Cuisine Diva

Jazz Up Knorr Tomato Parmesan Pasta

On Wednesday I bloggged about my idea for making Instant Broccoli Cheddar soup. Here is another one of my ideas for jazzing up prepackaged food. I like to keep a pantry full of ready-to-make pasta and rice dishes for those times when I don't have time to make gourmet meals from scratch. My 13 year old daughter started making instant pasta and rice dishes a couple of years ago.

I like to stock up anytime these items go on sale. I just purchased a bunch of Knorr Italian Sides at Albertson's last week when they were on sale. Knorr Italian Sides are distributed in the USA by Unilever Food Solutions.

This afternoon, I made a package of the Knorr Tomato Parmesan pasta for lunch. To jazz it up a bit, I stirred in 1/4 cup of chopped, sun dried tomatoes in olive oil, right after the water came to a boil. At the last minute, before I was ready to serve the pasta, I stirred in 1/3 cup of finely grated mozzarella cheese. A bit of fresh herb, such as basil or parsley, would have been a nice addition too. Quick and easy way to add a bit more flavor to a pre-packaged pasta dish.

Take care,
Lynn Smythe AKA the Cuisine Diva

Instant Broccoli Cheddar Soup

I enjoy cooking, but sometimes I don't always have the time to make from scratch meals. I have a killer recipe for homemade Broccoli Cheddar soup, which I will be typing up as an article for Suite101 in the near future. I am the Herbs & Spices Feature Writer on Suite101, and have added many of my original recipes to that site.

But here is a quick and easy method for making broccoli cheddar soup if you are short on time. Stir in a bit of finely grated cheddar cheese into Cambell's V8 Garden Broccoli Soup and heat in the microwave. Only takes a minute or two to heat, and you can enjoy a hearty soup right away.

Not quite as tasty as the homemade variety, but making broccoli cheddar soup from scratch takes an hour or more. So if you are short on time, but looking for a comforting soup, try my idea for instant broccoli cheddar soup.

Take care,
Lynn Smythe AKA the Cuisine Diva

Book Review: Healthy South Indian Cooking

I am the Herbs & Spices Feature Writer for Suite101. I recently wrote a review of the book Healthy South Indian Cooking (Hippocrene Books, 2008) for the Suite101 website.

Here is a short summary of the review:
Healthy South Indian Cooking Ethnic Style Cookbook by Alamelu Vairavan & Patricia Marquardt.

The all new, expanded edition of a classic south Indian recipe book contains 40 new recipes and more than 100 vegetarian treats.

Take care,
Lynn Smythe AKA the Cuisine Diva