Cooking with Kelly: Alton Brown's Lentil Soup

I've always wanted to try this recipe for Alton Brown's Lentil Soup. It's such a cheap, complete protien-laden meal. It was also a great way to use up odds and ends in the fridge. I also use my own chicken stock, which is free to me!

When you do the math, I think this batch of soup cost me around $5 to make. I added all of these little containers to my freezer stash, along with having dinner for two and lunch for a few days. The only modification I made to the recipe was adding a can of rinsed black beans as well as subbing a can of peeled diced tomatoes instead of using fresh.

My verdict? It's a bit bland, so I added a dash of hot sauce and 1/4 teaspoon of chili powder before serving. I also topped my with shredded cheddar, but you can treat it like chili and add chopped onions and sour cream.

I would certainly make this again, because the price is right and I loooove Alton Brown!

Cooking with Kelly: Breakfast on the Go

I've done something very out of character. I'm trying to eat healthier, I'm working out and I've even signed up for a 5K. While I'm far from the chick who wakes up at 5 a.m. and thinks, "You know what's better than this pillow-top mattress and 1,000-thread-count sheets? A two-mile jog through the dark and mist," but I'm getting there.

As the nutritionists say, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It breaks the fast of the evening and wakes your metabolism back up. But I don't always leave time for breakfast. It's all I can do to drag myself out of bed every morning and make myself somewhat presentable. So at the beginning of the week, I make my own oatmeal packets. When completed, my little meals are between 200 and 300 calories and just need some hot water or microwaving. I use a combination of old-fashioned oats and instant oatmeal for better texture, then fortify this meal wheat germ, which is an amazing diet food

(note that both raisins and wheat germ should be refrigerated after opening. I put the raisins into a reused glass jar). This is the set up I start with, and here are my favorite combinations:

Oatmeal cookie breakfast

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup instant oatmeal

2 Tablespoons wheat germ

1/4 cup raisins

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 Tablespoons Splenda

Chocolate oatmeal breakfast

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup instant oatmeal

2 Tablespoons wheat germ

2 Tablespoons dark chocolate chips