A finals tradition: carbs on carbs

While reading my blog, you must think to yourself Wow, she really cooks a lot, she must have a nice variety of meals each week. Though I do not want to shatter any sterling views you might have about me, sometimes I do not eat so lavishly.

The week before finals, and finals week don't allow much time for cooking. Even if I had the time to cook with all of the studying to be done, I would probably burn myself, or the apartment down, due to my lack of sleep. I don't want that to happen.

Instead, I forget that I am dieting and I survive on carbs. 

Morning: Cereal... see this to get an idea on what cereals are ht best.

Lunch: Cereal 

Dinner: Pasta

Now, here is the thing--I can't be bothered by actually boiling water, waiting for noodles to cook, and preparing a nice pasta dinner.  Instead, yesterday I made a whole box of pasta. I put sauce on it, I put some chicken in it, and then I put it in like three different Tupperware. Microwave and eat. 

This finals tradition is certainly not guilt free--when you realize you have consumed a box of pasta in 4 days, but I like to think of it as helping my brain run at peak conditions. 

Also, it would be a good idea to pair coffee with every meal. Don't believe me? I wrote this 3 years ago, and it still holds true today. 

Pinterest Meal #1: Eggplant and Mozzarella Melt

Girls everywhere spend hours on Pinterest planning their dream DIY wedding. My wedding is already planned, and I don't have time to spend doing things myself. Therefore, I prefer to look at the food section, because I obviously love food. I have a board called future meals, and instead of dreaming of making one of those delectable meals, my roommate Julia and I actually made one.

Here is the website we got the meal from. Feel free to follow that, but we made a few changes.

What you will need:
1 eggplant
4 tomatoes
1 big loaf of french bread (not sliced)
fresh mozzarella
garlic salt
bread crumbs
2 eggs
salt and pepper

First pre-heat the oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, slice up the egg plant.
Mix the eggs, a little bit of salt and a little bit of pepper in a shallow bowl. Put 3/4 cup of breadcrumbs on a plate. Dredge the eggplant in the egg mix, then cover it in breadcrumbs and stick it on an oiled baking sheet. Bake for about 20-25 min.

While that is cooking, slice your bread in half, slice your mozzarella nice and thin, and slice up your tomatoes. Try not to cut yourself.

When the eggplant is finish, put everything together.
Here is the proper layering:
Bread
Tomato
Eggplant
Mozzarella
A little bit of garlic salt

Bake it all in the oven for about 7 minutes, or until the mozzarella is slightly golden brown.

Take it out and enjoy!

This meal feeds about 4 people, or maybe 2 really hungry people. But I mean REALLY hungry.

The College Student's Guide to Thanksgiving: Veggies

Let us continue on in our excursion through Thanksgiving, the college way. To me, it seems like the vegetables served on Thanksgiving are a cut above the rest.  They are greener, they have more flavor, they are the royalty of all veggies. Please do not think that the college version of these Thanksgiving dishes can act as a replacement. No way. These are simply for your enjoyment as you wait a whole year for the masterpiece meal to come back around.

Green beans. Usually baked into a delightful casserole that took days to prepare. If you aren't preparing for your exam until the night before, what makes you think you can tend to a casserole?  For my daily dose of veggies, I like to use frozen veggie steamers.  All you do is slip the bag in the microwave, and poof! You have a your veggies! For green beans, maybe spice them up a little bit.  Put some french fried onions in it...you can never go wrong with those!

The College Student's Guide to Thanksgiving: Mashed Potatoes

Obviously, if I love to cook, I love to eat.  As a result, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays--because of the food.  Personally, I think everyone should always be thankful for what they have in life... but I am not complaining that there is a marked holiday for eating a feast.  In the weeks leading up to thanksgiving, all I think about it falling asleep after heaping portions of mashed potatoes, turkey and stuffing.  Then waking back up to finish some pumpkin pie.

For the next week or so, I will be focusing on the college student's guide to thanksgiving. There can be elements of the meal that you don't have to only eat once a year. I will start with my favorite: mashed potatoes.

Now, you have probably seen your mother/grandmother/whoever cooks in your family slave over mashed potatoes by boiling the potatoes, vigorously smushing them, adding the perfect amount of butter... basically, it's a major time commitment. So, when you're craving that delicious dish try potato buds. You literally just add water, milk, butter and salt (depending on the recipe) and it is done within 10 minutes.  They are creamy and delicious, and I honestly cannot tell the difference.

Check out what Betty has to say about these.

Pasta with Some Protein!

This evening, I made some pasta. Now, I am by no means the pasta expert--that would be my fiance Elliott.  His pasta is unparalleled. But, unfortunately he is 2 hours away and cannot make me dinner tonight. So for my pasta, I used my favorite noodles--cavatappi. They are like little curls and they are super fun.

So I browned some turkey burger, because it is better for you than regular ground beef. Less fat.
Then I boiled some noodles...  which is usually a key component of making pasta ;)
After that, I put some sauce, garlic, the turkey, the noodles, and a handful of shredded mozzarella all together, and ate it!

Here are some more pasta recipes!

Quesadilla Night!

