Tag Archives: dorm cooking

Predicament of a Pineapple Placer

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Predicament of a Pineapple Placer

I’ve gotten to know my roommate, Will,  pretty well since arriving in Tuscaloosa. We hang out together almost every weekend, have been camping twice, and often give each other THAT look in public, the one that signifies that we’re on the same page about the current social situation. We’ve always gotten along and are leasing an apartment next year.

Because we’ve had virtually no problems as roommates, in an attempt to entertain ourselves, the two of us have opened up a can of worms, and started a prank war. This began right before one of our other roommates, Jordan, left early in the semester to study abroad in Italy. For about a week, Will, a few other friends, and I sat in either Will’s room or mine, and blew up balloons until we had exhausted our diaphragms. When we had blown up the last balloon, Will’s room and mine were both half full of balloons. With the balloons ready, all we needed was the right opportunity to strike.

Jordan often left his door unlocked, but because he was enrolled in no classes at the University, he spent most of his time in his room. After a few days of random balloon bursts in our rooms, we got our chance. Jordan went to a pancake on the second floor of our building. Will and I knew that Jordan often stayed until the end of these events to socialize, so we would have plenty of time. We quickly moved approximately 800 balloons into Jordan’s room, filling it nearly to the ceiling. When Jordan finally got back and opened his door he could only stand and gape as Will and I jumped out of the mass and yelled “ARRIVEDERCI!”

After Jordan left, the pranks unfortunately took a dip in quality. We had no third party to target, so we targeted each other. The pranks had to be on a smaller scope, because we couldn’t call on the other for help. I noted that it was this collaboration that made the balloon prank so great. I began to think how I could make the prank war great again, and I think I’ve figured out a way.

The balloon prank was great because of the scope of it; 800 balloons worth of prank hit Jordan in half a second. I can’t pull off something that big on my own. I needed to be smarter, more subtle. I need to make Will think that either someone else is messing with him, or that he’s just going insane. With that in mind, and with a little inspiration from Reddit, I have become the Ridgecrest pineapple placer.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been placing pineapples in and around Will’s belongings. Yes, full pineapples. Every couple of days, after classes, I’ll go to Walmart and buy a pineapple, Will’s favorite fruit, for about $2.50. I sneak it into our dorm at the bottom of my backpack, hide it under my bed and wait for an opportunity. I placed the first pineapple on his bed when he was out of the dorm. Miraculously, I managed to keep a straight face as he freaked out about someone coming into our dorm when he wasn’t home, and leaving a pineapple in his bed. Will sent out an APB on the Ridgecrest GroupMe, and I knew that pineapple placement was going to be good for quite a few laughs.

I placed the second pineapple in the bottom of Will’s backpack one night after he had gone to bed. The next morning, I received a distraught Snapchat from him in the middle of my thermal physics class. The picture was of him in his differential equations class, and the pineapple in his bag. It was accompanied by the caption,”Look what I found when I was looking for my homework. WHO THE HELL IS DOING THIS?!?!” I managed to avoid causing a major disturbance by disguising my violent laughter as a minor coughing fit.

With the third pineapple I took things to the next level. I came back to the dorm one day because my computer science class had been canceled, and heard Will in the shower. Quickly, I retrieved a pineapple from under my bed, and placed it at the bottom of his basket of freshly cleaned laundry. I then bolted off to North Lawn Hall, where I usually have computer science. In order to establish the alibi that I was in class, I sent timestamped Snapchats to him and a mutual friend from an occupied lecture hall. When I got back to the dorm later, Will confronted me and accused me of being the Ridgecrest pineapple placer.

He told me that whoever it was must have come into the room while he was in the shower. I rebutted that it couldn’t be me, because I don’t have enough time to come back to come back to the dorm before computer science, and suggested he check his Snapchat. Will opened his phone and looked a bit white. He had been sure that it was me, but how could it be. I wasn’t there, according to this false evidence. With all suspicion of my involvement gone I was feeling pretty good.

