Quick and easy summer meals with Kraft Canada

Categories breakfast, dinner, lunch, quick and easy | by

Recently, I was fortunate to receive a beautiful basket from Kraft Canada filled with products to enhance outdoor entertaining – t’is the season!  The basket also contained a copy of their quarterly What’s Cooking magazine with loads of ideas for quick and easy dishes for the summer – both everyday meals and special occasions.  Before I left for France, I had the time to test a few of the recipes and was able to produce three meals’ worth of food in under 2 hours (and that included cooking time when I wasn’t actually doing anything!).  My kind of meals in the summer when, let’s face it, who wants to spend hours in the kitchen?

So let’s start with breakfast.  Granola is a staple in our kitchen and I love its versatility – that it can be eaten on its own, with yoghurt, with milk or baked into muffins or quickbreads. It’s really the ultimate breakfast food 🙂

Peanut butter and cocoa nib granola
adapted from What’s Cooking Summer 2011

Ingredients
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup Kraft All Natural Peanut Butter
2-1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1/3 cup cocoa nibs, ground finely in a spice or coffee grinder
1 pkg. (170 g) Back to Nature Trail Mix – Raisins, Almonds, Cranberries and Pistachios

Method
Heat oven to 350ºF.
Melt butter and peanut butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until both are melted; stir to blend completely. Stir in oats; spread onto bottom of 17×11-1/2×3/4-inch pan (I used a Pyrex rectangular dish).
Bake for 20 minutes., stirring every 5 minutes. Cool for about 5 minutes then add the trail mix and the cocoa nib powder.  Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

This may be a little on the not-so-sweet side so for those of you who prefer a sweeter granola, you might want to add a touch of honey to the mix. But I loved this as it was and it’s perfect with sweet summer fruits

Onto lunch. I made the next dish in the middle of packing and it literally took me 10 minutes to throw together.

Tomato grilled cheese
adapted from What’s Cooking Summer 2011

Ingredients
1/4 cup Kraft Extra Virgin Olive Oil Pesto Parmesan Dressing, divided
4 slices multi-grain bread (3/4 inch thick)
Kraft Swiss Cheese, grated. I won’t give an amount but I generally think about 1/2 cup per small slice bread
1 large tomato, cut into 8 slices

Method
Reserve 1 tablespoon of the dressing; brush remaining dressing onto both sides of bread slices.
Grill the bread slices under the broiler (oven grill if you don’t live in North America) until golden brown on each side.
Top with cheese and grill until it’s bubbling and starting to brown.  Top with tomatoes and brush with remaining dressing.
Serve immediately and enjoy!

I know, I know, it’s a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich but I really liked the idea of using the dressing to give the bread and tomatoes some extra flavour.  I mostly make my own dressings for salads these days but I generally have a couple of pre-made dressings on hand and now I know another great use for them. It really brings the grilled cheese to the next level!

For the dinner portion of this menu, I decided on something a little bit different than I would normally prepare – a pasta dish using a Philly spread as the base of its sauce.  With fresh basil from our garden, this was a nice change and offered a creamy texture without being heavy. I enjoyed this though I know Mr Neil, left at home to his own devices will have been thinking “where’s the meat?” 😉

 

Fresh tomato-basil pasta
adapted from What’s Cooking Summer 2011

Ingredients
3 cups rotini pasta, uncooked
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup (1/2 of 250-g tub) Philadelphia sundered tomato & basil light cream cheese spread
3 tomatoes, chopped (about 3 cups)
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
Fresh Parmesan, grated (I didn’t use this in my photo but you should!)

Method
Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain in colander; set aside.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic; cook and stir 2 min. Add pasta and cream cheese product; cook and stir 2 to 3 min. or until cream cheese is melted and pasta is heated through. Stir in tomatoes.
Remove from heat. Add basil; mix lightly. Sprinkle with Parmesan and more fresh basil.


Again, a new-to-me use of a product I often have on hand – given, not the flavoured Philly but you could totally flavour your own plain Philly spread too.

Whilst the  folks at Kraft and Edelman Toronto sent me the lovely basket, this was not a compensated post and all opinions expressed are my own.

As many of you know, I am currently in Paris.  I have a few posts lined up for the next couple of busy weeks (work and a conference) and will eventually get around to blogging about some of the fun culinary adventures I will be experiencing here. In the meantime, though, you can keep up with me through my Summer 2011 Flickr set. I will be updating this with day to day pictures (read: not all food photos!) fairly regularly so if you are so inclined, feel free to check that out!

33 thoughts on “Quick and easy summer meals with Kraft Canada”

  5. I love Kraft Kitchens! Their recipes are good and easy to prepare and more often than not, with staples one has in their pantry and fridge. Great post with great looking meals & snacks Mardi.

    Reply

  6. Tomato grilled cheese looks like a delicious, new twist to an old classic. Bet my whole family will love this one.

    Reply

  16. Granola was a hit – albeit a touch more honey would be appreciated.

    As for the “where’s the meat?” pasta…well it did look like it was missing a protein. I cannot comment as I never had the opportunity to sample this dish. 😉

    Reply

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