Tonight, my friend Kate came over for dinner.  She has been reading this blog, and she wanted to try a meal of the college cooker. I asked her what she wanted to eat, and she was craving something Mexican.  Lucky for her, I am always up for Mexican, so I decided to make quesadillas.

1. Cook up some chicken
2. After the chicken is cooked, sauté up a chopped up bell pepper, some pico de gallo, with the cooked chicken and some fajita seasoning.
3. Take a flour tortilla, and sprinkled some cheese on it
4. Spread the saute mix over the cheese-sprinkled flour tortilla, and sprinkle some more cheese on it
5. Firmly press another flour tortilla over everything
6. Put the whole thing in the oven to let the cheese melt
7. Once the cheese is melted, cut and enjoy!

Kate said she liked them...so I am choosing to believe her :)

Serve with some guacamole! (see two posts below) 

Try these other mexican recipes!

Homemade Pizza!

Dinner tonight was delicious.  I wasn't going to blog about this, but it was too good to keep to myself.

My roommate Julia and I made homemade personal pizza, and I might be biased, but it was the best pizza I've ever had.

All we did was take pre-made, personal-sized pizza crusts..and loaded it up with toppings!

Here's what I put on my pizza:
Pizza Sauce
Fresh tomatoes
Black olives
Mozzarella Cheese
Feta Cheese
Ham
A delicious buttery garlic sauce (i'll get to that later)

We put our pizzas in the oven (375 degrees) and cooked them for about 15 minutes.

Now...about the delicious buttery garlic sauce.

Julia had this awesome idea to make garlic bread.

Here's how she did it:

4 slices of bread topped with:

Lots of melted butter
Garlic powder
Garlic salt

We put the remainder of the delicious buttery garlic sauce on our pizzas--nice touch!

This picture is before it was cooked...because after it was cooked I immediately ate it. No time for photographs.

Wanna go the extra mile? Make your own crust?

Crock Pot Mushroom and Garlic Chicken

I am really excited about dinner tonight.  The aroma of garlic is permeating my apartment and this feeling of malaise from this rainy day is gone the instant you walk in. I am cooking dinner for two of my roommates and my friend Esther.

Warning: This is not the dinner for procrastinators--it requires prior thought.

This meal does require a crock pot, which, if you do not have one of these handy appliances--you should try to get one.  Of course, I am using my roommates. I am not sure what I would do without them. Other crock pot recipes

Here is what you do:

Several hours before you anticipate eating, throw the following in the crock pot:

For this recipe I am using 4 large frozen chicken breasts

2 cans of cream of mushroom soup (can also be cream of mushroom with roasted garlic)
2 cups of water
A spoonful of minced garlic
A little bit of salt

Turn the crock pot on low-heat and let cook for the entire day. When it is dinner time, trust me, it will be worth the wait.

Feta Chicken Dinner

Winner winner chicken dinner! If anyone ever asks me for a dinner recipe, this is the default one I give. I call it feta-chicken.

Here’s what you need:

Frozen chicken breast (one for every person you are cooking for)

Minced Garlic

Feta cheese

Lemon

Extra virgin olive oil

Here’s what you do:

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees

Drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the frozen chicken breast

Smother a generous amount of garlic over the chicken

Top the chicken with a heap of feta cheese

Squirt some lemon over it all; feel free to leave some lemon slices on the cooking sheet while it bakes.

Cook for about 30 min—or until chicken is fully cooked.

Serving suggestions:

Pasta or salad

Try making this dinner for your significant other; it will be a romantic hit. Pair with a romantic dessert!

Chicken Week: Dinnertime Chicken 'n Rice bowl

Good Evening!

Remember when I said I didn't want chicken for breakfast? Well, forget that! Chicken for breakfast could actually be a delightful meal.

But for now, lets take a look at this delicious dinner that my roommate Katie and I thought up one evening, the Chicken 'n Rice bowl.

What you're gonna need:

Chicken (If you're participating in chicken week, simply cut up some of your excess chicken breast!)
Rice (Katie and I like to use instant brown rice)
Peas (If you don't like peas, try another veggie like corn. Smaller-sized veggies work best in this case)

Mix all of the above ingredient in a bowl, and top with Katie's signature dressing.

Katie's signature dressing is quite easy--simply mix soy sauce and honey in a bowl.

This meal is filling and has a bold flavor that is sure to satisfy.

Chicken Week

Adding protein to your regular diet can be challenging. It can be time consuming to cook, and if you're only cooking for one, it may seem a little pointless.  It would be far easier to just throw that pizza from last weekend in the microwave. But instead of doing that, why don't you try chicken.

This week, I will be showing you a couple different meals you could make using chicken. The awesome thing about it is I cooked 4 frozen chicken breasts up this morning, and I am going to use those throughout the week to add some lean, tasty protein to my meals.  Chicken Nutritional Info

How to cook frozen chicken breasts:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Layout frozen chicken on baking sheet (no need to defrost).

I put a little olive oil on the chicken, as well as some salt and pepper. Feel free to add whatever seasonings you like (garlic salt is one of my favorites, a dash of lemon juice also gives the chicken a refreshing kick)

Cook the chicken for about 25-30 min. Cook time will depend on the thickness of the breasts, so check every once in a while.

After the chicken is done I just cut it up, and put it in a tupperware.  That way, it is ready to use for any meal that week.