I have since placed another five pineapples, and with each one, I can tell that Will is getting more and more distressed. However Will has only found four. The last one is in an otherwise empty, locked drawer in his room (I learned how to pick locks for the sole purpose of placing that pineapple). I won’t leave anymore for the next couple of weeks, but I can’t wait until he finally unlocks that drawer when cleaning out his room, to find a pineapple with googly eyes and a stupid grin glued to the front staring him in the face.

My predicament now, is that there are seven, soon to be eight, pineapples in our refrigerator. We’re going to eat them soon, but I feel that eating chilled pineapple may get a bit monotonous. I therefore took it upon myself to find a new and interesting dish that incorporates pineapple.

Grilled maple-chipotle pineapple rings

2 Tbsp pure maple syrup

Juice of 1/2 lime

1 tsp adobo sauce from a can of chipotle peppers in adobo

1/8 tsp kosher salt

1 large pineapple

Mix together the maple syrup, lime juice, adobo sauce, and salt.

Cut pineapple into rings, about ¼ inch thick.

Use a basting brush to coat pineapple rings in mixture.

Cook rings in a panini press for 4-5 minutes, basting them once every minute.

Granola balls

No Kitchen, No Problem!

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“What is the biggest problem you’ve had living in your sorority house?” A question I’ve been repeatedly asked over the past year. Immediately, the answer I always say pops into my head “I don’t have a kitchen.” Coming from a household where cooking is a part of our daily routine, it was really hard for me to move into a place where I had no access to a stove. Although many dorms on our campus do have kitchens on every other floor in the building, I found that whenever I wanted to cook something, there was always someone using it or the stove wasn’t functioning properly (welcome to the dorm life). Luckily, living without a kitchen for two years now has lead me to discover a whole new side of cooking– non-bake cooking!

Something I tend to miss more than others is homemade desserts. When I’ve had a long day, I want nothing more then to pop some sweet peanut butter cookies or fresh banana bread into the oven to enjoy in under a half hour. My sweet tooth craving mixed with my desire to try and eat healthier in college lead me to discover energy balls.
Energy balls, a term often used interchangeably with protein balls, are a great grab-and-go snack which you can easily prepare a large amount of before. They are also super good for you because they are:

  • Low in sugar
  • High in fiber
  • Dairy free
  • High in antioxidants
  • High in healthy fats

When preparing these, your main ingredient is going to be rolled oats. Rolled oats are known to lower cholesterol and they are very inexpensive which makes them perfect for a college student budget. Besides this, you can pretty much make a large variety of protein balls from few ingredients. Some of my favorite recipes include peanut butter chocolate, coconut chocolate, apple pie and pumpkin energy balls.

Below are a few of my personal favorite energy ball recipes. Remember that when making them, you’ll mix all the ingredients into a bowl then separate into smaller balls. If you won’t be eating them immediately, you should store them in the fridge to guarantee freshness. Let me know in the comments some of your favorite non-bake recipes!

Recipes:

Pumpkin Energy Balls

  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1 Tbsp. chia seeds or flax seeds
  • 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
  • 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 cup old-fashioned oats (dry, not cooked)
  • 1 cup toasted coconut flakes
  • 1 cup toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

Apple Pie Energy Balls

  • ½ cup chopped dried apple
  • ½ cup dates
  • ½ tbsp honey (or other sweetener)
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 2 tbsp cinnamon
  • ½ cup toasted pecans
  • 1 cup oats

Peanut Butter Chocolate Energy Balls

  • ⅔ cup creamy peanut butter.
  • ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips. (milk chocolate if you want them a bit sweeter)
  • 1 cup old fashioned oats.
  • ½ cup ground flax seeds.
  • 2 tablespoons honey.
Bake Sale cookies

Baked Goods Ballin’ on a Budget

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“At college, where money is usually tight and good meals are rare, the ability to throw together a decent meal for your friends would probably be much admired. One might even be reasonably expected to have a small but serviceable list of specialties that you could cook for your roommates.” This quote, while seeming to come straight from a college student’s diary, is from a chapter entitled “Virtue” written by world-renowned chef and writer Anthony Bourdain. In this chapter, he perfectly captures how much of a necessity it is to be able to cook for yourself, both as a child and an adult.

