, smoothies, cold things.

Motivation? No, I still love to cook in the summer --- though I often wait until the cool of the night to turn on the stove. I like to make dishes that can cool overnight: bean salads, potato salad, quiche or frittata, soups to serve cold.

But I find there's less need to cook in summer. So much of the summertime produce is already bursting with flavor, and I don't feel the urge to alter it much.

A plate of farmstand tomatoes, sliced, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt. A dish of strawberries, washed and dried and maybe served with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream... but maybe enjoyed just as they are, fresh and fragrant and lush. Corn picked, shucked, and steamed for barely two minutes --- I put butter on the table but often don't even bother with it, just sink my teeth into that bright sweet crispy corn, unadulterated and perfect.

Why would I add anything to those dishes? This is one case where addition is subtraction.

I've definitely been there. In the past few summers there have been a couple days that were so hot that me and my boyfriend subsisted on frozen grapes, because we didn't want to eat anything that was warmer then frozen, but at that point we lived in an apartment with no AC.

This year, not only has it not been that hot yet in Portland, but I have air conditioning now so hopefully I can avoid that cooking slump this year. Just in case, I've been stockpiling recipes for tasty looking salads that require minimal cooking. :)

Even grain salads are a good option because you can just cook the grains in the rice cooker and not have to stand over a hot stove.

I find that I assemble meals more than I cook them. Discovering I could microwave corn on the cob right in the husk was a huge revelation. I always hated to boil all that water in a hot apartment. In fact, the micro and the Crockpot see more action in the summer than in any other season. Micros steam veggies perfectly without heating up the place, and the Crockpot turns out a lot of ratatouille in my house.

When it is very hot I don't want to cook, but otherwise I love all of the fresh local produce. I live in Minneapolis we only see fresh and local for a short window of time each year, you need to seize the moment!

Currently browsing the website for no-cook, light meals. I'm craving things that satisfy without feeling overly full. My appetite is definately much smaller in the summer. Perfect for losing weight!
I'm currently living on greek yogurt with shredded coconut, sliced almonds, dry oatmeal, and strawberries, with a side of iced coffee. Oh and a tremendous amount of watermelon!

Similar to KatieRoseK, we are experiencing some very unseasonable temps in Northern California. Case in point: I roasted a chicken on Saturday night as it was the perfect meal for a cold, rainy night despite the calendar.

But I don't lose motivation to cook so much during the warmer weather as I would any other time of year; my enthusiasm and motivation ebbs and flows at different times. It picks up easily however once I see a new item at the farmers market that wasn't there just a week prior.

But luckily, so many of summer's wonderful foods don't require much in the cooking department: a tomato sandwich, shaved zucchini with mint, parm and olive oil, a juicy peach and a handful of cherries-none require all that much work or even cooking for that matter. Granted, its still early in the season for a juicy tomato but we can dream..

My small, top floor apartment does NOT like my old monster gas stove in the summertime! It totally overpowers the cool air from my teeny window AC... love to cook, but hate to swelter in the heat it creates more... deli sandwiches have a monopoly on my menu this week! (and those delicious loaf pan popsicles from yesterday!!)

I've been trying to get more creative with salads. When they're a bit more complicated they satisfy my desire to 'cook' without heating up my apartment.

I definitely cook differently, but if anything I get more excited about it. The herbs in the flower pots start popping (don't have the space for a proper vegetable garden), the farmer's markets come alive - even the fruit and veg in the supermarket are more appealing.

I definitely cook less in the summer, but I also cook differently. I avoid turning on the stove at all costs; we eat lots of fresh produce, salads with grilled chicken, and some crockpot dinners. But honestly, I'm not hungry for hearty meals when it's this hot; give me a popsicle or smoothie and I'm a happy camper.

I'm opposite. I cook more in summer. Lots more. Fresh produce is available, and most importantly- it's bright outside when I get home. I really struggle at times in winter to cook at night when I get home and it's pitch black.

Summer weather hasn't descended upon us in SF yet, but once it does, I'll be:
1) making use of food processor- and blender-friendly recipes (e.g., pestos, hummus and other dips/spreads, green smoothies, gazpacho and other chilled soups)
2) grilling everything under the sun
3) relying on summer produce for easy, raw snacks
4) making larger batches of beans and grains, and freezing them in meal-sized portions so I can thaw them later (and avoid standing over the stove)
5) challenging myself to come up with creative salads featuring raw and/or grilled produce

But if anyone has genius ideas for infusing cocktails with nutrition (does fruit-infused vodka count? what about all that tomato juice in a bloody mary?), please let me know!

Not when I am inside with the central ac!

Ugh. Tiny poorly insulated top floor south & west facing apartment in Houston Texas where we have been hitting the 100's for about a week. I have no motivation to turn on the oven.
I try to cook stuff that can be sauteed pretty quickly, and I make a lot more meals with Grocery store rotisserie chickens and cold cuts. It just takes too long for the apartment to cool off in the summer, as the whole thing heats up when I cook.

