When it comes to preparing meals on hot summer days, if you can't take the heat, you don't necessarily need to get out of the kitchen. Just turn to no-cook dinners using such ingredients as canned foods and fresh produce.

With school back in session, a nutritionally balanced lunch is available to most V.I. students in the school cafeterias, but snacks are another matter. Treats sent from home need to be crush-resistant if they're to survive being carried about in school bags. A snack that's nutritious, delicious, non-crushable and non-perishable is trail mix -– and you can make it at home.

It's sportsfishing season and mango season in the Virgin Islands. What do you get when you put them together? A great entrée! Mango Jerk Tuna is as delicious as it is nutritious.

If you're tired of the same old style of peas and rice, here's a different version that comes from Guyana. It's got salt beef, fresh shrimp and coconut milk among the ingredients and is a meal in itself with a green salad on the side.

Meatballs have been a key menu item in Virgin Islands cuisine dating to the Danish days. But times are changing, and tastes are, too; so, how about trying some vegetarian soy meatballs?

Mango season is late this summer because of heavy rains earlier in the year, but if your trees are now laden with the sweet treats, you may well be looking for ideas on how to use them. This Mango Bread recipe calls for finely diced mangoes, meaning you can use the small ones after they fall to the ground.

Potato chips don't have to come in a bag bought at the store. You can make your own. And if you make them from sweet potatoes, they're more healthful, especially if you opt for baking instead of deep frying.

If you or someone you know competed in Sunday's annual Bastille Day Kingfish Tournament on St. Thomas, then you might be lucky enough to have some fresh kingfish. There are a lot of ways to fix this popular food fish, and coated in beer batter and crispy fried is one of the tastiest.

If you like to play with your food, here's a creative opportunity: carving a watermelon into a basket and filling it with a fresh tropical fruit salad. This project takes a little hands-on discipline, but the result is a self-contained table treat that's pretty, tasty, high in nutrition and low in calories.

For a tasty way to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday, serve a flag cake. Use your favorite yellow cake recipe and butter-cream frosting, and then decorate the top with an Old Glory design using fresh strawberries and blueberries.