Specifically speaking to college students, most of us are “ballin’ on a budget” with no time to make hour-long recipes in between, class, friends, clubs, and sleep. While Bourdain argues that everyone should have a certain set of skills, most students don’t know the first thing about cooking. Luckily there are tons of websites that post easy to make treats (and other dishes). Tastemade, Spoon University, and Yummly are specifically aimed at young people and some of the best places to start out – PLUS they share their fun videos all over Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, so you never know when you’re going to stumble across your next favorite dish.

Tastemade has an app which makes it easy to find and save your favorite recipes as well as look up your favorite tastemaker. Tastemakers are the featured chefs, meaning that if you really like the style of one chef, you don’t have to go hunting around. They each have a small description under their picture on the website…just click right on their picture to pull up all their recipes. Clicking on their dessert category pulls up all recipes easy or difficult, healthy or not. This website may take a bit of hunting, but many of their recipes are long term go-to’s.

 
 

Spoon University is run by real students. This website offers articles on the college lifestyle alongside their recipes. Some of their tabs include Spoon Healthier, <20 minutes, <5 ingredients, Microwave, and Hungover. With these fun tabs and their dessert tab containing everything from Chocolate Chip Muffins to Flourless Bacon Brownies, this website really is geared towards college students.

Yummly also has an app and is arguably the easiest website to navigate even though some recipes are for more advanced cooks. Their tabs are Just For You, Seasonal, Popular Now, Quick and Easy. By typing in baked goods, I received a list of baked good types: Christmas, Vegan, No Eggs, For Kids, With Alcohol, etc. When selecting regular baked goods, I was pleasantly surprised at the questions they asked me to filter my search response – what flavor must this dish have, would you like any fruit in the recipe, what type of bread are you looking for, how much time do you have, and so on.

 Not everyone is destined to be a famous chef, but cooking is a teachable skill at any age. When first learning to cook, it is best to start with appetizers or desserts and ease your way into the entre. Starting with baked goods from these websites allows for beginners to experiment with something fun, easy, and tasty to share with friends.

The Right Way to Snack

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While it’s ideal to only eat the standard three meals a day, for most college students that just isn’t realistic. Whether it’s a late night full of studying or an all-day Netflix marathon, snacks are a must. In between meals, it is too easy to find yourself reaching for a bag of greasy potato chips or a tub of Ben and Jerry’s. These processed treats taste delicious, but so many alternative snack options exist that aren’t loaded with sugar and unnecessary calories. Finding healthy snacks options keeps off that dreaded freshman fifteen and still satisfies your cravings.
Salty Snacks
When I looked at the snacks I eat on a regular basis, I realized I could replace these snacks with healthy, tastier options. For example, when you feel like eating handfuls of those greasy potato chips, choose to make your own. With a few simple ingredients, you can indulge in real potatoes sliced, salted, and cooked to a crisp in a microwave. To find out more on how to make them yourself, check out “The Dreaded Freshman Fifteen.” Another yummy snack for your salty snack craving are kale chips. All the latest diets have incorporated this leafy green that is full of nutrients. Just drizzle the kale leaves in olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and pop them in the oven for 10-15 min. You can always add salt and vinegar or grated parmesan cheese for a savorier chip. Only a few short steps to make a crunchy, nutritious snack!
Mini-Meals
Sometimes if you feel really hungry or just bored, you may want a snack with a little more substance to fill you up. Resist reaching for the Bagel Bites, Hot Pockets, or even calling Dominos because you can make something even better. On www.Pintrest.com , I found a recipe for a single serving pizza that will do the job. This homemade pizza’s costs less and makes for a healthier snack – what’s not to love? This recipe calls for an English muffin, tomato sauce, cheese and any topping you like. Just warm in the microwave, and you’ll have a mini pizza with warm melted cheese that’ll be sure to satiate your hunger.
Sweet Tooth Satisfiers
If you are like me, sweet tooth cravings occur regularly. Instead of eating candy bars or ordering Insomnia every night, try Nutella energy bites. These only take five ingredients: oats, shredded coconut, chia seeds, honey, and Nutella. Mix them all up in a bowl and then roll into one inch balls. Their benefits include easy preparation and no baking time. A fruity snack to munch on are frozen banana poppers. Slice up a banana, dip into Greek yogurt or melted chocolate, freeze, and enjoy. Freezing them makes them take on an ice cream effect that is addicting to eat. What a great way to snack without consuming excessive amounts of processed sugar.
As you can see, alternatives exist for almost all of your favorite daily snacks. With just a little effort to stock up on the necessary ingredients, you find yourself snacking the right way in no time. If you have any suggestions for snack recipes you love, please share below in the comments!

