Love Nervy Girl's idea of putting the crock pot outside - brilliant!
My super favorites are Israeli salad (cukes, tomatoes, onions, with parsley and/or mint added - you can Google it), and Israeli couscous salad (Israeli or pearl couscous is a larger grain than regular couscous, similar to barley, and can be found in the rice, kosher or natural foods section). It cooks in very little time and can also just use boiling water from the microwave. Let the couscous cool as you mix in olive oil and rice wine vinegar. Chop up the types of veggies you would use for standard pasta salad: carrots, celery, various peppers, and cukes. You can add parsley and other herbs if you want, plus salt/pepper. Mix as you would a standard pasta salad. The oil/vinegar don't spoil at all in the heat, as mayo can.
Grill a whole bunch of chicken tenders - then don't take long. You can marinate them ahead in any number of sauces - soy sauce with ginger or Chinese 5-Spice powder), BBQ, honey/mustard (just use 50/50 of your own, don't buy the mix), Mexican (chili powder or cumin/coriander mixed in tomato puree), or oil & herbs (we like thyme, rosemary, dill, or oregano). Drain. Throw on the grill for about 4 minutes a side and close the lid. You can then slice the chicken to put on salads, thin-slice to put in wraps, eat cold, add to a taco bar where kids self-serve along with diced peppers, defrosted frozen corn or peas, canned drained beans (refried, pinto, small pink, black), chopped onion, shredded lettuce, shredded cheddar or taco cheese. You can make rice in the crock pot (outside!) - for Mexican, I like to add a little tomato sauce (plain) or puree plus cumin & coriander in place of some of the water, or 5-Spice powder and soy sauce for some of the water for Chinese style. You can make a Chinese-style buffet with sliced, drained canned water chestnuts (kids like the crunch), bamboo shoots, baby corn, snow peas, sliced teriyaki or soy sauce chicken or grilled shrimp, sliced pepper strips (quick grill them) and top with bean sprouts and sesame seeds. You can also add cashews.
You can cut up potatoes into small chunks (about 1 inch square, or cut a red potato in 4 pieces, big enough that a skewer doesn't split it), lightly coat in oil and any herbs the kids like (Italian seasoning or dill are big ones), and grill in a basket or as kebabs. You can cook chunks of different colored peppers the same way, quarter some onions (take out the small pieces from the center and leave yourself with bigger pieces that fit on skewer, use the small pieces in your taco bar or Israeli salad on another night), and you can use zucchini or yellow squash chunks (maybe 1 inch "disks") or cut them into slices the long way and lay them right on the grill. I use the same oil/herb mix for everything on one night, and change it up the next time.
Take the kids to the farmers market and see what you can find that intrigues them.
London broil on the grill - poke with a fork and marinate overnight in whatever sauce you like (we like teriyaki or soy but you can Google other choices), grill, slice thin, serve hot or cold.
Loaded hamburgers - we use lean grass fed beef or bison, often mix it with half ground turkey, and then add all kinds of stuff for both moisture (because lean meat has so little fat) and nutrition: grated onion with its juice, horseradish, some frozen chopped spinach or kale, any leftover refried or other beans, leftover peppers, flax seed, wheat germ, salt/pepper, ketchup or leftover tomato puree or BBQ sauce. Mix this all up in the food processor to make it smaller and well blended (and unrecognizable to picky eaters!), then add to the meat, mix, form burgers. We often make a bunch of patties, cook some and stack the rest with a square of wax paper in between, and wrap up/freeze for the next time. Offer sliced onions, a choice of cheese, lettuce, and some pickles and let everyone build their own burgers.
Spaghetti squash - cook a split and de-seeded squash in the coolest part of a not-so-hot day or try the crockpot. Shred the insides with a fork to create spaghetti-like shreds, which you can mix with oil or butter and store in the fridge. You can top with sauce and cheese and microwave individual servings when kids are ready to eat. You can add any farm-fresh veggies to the sauce - zucchini, eggplant, peppers, etc.
Caprese salad - slice some meaty tomatoes, top with slices of fresh mozzarella cheese from the olive bar at the supermarket, and add some fresh basil (leaves or chopped up bits), sprinkle with oil and vinegar (balsamic or regular wine vinegar).
Dessert - instead of ice cream, mix plain cocoa powder with vanilla or plain regular or Greek yogurt. You can add honey, vanilla, a little agave nectar instead of sugar, a flavored extract like raspberry. You can blend some in a good blender or food processor with frozen berries (any kind you like) and mix/stir into a bigger bowl of yogurt for a healthy fruit treat.
