Gotta have em!

Throughout college and especially since then, I have never had a whole lot of interest in cooking or much time to dedicate to changing that. I always assumed it would take way too much work, and let's face it, I'm pretty lazy. Therefore, I was the queen of microwave cooking. Lean Pockets, Lean Cuisines, Smart Ones...you name it and if it can be cooked in the microwave and finished in 3 mins or less, I made it. And that's it. A pretty limited scope, I must say.

About a year ago, a girl at work (Hi Fabs!) introduced me to Hungry Girl, a fantastic resource for delicious low fat, low calorie recipes. I own both cookbooks and receive their daily emails (which I TOTALLY recommend) but I haven't really started messing around in the kitchen until recently. I've been slowly transitioning my kitchen over the past few months into a healthier environment, trying to still appeal to my cravings for comfort food while satisfying my lazy side. This hasn't been as challenging as I thought, and now I have a ton of great healthier staples that are super versatile. So without further ado, here's my list of essentials and fun finds:

Reduced-fat crescent rolls

Laughing Cow cheese (both light swiss and light french onion)

Low-fat ham slices

Egg Beaters

2% American singles

Reduced-fat cheeses (swiss, cheddar, etc)

Brummel and Brown spread

Crisco non-stick spray

Garlic-infused olive oil

Soy Dream enriched soy milk

Arnold sandwich thins

Diet 7up (for baking)

Minute Rice rice bowls

Baconnaise (ok, so this one isn't healthy...but it's sooo good!)

I use at least 2-3 of these every day. They make eating healthier WAY easier. Recent kitchen experiments coming soon. Happy munching!