Kale Chips
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• Wash and dry the kale leaves by pressing them between paper towels
• Rip off the thick stems
• Using your hands, rip up the kale into smaller pieces if necessary
• Toss kale leaves with olive oil in a bowl
• Spread the leaves on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt and pepper
• Bake for 12-15 min or until the edges of the kale curl up and turn brown
• Let cool and enjoy!

Frozen Banana Poppers
• Scoop any flavor of greek yogurt or melted bakers chocolate in a bowl
• Slice bananas up
• Dip banana slices in yogurt/chocolate
• Place coated banana slices on plate/wax paper and freeze for an hour roughly

Granola balls

Midnight Munchies

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As you leave high school, everyone tells you how prepared you will be for college. I guess either everyone was a liar or my high school did an awful job of preparing me, though. In high school, students typically get home by 5, finish their homework by 10, and go to bed by 11. In college, students are not even home from their obligations by 10 on most nights. The homework starts at 11 and the bed time comes at some point in the wee hours of the morning. Besides the obvious sleep deprivation, students face another issue: late-night snacking.

I fell into the category of people that had a few misconceptions of “the freshman fifteen” coming into college. I assumed it was the result of unhealthy eating and a lack of exercise. After the first week of college, I found myself completely wrong on that assumption. Us students walk many miles a day between classes, sorority and fraternity obligations, dorm rooms, and other events. On top of that, we do not have time to just sit around and snack all afternoon. So how do us students gain the fifteen pounds if most of us are doing more exercise and eating less throughout the day than they did in high school?

Whether it occurs while cramming for a big test or binge watching the newest Netflix series, every college student faces the late night munchies. That is where everyone falls victims of gaining the freshman fifteen. Eating a bag of Cheeto puffs on  Sunday night, a bag of Hersey kisses on Monday night, two Insomnia cookies on Tuesday night, a big bowl of cereal on Wednesday night, and some Cookout french fries on Thursday night sadly does notjust cancel out the four miles that were walked throughout the day.

Staying up late might be unavoidable (toan extent). Getting the midnight food cravings might be unstoppable. One thing we can control, though, is what we eat at these points in the night. Against our better judgement, the food choice is usually something totally unhealthy and unsatisfying over a long period of time.

At this point in the night, we need energy to sustain us for the night, so a protein packed snack is ideal. Protein provides nutritional value and keeps you full for a long period of time, which will help eliminate the extra munching. Something sweet and salty, yet healthy and filling is often hard to come by in a college town full of unhealthy food choices. Think of all the possibilities in the store right down the road though. Go to Publix, get some tasty ingredients, and get to making your own delicious snacks. The possibilities are never-ending: trail mixes, smoothies, fruit and nuts, fruit sandwiches, sandwich rollups, and my personal favorite, protein energy bites.

