BITE
CONVENIENT COOKING
by Rikki Kite
Get your recipe and shopping list off the package
I'm more Papa Murphy than Martha Stewart — I'm busy, I'm tired, I'm too unorganized to dig through my cookbooks for new recipes and I never remember to take my shopping list or downloaded recipes with me to the grocery store. I'm in a cooking rut, making the same recipes I know by heart over and over again, or I order pizza, heat up frozen dinners and hit drive thrus. But the recipes printed on product packages can make even someone like me feel a little bit Betty Crocker — just throw the bag of noodles, can of soup or box of cereal into the cart and walk up and down the aisles grabbing the necessary ingredients off the shelves.
In addition to the classic Rice Crispy treat recipe on the back of the cereal box or on marshmallow bags, you'll find recipes on products throughout the grocery store. Many cans of soup, jars of sauce, cake mixes, pasta packages and rice boxes also have recipes printed on their labels, providing a quick and easy way to shop for ingredients and whip up a home-cooked meal. I grabbed a bag of TVP (texurized vegetable protein) in the health section of Hy-vee, 4000 West Sixth St., and discovered a recipe for vegetarian red beans and rice printed on back. It had a few too many ingredients for an instant-gratification person like me, but it's good to know that when I'm ready to dive into the world of texurized vegetable protein, I'll know where to find a recipe.
The recipe for fettuccine with shrimp, tomatoes and basil printed on the Al Dente brand of spinach fettuccine noodles from the health section was a bit more complex, requiring a pound of peeled, raw shrimp, black olives, fresh basil, garlic.
Campbell's mushroom soup cans offer a quick and easy chicken recipe on back (throw three to four skinless chicken breasts into a baking dish, pour on the can of soup and cover and bake for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees) and promise five more recipes on the inside of the label. This recipe literally took less than four minutes to whip up and cost me about $3 for ingredients. Add a salad, steamed vegetable or rice on the side and you get a welcome break from Pizza Shuttle.
tomatoes, shredded parmesan, olive oil, salt and pepper, but within about 20 minutes, I had another meal that took less time than driving to Taco Bell and set me back about $15 for four servings. This recipe, like many others found on packaging labels, can easily be converted to vegetarian by simply leaving out the seafood, which would have saved me $8.
FETTUCCINE WITH SHRIMP, TOMATOES AND BASIL
Look for hidden fat and sodium in the recipes printed on labels, says Kristen Fellows
Serves 6
1/3 cup olive oil
1 lb. uncooked shrimp,
peeled & deveined
4 large tomatoes,
seeded and chopped
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/3 cup black olives, sliced
3 large garlic cloves, minced
tablespoons minced shallot
1 tsp. salt
pepper to taste
grated parmesan cheese
12 oz. Al Dente™ pasta
Heat oil in skillet over medium-
high heat. Add shrimp, tomatoes, basil, olives, garlic, shallot, salt and pepper. Cook until shrimp turn pink, about 3
minutes. Cook pasta.
Toss all together and sprinkle with cheese.
Recipe from aldentepasta.com.
PHOTO ILLU STRATION / KIMBERLY WESTPALL
Walker, Health Market Manager for Hy-vee. She still uses a recipe for chicken and rice that she found on the back of a Campbell's mushroom soup label, but she substitutes lower sodium soup brands such as Amy's brand or Healthy Choice. In addition to selling more of a product by including a recipe on the label, companies often include some of their other products in the list of ingredients, Walker says.
Libby's brand of canned pumpkin has provided its "Famous Pumpkin Pie" recipe on cans since 1950, and the list of ingredients includes the company's Nestlé Carnation.
brand of evaporated milk.Libby's now provides the free pie recipe and more than 500 other recipes on its Web site,verybestbaking.com. The company has been making the canned pumpkin since 1929 with its own Dickinson variety of pumpkin,says Megan Globek, customer service representative for Libby's. She answers calls about the product and recipes and says that call volume increases dramatically over the holiday cooking season when pumpkin pies start gracing the tables at holiday events and customers have questions about
the Libby's products.
Valerie Moreau, grant specialist at the KU Center for Research, says that in addition to using recipes found on packages, she sends off for the freerecipe books that companies like Bisquick, Campbell's and Spam offer on their packaging. "Generally, they've been tried and tested in their own kitchens," says Moreau of these recipes. Although she also uses recipes from other sources, she says that recipes she finds on packages are usually quick, easy and good.
When you're sick of frozen pizza or if you get a craving for some home cooking, you may want to check out some of the recipes you find on labels at your favorite grocery store. It may be a great way to find dishes you've enjoyed at home, like the green bean casserole recipe my mom used to make from a can of French's brand French Fried Onions.
Martha Stewart may not be impressed with recipes from the shelves of Lawrence grocery stores, but Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima would approve.
Allison Lohrenz, Houston sophomore, looks at recipes on the back of a Campbell's soup can at Dillons, 1015 W. 23rd St.
04. 21.2006 JAYPLAY <0>