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!

Feed Your Brain!

So the semester is starting to wind down, which usually means the workload gets kicked up a could notches. A sad truth I know. It's actually kind of mean of school... I mean here we are approaching Thanksgiving, and what are we thankful for? Exams! Professors just like to sneak that extra assignment in before finals hit. If you're anything like me, you are counting down the days until Thanksgiving, Christmas... anything that involves a break from school. However, unless anyone has a functioning time machine, we all have to push through! So in the meantime, here is some food for thought (lol). Food that boosts your brain: Blueberries, bananas, extra green veggies (like spinach!), eggs. Eat lightly throughout the whole day and DEFINITELY EAT BREAKFAST!

Here are some more tips!

Crock Pot Chip Dip

Whether your having a big bash to watch the game, or a cozy night in watching a movie chip dip is always a must. Try this recipe in your crock pot!

Southwest Chip Dip:

1 lb. ground beef (browned and crumbled)
2 15-oz. cans refried beans
2 10-oz. cans diced tomatoes and chilies
1 pack of taco seasoning
1 lb. Velveeta cheese (cubed)
tortilla chips

1. Put the beep, beans, tomatoes and seasoning in the crock pot.
2. Cover, cook on low 3-4 hours or on high 1 and a half hours.
3. Add cheese, stirring occasionally. Heat until cheese is melted.
4. Serve with chips!

There are many other dips you can create using your crock pot, try them all!

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!

Sunday Morning French Toast

Since it was daylight savings time last night, I felt rather motivated to wake up and get going before I needed to rush to get to church on time. Since I had this free time where I did not need to be showering or doing my hair yet, I decided to make breakfast for Elliott and my dad. Since waffles are such an early morning cliche, I decided to go the french toast route. It was way easier than I thought.

This is what I did, and you can do it too:

Break a 3-4 eggs in a medium sized mixing bowl

Pour a little bit (half cup) of milk in with the eggs, and stir it all up

Add some cinnamon and brown sugar in the milky-egg mixture

Take a piece of bread, dunk it in the egg stuff and immediately put it on a greased griddle.

Let the toast cook on each side for about a minute, depending on how hot your griddle is.

Once it's done, there is nothing left to do but eat it! (With syrup of course)

Something I have been wanting to do with this is create an egg sandwich--using two pieces of french toast for the bread. More on that later...hopefully.

 Other french toast recipes :)

Holy Guacamole!

So my fiance decided that he wanted some guacamole.  So naturally, he bought a few avocados for me to use in making homemade guacamole. Um..cause I know how to make guacamole? Not. But, nevertheless, I made some. My mom used to make it a lot, so I pretty much just did what she used to do. (Minus onions because Elliott [fiance] does not like onions).

Here is what I used:
3 avocados
2 large tomatoes
Cilantro
Garlic
Lime
Salt
Some guacamole seasoning.. is that cheating? Whoops.

It turned out pretty good :)

Anyways, now that you know how to make guacamole, try making it's cousin salsa.

Tea time

If you're a college student, you probably drink coffee.  There are exceptions, but as a rule, most college students (and adults, and high schoolers, probably preschoolers..) start their day with coffee. Some days, I sustain my day with coffee. Though not a whole lot beats lifting your fog with a brew of hazelnut, there is an alternative: tea.  Now, if you are really at a brick wall in the morning, I would not recommend you immediately cold-turkey the coffee for tea, because tea does have less caffeine. But for that mid-day boost, why not try some tea? Check out all of the flavors! I am sure you will find one that you like. Still not convinced? Here are some benefits: won't stain your teeth, won't give you bad breath, helps promote healthy weight loss...there are plenty of other benefits. Tea works the other way too--it relaxes you.  If are having trouble sleeping because you are nervous for your exam tomorrow, try sleepytime tea.