Protein energy bites are nothing fancy. They contain simple, common ingredients that can be switched up to create a personalized snack. The healthy protein-packed ingredients like peanut butter and granola are valuable at this time of the night. The cranberries and chocolate help out the sweet tooth. Make this sweet and salty snack, keep them in the front of the fridge to enjoy, and keep off that freshman fifteen (or stop gaining if you have already reached the fifteen)!

 

 

Protein Energy Bites Recipe:

  • Peanut butter
  • Peanuts
  • Granola
  • Mini chocolate chips
  • Dried and chopped cranberries
  1. Slightly melt the peanut butter in the microwave.
  2. Combine desired amount of all ingredients into several balls.
  3. Refrigerate.
  4. Enjoy whenever!

* ingredients and amounts can vary depending on what is desired

 

 

The Crock-pot: A College Student’s Best Friend

Whether it’s struggling to find time to cook at your apartment or having to drag your supplies to the dorm kitchen, we have all faced issues when trying to cook as college students. We need something that is easy to use, doesn’t take much time, and is very versatile in the type of meals it can cook. Let me introduce to you the crock-pot. It isn’t new but not many college students have them. I have found that crock-pots are an essential appliance.

Personally, I enjoy cooking, but since I work three jobs and am a full-time student, I never have the time to actually make a meal. However, by using a crock-pot I can have a meal prepared as soon as I get home. You put your ingredients in the crock-pot before you leave for class and by that night you have supper ready and possibly lunch for the next day. It is probably one of the easiest ways to cook and takes no talent, so you can’t use “but I don’t know how to cook” as an excuse anymore.

While there are many perks to using a crock-pot, the best part is how versatile the meals are. You can cook pretty much anything in a crock-pot. My favorite crock-pot dish is roast. It can be cooked in several different ways and usually lasts a few days. The roast can be served over fries, biscuits, with vegetables, and even in a quesadilla. But if that isn’t for you then there are many other options. Want to cook something easy to eat after a long day? Soups and chilis are a great fix. Want to test your chef skills? Sure thing, try making some spicy chicken enchiladas. Have a craving for a meal your mom used to cook without a crock-pot, but that’s all you have time to use? Surprise, surprise, you can google how to adapt recipes to be cooked in a crock-pot. No matter what kind of food you want, there is most likely a way to cook it in a crock-pot.

Although crock-pots are amazing for meals when you don’t have time to cook at the end of the day, you may be surprised to know they can also be used for desserts. If you are ever thinking about how you can impress your family when they come down for the weekend, or if you are just craving something sweet, and don’t want to make the journey to the dorm kitchen, a crock-pot can be your lifesaver. From decadent cakes to cobblers and even puddings, you can make anything your sweet tooth desires.

Crock-pots are very underrated and should be used more often by college students. They don’t require fancy technique and when using sites like Pinterest for recipes the possibilities are endless! Maybe instead of asking for clothes or the new iPhone for Christmas, you should ask your parents for a crock-pot instead.

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookie

Microwave Masterpiece

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College is filled with a bunch of teenagers living on their own for the first time. This sounds like a great time when thinking about it as a high school senior, but look at the fine print of living independently: food does not magically appear in the cabinets anymore. College students have to get out of bed to go to the supermarket and spend their own money for groceries. Money? Is that even accessible to college kids? Those home cooked meals are out of the picture. You might be thinking, “Um…mom, can you come back with those pulled pork sandwiches that I used to complain about because I felt like we had them too often?” Yes, the dining hall food is an experience, but it quickly gets old. Greek Life food is such a pain to have to walk or drive to the house for a meal. Granted, I can make my own home cooked meals, right? However, if preparing the meal requires an oven, then I would have to climb to the 7th floor to even possess the cooking appliances.

