Meatless Monday

Yesterday I decided that I would do meatless Mondays for the summer. Part out of my desire to be healthier and part out of the emptiness of my freezer. Either way this meal was a great start! 

For this first meal I used products from one of my favorite stores, Trader Joe's! TJ's is awesome because it gives you that "Ohhhh look at me shopping healthy" feeling without that "Ohhhh look at me spending my entire check on groceries" feeling. *cough-WholeFoods-cough*

 

I decided to go with the TJ's brand falafel and Israeli couscous. The falafel is very tasty for a frozen dish and the recommended way to cook it is the microwave! Couldn't be easier. If you haven't tried this style of couscous I would definitely recommend it. It's like eating soft, little pearls!

 

To round out my meal with some fiber I added steamed broccoli and canned black beans. I add about 1/4 cup of salsa and 1/2 teaspoon of cumin to my black beans for a little extra kick.

 

Here's the final result; filling, healthy and delicious!!

 

Easy Sunday Dinner

We all have those days when you drag into the house and the only thing you want to do is hit the couch. Since I live alone I could always get away with the minimal dinner on these nights…chips and salsa, cereal, top ramen. These days I try to avoid the empty calories and I tend to get a lot more drop in dinner guests, so Im always looking for ways to whip up something that’s easy and more importantly QUICK!

A few weeks back I was in the store and noticed a relatively new product Philadelphia Cooking Creme. So in my latest 15 minute dinner attempt I thought I would finally try this out. I went with the Italian Cheese and Herb and made a simple chicken dish.

I cooked about 1 pound of chicken in my deep covered baker for 10 minutes. This is seriously something everyone needs in their kitchen and if you host a Pampered Chef party with me you can get it free!! Of course if you don't already own a baker then 25 minutes in the oven on 350 should do the trick.

I haven’t been grocery shopping in FOREVER so I went for a Bethenny Frankel style “use what you have” meal and chopped up any veggies I could find. This time that ended up being half a red pepper, half a green pepper and one head of broccoli. Once it started simmering I realized that wasn’t really enough so I threw in a can of corn.

Once the chicken was done I chopped it with another one of my favorite kitchen tools, the salad chopper and dumped that and the sauce right into the veggies.

After about 5 minutes of stirring my 15 minute meal was complete!!

Served over egg noodles one night and rice the next, this was a tasty and simple meal. The Philadelphia Cooking Creme was pretty good but I think next time I’ll add my own seasonings into the mix.

Try it out and enjoy!

-Kulinary Kim

Chocolate Chip Lava Cookies

Let me start by saying, if you are on a diet stop reading this now because once you see these you will want to make them and once you make them you will want to eat every single one of them. I don't want you blaming me!

I'll confess, I bought a pack of pre-made cookie dough on Friday for absolutely no reason. I just wanted it.

Once I got home the guilt set in and I decided to at least use the dough for a new recipe. Given my recent obsession with chocolate lava cakes I thought these would be an easier and just as tasty treat. You can of course use your own homemade favorite cookie dough recipe but hey, its the weekend, and Im lazy, so the pre-made cookie dough squares worked out perfectly. Here we go!

Preheat your oven to 350º. Start out by giving your muffin pan a good coating of non-stick veggie oil spray. I use a Pampered Chef oil spritzer for this and it works perfectly without the weird chemicals my dad always complains about in the store bought spray.

Press one cookie dough square, or about 1.5 tbsp if you are using your own dough into the bottom of each tin.

Add about a half tablespoon of chocolate into the center. You can use chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, whatever makes you drool. I went with a broken up dark chocolate bar. Yummyyyyy

Finally flatten out another cookie dough square and press it on the top.

Pop them in the oven for 15-18 minutes and....well I'll let the rest of the pics do the talking.

   You can thank me later.

Rolo Heaven

Although I originally thought this blog would be dedicated to my cooking experiences there are some eating experiences that also deserve to be in print. This is one of them…the Rolo Mcflurry.

I've been attempting a health kick lately but as soon as I saw the sign for this thing I knew there was no hope. My willpower lasted a whole 24 hours before I gave in, zipped across 3 lanes of traffic and into the Mickey D’s drive through. Then came the inevitable question…snack size or regular. I thought to myself, if you are going to write a blog about this product you really should fully involve yourself in the experience of eating it. I’LL TAKE THE REGULAR!!

Let me tell you guys, it was soooo worth being fat for one more day! McDonald's vanilla ice cream is already delicious but somehow they managed to make it even better by loading it down with thick creamy caramel, definitely the kind you find in Rolos and not the watered down squirt bottle type of caramel. Its also filled with lots of broken up candy pieces. Not enough to be overwhelming, just enough to make me close my eyes and smile.

This thing barely made it out of the parking lot. Next time you drive past McDonalds, this is a must try!