It’s summer. The last thing you want to do is spend all your time in a hot kitchen. You also need quick, light foods to get you through the day instead of big, heavy meals. Enter the quick summer snack! These fast and easy recipes are perfect for your lazy days, and the food is fresh and tasty, which is just what you need in the heat.

Summer Fruit Bruschetta

Turn your summer fruit bounty into delicious bruschetta; maybe the best summer snack around!

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf French bread, cut into thin slices
• 10 strawberries, diced into small pieces
• 3 peaches, diced into small pieces
• 2 tablespoons raspberry white balsamic vinegar (or regular balsamic vinegar)
• 1 cup fresh basil leaves, cut into small pieces
• 1 log cranberry goat cheese

Instructions:

1.Preheat oven to 350F. Place French bread on a baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes until fully toasted.
2. In a medium sized bowl, combine strawberries, peaches, and balsamic. Spread Cranberry Goat cheese onto each slice of French bread.
3. With a slotted spoon, place fruit mixture on each piece of French bread.
4. Enjoy!

Avocado Toast

It’s avocado season, so time to dig in! Throw together some toast with a bit of fried cheese and avocado for a filling but perfectly summery snack.

Ingredients

• 2 slices grainy bread
• 1 avocado, mashed with salt and pepper
• ¼ cup cubed, cooked eggplant
• 6 pieces of homemade paneer

Instructions

1.To assemble, toast the bread and slather each piece with mashed avocado. Cook off the paneer until golden on all sides. Top the avocado toast with fried paneer and cooked eggplant.

Mini Caprese Skewers

Nothing says summer like caprese salad. These mini caprese skewers are super easy to make and even easier to transport… to your beach chair.

Ingredients

• One basket of grape tomatoes
• One 12 ounce package of fresh mozzarella
• One large bunch of fresh basil
• Fleur de sel or Kosher salt (the fleur de sel adds a nice crunch)
• Freshly ground pepper (I used a mix of black, pink, green, and white, but black pepper is fine)
• Finishing quality extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

• Cut some of the cheese into 1/2 inch squares.
• Cut stems off some of the basil and cut the spine out of the leaves.
• Working one skewer at a time, cut a tomato in half, tear off and fold a piece of basil and place it against the cut side of the tomato, place a piece of cheese on top of the basil to sandwich between the cheese and the tomato.
• Skewer with a toothpick and set aside on a serving dish.
• Continue until you run out of tomatoes.
• Lightly drizzle the skewers with olive oil, sprinkle the skewers with the salt and freshly ground pepper.

These can be prepared a few hours in advance and refrigerated, or they can be served immediately.

Chocolate Avocado Frosty

Tasty, cold, creamy, and with a healthy boost from avocados, this frosty is your new favorite summer drink.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of frozen banana slices
• 1 cup of chocolate milk {I used Horizon 1% chocolate milk}
• 1/2 avocado

Instructions

• place everything into the jar of a blender
• cover and pulse until smooth
• pour into glass, and freeze at least 45 minutes