As a college student, you have to learn to work with what you have and the resources that surround you. We do not have ovens in every dorm room, but we do have microwaves. At home the microwave may only be used to reheat leftovers, heat up a precooked meal, or pop the snack that pairs great with a movie, but in reality it can be used for so much more. Obviously, we consume the elementary meals, like Ramen Noodles or the small Easy Mac bowls, known for being a college student’s best friend, but they do not keep our stomachs full for long. Finding simple and cheap meals that the microwave can bake while providing the same satisfaction that fills one’s stomach after eating at the dining hall or fraternity/sorority house is not as difficult to obtain as it seems.

Eggs. French toast. Cinnamon rolls. Pizza. Cakes. Potato chips. All these foods seem near impossible to make in a dorm room without an oven or stove (unless you sneak in a hot plate burner), but with a tweak to the typical ingredients, you can easily make them with a microwave.

Sifting through recipe upon recipe on the internet for these microwaveable treasures, I was able to come across one that stood out to me: a cookie, but not just any cookie…the pumpkin chocolate chip cookie. These sweet treats bring back memories of carving pumpkins, decorating the house with spooky creatures, dressing up in costumes, and eating with friends before a long night of running from door to door to trick or treat. Halloween always promised these magnificent cookies, though I never would have known that they could be created in a cooking appliance other than an oven.

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (especially when baked in a microwave) do not require a significant amount of time or ingredients to create. These cookies only take up to 50 seconds to bake in the microwave. So, if that sweet tooth kicks in, challenge yourself to bake a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. The list of ingredients includes:

  • 4 tbsp of all purpose flour
  • 1 ½ tbsp granulated sugar
  • 2 tbsp canned pumpkin puree
  • 1 tbsp butter (melted)
  • 1/8 tsp + 1/16 tsp ground cinnamon
  • chocolate chips

No need to deprive oneself of warm cookies anymore. The microwave is a quick and easy way to make delectable treats.

Recipe:

  1. Combine all ingredients except for the chocolate chips into a mixing bowl
  2. Stir until the ingredients create a sticky dough
  3. Spoon out the dough and form separate round dough balls
  4. Add chocolate chips to the dough (make sure to squish them in)
  5. Cook in microwave for 50 seconds
Potato chips

The Dreaded “Freshmen Fifteen”

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Renowned Chef Julia Child once said, “If you are afraid of butter, use cream.” As college students, we could all probably do with a little less of both butter and cream. We often eat too much of what we shouldn’t, like greasy chips and dip, and not enough of what we should, like fresh fruits and vegetables. Treating yourself to Chick-fil-A after a particularly difficult day isn’t horrible, but not a great idea to indulge in all the time. Planning out a well-balanced, healthy meal is not always a feasible option for the average student due to time and money constraints. With these insider tips, we can keep the freshmen fifteen away and eat healthier in general.

 

  1. Compile a list of healthy snacks

Around halfway through last semester I was growing tired of the bland dining hall food: subpar pizza, frozen hamburger patties, burnt French fries. This is when I started looking for some cost-effective ways to add flavor during my meal time. Pinterest is always a great place to start gathering ideas, and that led me to the website The Daily Meal. From there I compiled my list of healthy snacking essentials that do not break the bank: blue corn chips, granola, Greek yogurt, almond butter, and a variety of fruits and vegetables. I am not saying to never indulge in your favorite candy, but if you can’t tell the difference between hunger and boredom, go for the granola instead.

 

  1. Adapt your favorite snacks into healthier versions

My favorite pro tip for eating healthy is the adaption of classical snacks you love into a healthier version. Inspiration Kitchen is a great website for recipes on your favorite foods with a slightly more nutritious twist. I found one for homemade potato chips that can be made in the microwave and only require potatoes, olive oil, and salt. This recipe is a much better idea for a late-night snack than the highly-processed chips out of a bag. If you are on the hungrier side and want a quick, easy mini-meal go grab some whole wheat pita bread, pre-grilled chicken, lettuce, and make your own chicken wrap.

 

  1. Watch serving size and daily value percentage

If you are looking to be more conscientious with what is already in your cabinets, there are a couple things to keep in mind. Watch what is considered a serving size for each particular food item you are eating because ignoring that information is an easy way to ingest a lot of calories. Also, watch if the foods you are eating fulfill your Daily Value requirements set by the FDA.

