Favourite summer pasta salads and hot weather recipes

We're in a rut here. It's hot and humid and getting hotter. Our kitchen is not air conditioned so we are looking for recipes that require little to no cooking. We're tired of our old stand-by dishes of taco salad, chef's salad, pasta salad, potato salad. We need some ideas for some substantial main courses or ways to make salads main meals.

TIA

Not sure if you like calamari or not. It's one of those love-it or hate-it kinds of foods. But a calamari salad like this one by Rachael Ray http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/calamari-salad-recipe/index.html can be good on a hot summer day because the calamari cooks for such a short time and then it's served cold.

Do you have a gas grill? I miss mine very much! I used to come home from work, crank it up, grill a chicken breast (or hamburger or hot dog), boil some fresh corn, and that was it. You can also cook pizza on the grill. I got it for around $100 from Home Depot and it was the best purchase ever! 

During the summer (and winter for that matter) I often make a meal out of hummus and/or babaganoush with pitas, and a greek salad.

You do have to use the oven to roast the eggplant for the babaganoush, but otherwise no cooking required--just blending.

Use your slow cooker! Even though you think of hearty meals from the slow cooker, they can be nice for summer too- soups and chilis can actually be really refreshing in the heat.  
Also, the http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ has some great summer recipes and other recipes. The slow cooker is great, as it doesn't heat up the room, but offers hearty meals!

Use your slow cooker! Even though you think of hearty meals from the slow cooker, they can be nice for summer too- soups and chilis can actually be really refreshing in the heat.  
Also, the http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ has some great summer recipes and other recipes. The slow cooker is great, as it doesn't heat up the room, but offers hearty meals!

This is a good idea. I use my slow cooker fairly often and it never heats up the house. I even do baked potatoes in it that I leave cooking all day while at work and when we get home, it's nice to have one with cheese, sour cream and chives.

ETA: Another meal we do a lot in the summer is tostadas. The tostada shells you can buy in the supermarkets (such as Old El Paso) only take about 4 minutes to cook in the oven because all you need to do is crisp them up and you can even cook them ahead of time like in the early morning hours when it's still cooler and just put them in a ziploc bag for later. Then you can heat up canned refried beans in a bowl in the microwave. Spread some of the beans on the tostada shells and sprinkle with chili powder and lime and then top with lettuce, tomato, onion, sour cream and cilantro. It's one of our favorites.

I don't have any good suggestions but wanted to say thanks for the thread--- I have been struggling too!

I get slightly obsessed with Thai Beef Salad in this hot weather, I use a really easy Steve Raichlin recipe. Tonight I am making it with rice noodles. The beef will get done on the BBQ, and the only cooking involved is making a dressing and cutting up veggies. Yum. I can't wait to eat it.

We like to make halloumi wraps. It only takes a minute to pan-fry the halloumi, then you put strips of it in a flour tortilla along with loads of shredded cabbage, carrot, and green onion. We drizzle some hot sauce or sweet chilli sauce on top and wrap it up. It's even better if you put a smear of hummus or cream cheese on the tortilla first!

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=26251.0

and

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=6016.0

I like to make a Vietnamese Grilled Chicken Vermacelli.  PM me if anyone would like the recipe.

The other night I took leftover roast chicken (you could buy one at the grocery store), shred the leftover chicken, throw it in a pot with barbecue sauce and heat it up to make barbecue sandwiches. We had that the other night with macaroni salad.

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=26251.0

and

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=6016.0

LOL. Guess you've been in my shoes, too!

Thanks everyone!

Anyone have any recipes to share?  I've been craving nice cold salad-y type things recently (along the lines of balmerhon's recent post, it's getting a bit warm in here and I don't feel like turning on the oven!) but as much as I love pasta salads, I've never really made any - and as much as I love the little things that go into standard salads, I hate hate hate leafy greens (lettuces, spinach, rocket, etc) - anyone have any bean/fruit/other non-standard salad recipes to share??

I made this Quinoa with Grilled Zucchini, Garbanzo Beans and Cumin recipe, which can be eaten warm as a main dish or cool. It was really yummy, with high protein, plus I added extra veggies.

I also, recently made this Pasta Salad with Mozzarella, Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Olives which was delish!