Kristen: I consider a good margarita to be quite the electrolyte replacer >:D

Also, Daiquiris or frozen margs made with fresh fruit (mango, ice, tequila, sugar, lime in a blender - yum!)

Just the opposite for me, I am totally revved up to cook this summer. Can't wait for the local veggies and fruit to hit the farmer's markets (a couple of weeks away still).

I cook cold things! Yogurt and cucumber soup; bean salads with vinaigrette and herbs; fun cocktails full of fruit (Pimm's cup, etc.).

Yep, I definitely lose motivation--case in point this beastly mini-heatwave NYC has been having. We made the mistake of putting in a very powerful commercial range in our small apartment kitchen, and man does that thing heat up a room! Even using just a stovetop burner for a few minutes, and even with the (admittedly probably underpowered) window AC. I do end up making waffles a lot on summer weekends because the waffle iron is so much less hot than making pancakes on the stove! By the same logic, I've been debating getting a crockpot the last couple of summers, maybe I finally will this year...

Like others above, I too get inspired by all the great fresh produce that can be eaten raw. Unfortunately my husband is one of those guys for whom a meal must have both meat and hot food. Sigh. So we do end up eating out/ordering in more.

Yes, I do lose motivation to cook (especially baking) but I usually get my motivation back after going to the farmers market. After seeing the beautiful tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelons, fresh herbs etc.etc... I wind up getting farmersmarketoverloadus.
Besides.. what better time to make gazpacho?

I much prefer fall through spring cooking to summer cooking. My motivation to cook during the summer does lessen, but it's mostly because I like to cook heartier dishes, soups, roasts, etc. I eat a lot of salads and grilled meals during the summer.

After a few days in the 90s, we're in the low 50s today and I'm so excited to cook a ratatouille tonight!

I'm craving those Vietnamese Summer Rolls with shrimp, lots of crispy shredded carrots and greens in rice wrappers with some spicy peanut dipping sauce. Cold, nutty, spicy noodles would be good too.

Ugh, yes. With no central a/c (just a couple of window ones) and with the temp outside not getting much below 70 (if that), I rarely want to cook real food. And I sure as hell am not going to turn on the oven.

I've been making salad-y things and mexican food and stove-top projects like sausages with peppers and onions. I so want to bake, but I daren't turn on the oven. Except maybe this weekend, when it is supposed to be quite chilly (a.k.a. actually get below 70 degrees), at which point I will probably cook up a storm in an effort to A) have food to eat next week when it's likely to be blazing hot again and B) feed the boy while I'm out of town for 10 days.

Also, I recently discovered that making your own lassi is insanely easy and also insanely delicious. Best way to get your serving of calcium via yogurt ever.

I find it the other way around- I lose motivation to cook in the winter. After trudging home for blocks through the snow in the dark (which, by the way, is about 6 PM), I just want to flop down on the couch and order food. We grill just about everything we eat in the summer, which really doesn't require much prep work. We're also lucky enough to have a huge, shaded deck to sit on and enjoy the summer evenings. I also eat a lot healthier in the summer- grilled veggies and salads galore.

I think I am perfectly happy with the popsicles and cocktails in the summer...just me?

YES. I have survived on hummus-and-raw-veg sandwiches for dinner for the past month.

Absolutely! It's oppressively hot and humid here in the Houston area, and my old house has crappy A/C, so it's really bad even inside the house. However, we've got a new A/C unit on the way (maybe next week!) so I'm looking forward to being able to cook in cool bliss soon!

The poster above who described 'assembling' meals in the summer was spot-on. I love to cook in the summer just as much as in the winter, but 'cooking' in the summer means a multitude of salads, gazpacho, quick stir fries, and lots of grilling! We also tend to eat later - dinner at 8 or 9 pm - which helps too, when I do need to turn the stove on for something.

I mostly eat fruits, yoghurt and grilled chicken in summer and my husband only eats watermelon and white cheese at nights. I think the heat just doesn't leave any appetite to eat in summer.

totally. i never want to cook in this kind of heat. it's awful, and gets expensive!

I retool how I cook in summertime. I love to bake, so I get up early if there's something I have to use the oven for. Unfortunately, my bedroom is right above the kitchen, so baking at night isn't a great option. I generally make a lot of salads of all kinds. Usually one ingredient in the salad has to be cooked, but it's easy to cook it in the morning and let it cool. I hard-boil eggs more often in the summer, too.

We also just eat a lot of fresh tomatoes on bread with a bit of cheese of some kind, olive oil, salt, and pepper. No need to cook there, and they're delicious.

I bake a little less, I try to use recipes I can do in a toaster oven.