 

  1. Drink enough water, get enough sleep, cut out unnecessary sugar

A final tip to keep away unwanted weight, make sure you are drinking enough water and getting enough sleep. Water reduces bloating, increases energy levels, and makes your body feel full. Swapping water for soda also helps keep off weight because you aren’t consuming sugar. This is personally difficult for me because I love the carbonation of soda, but not the dehydrated feeling I get after drinking it. I have used seltzer water as a substitute because it has the carbonation without the extra sugar. Getting seven to nine hours of sleep a night puts you in the habit of not needing a mid-afternoon nap, which inevitably leaves you grabbing a soda or coffee to wake back up. Then the whole cycle of sleep is broken where you are staying up later but getting up at the same time, needing more caffeine and eventually crashing.

 

 

Now that you have more information on how to eat healthier, you can create an environment for a healthier lifestyle. If you have more suggestions or snack ideas, please comment below!

 

Easy Microwave Potato Chips

1 bag fingerling potatoes

Olive oil

Sea salt

Instructions

  1. Wash and thinly slice fingerling potatoes
  2. Cover a microwave-safe plate with parchment paper. Brush olive oil on parchment paper (do NOT toss potato chips with olive oil!). Place potatoes in a single layer on the plate, being sure their edges do not touch (otherwise, they will stick together!). Sprinkle with sea salt.
  3. Place in microwave and heat on high for 2 and ½ to 3 minutes. Watch them closely to be sure they do not get to brown.
  4. Remove from microwave and serve! Repeat process until all potatoes are crispy and crunchy!

 

 

 

Mac and cheese

Not Your Average Mac and Cheese

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Most people thoroughly enjoy the familiar taste of a warm bowl of macaroni and cheese. In my experience, mac and cheese always tastes best when it comes from a restaurant. The chefs use quality ingredients and are able to perfect the macaroni to cheese ratio. Recently, I tried the “Loaded Mac” from Jim ‘n Nick’s in Tuscaloosa––a delicious blend of cheeses coated the pasta with a layer of gooey, melted cheese baked on top. A heaping pile of moist barbeque pulled pork sat atop the mac and cheese and added a grilled, meaty taste. Luckily, my friend’s parents were visiting T-Town and brought me to lunch. However, as college students, we don’t always have the luxury of restaurants and gourmet mac and cheese.

Often times, Kraft is the cheap and convenient solution to a mac and cheese craving. No longer solely available in its original bright blue box, you can now purchase Kraft in individual microwavable cups. According to the directions, just fill the water to the line and in three and a half minutes, “dinner” is served. Though new shapes like Finding Dory, SpongeBob and Star Wars make the dining experience a little more exciting, nothing about Kraft screams gourmet or filling. It’s the kind of thing you crave at two in the morning after a night out, or what you eat as a last resort meal when you don’t feel like leaving your room.

Before I moved into my dorm, my mom and I went to Costco to buy what looked like enough food to last the whole school year. Because I wouldn’t have a car here, she thought I might starve to death and purchased things in bulk. As we perused the aisles, I saw a twelve-pack of cups of Kraft Easy Mac. Without hesitation, I grabbed it and tossed it in the cart. Fast forward to February: it’s the second semester and I have been here since August. How many of those twelve cups are left? Ten. That’s because the idea of orange powder and “just add water” is unappetizing to me. Though I’m definitely not the healthiest eater around, I cannot tell you the last time I resorted to eating one of those artificial, preservative-packed, sodium-filled, ridiculously orange mac and cheese cups. I have, however, tried some alternatives. Annie’s Organic Mac and Cheese made me feel like I wasn’t putting strange toxins into my body, but the taste was still unsatisfyingly fake. I figure if I’m going to eat powdered cheese, I may as well splurge on the calories for the familiar and reliable Kraft kind.

Though I’m a college student on a budget, I still enjoy the finer things in life and I decided to try and upgrade my mac and cheese experience. I found a recipe on The Kitchn for microwavable mac and cheese. One bowl, a few ingredients, fifteen minutes, and it’s all done in the microwave. This recipe is perfect because it achieves an authentic taste in a short amount of time. All it requires is pasta, water, salt, milk, shredded cheese, and a microwave safe-bowl! You can even personalize the recipe by adding diced vegetables, cooked meat, salsa, dried mustard, or chili powder. I decided to add some breadcrumbs on top to recreate the texture of a baked mac and cheese casserole, and I absolutely love the way it turned out. Although I will always prefer the gourmet version at a restaurant, I’m thrilled that I can recreate a delicious, comforting, non-toxic, somewhat nutritious version of macaroni and cheese in my dorm room. You can too by using the recipe below.

One Bowl Microwave Macaroni and Cheese

Serves 1

Ingredients:

½ cup of elbow or shell pasta

½ cup of water

¼ teaspoon of salt

¼ cup of milk (any percent)

¼ to ½ cup of shredded cheese: cheddar, Monterey jack, provolone

Optional: diced veggies, cooked meat, salsa, dried mustard, chili powder, bread crumbs

Equipment:

Deep microwave-safe bowl

Oven mitts/kitchen towel

Microwave

Spoon

Instructions:

  1. Combine the pasta, water, and salt in a microwave-safe bowl
  2. Microwave the pasta for 2 minutes. Microwave on high power, then stir. Watch to see if the water is foaming over the side of the bowl and stir sooner if needed.
  3. Continue microwaving in 2 minute intervals until the pasta is cooked. Stir between each interval and continue microwaving until the pasta is soft and cooked through. This should take 4 to 8 minutes total, depending on your microwave strength. If the pasta absorbs all the water before the pasta is cooked, add another 2 tablespoons of water.
  4. Stir the milk and cheese into the pasta.Use oven mitts or a kitchen towel to remove the bowl from the microwave. Stir in the milk, cheese, and any extra add-ins.
  5. Microwave in 30-second intervals to melt the cheese: Microwave on high power for 30 seconds, and stir. Continue microwaving in 30-second intervals, stirring between each interval, until the cheese has melted and forms a creamy sauce. This should take 1 to 1 and 1/2 minutes total.
  6. Eat immediately. This mac and cheese is best when enjoyed piping hot. If you need to reheat, add an extra splash of milk.

 

 

 

 

Cranberry Salad

Dorm-Friendly Cooking, , , ,

Cranberry Salad

What does your family do for Thanksgiving? Up until a couple of years ago, my immediate family would drive from northern Virginia to Maryland for Thanksgiving Day lunch with my mother’s family. My uncles, aunts, cousins, and grandparents were always in attendance. Even my older relatives, like my great uncles and great aunts, would make their way to share in the festivities. Everyone would bring a side, entree, or dessert, so there was a lot of food to choose from.

I was a very picky eater when I was a child, so I let most of the dishes pass by me. My mom would ask me, “Sweet potato casserole Bryan?” “No thanks,” I would sullenly reply. “Succotash honey?” “I don’t like lima beans.” “Bryan, you should try the stuffing!” “Eew! Do you know where that’s been?” I was picky to the degree that I wouldn’t even eat the turkey, a stark contrast to my carnivorous diet today. My Thanksgiving meal consisted of soggy green beans, lightly buttered corn, and dense pumpkin pie laden with vanilla ice cream.

I was all in all content with this meal. My mother, however, was embarrassed that I would not try more of the food my relatives had arduously prepared. I insensitively quipped that one could clearly tell half the food was store bought, but that certainly didn’t stop my mom from insisting I eat more. She imposed a new precondition to eating dessert: I had to try what she deemed was an acceptable number of new foods. This was a terrifying prospect to a picky little kid, but I really wanted some “homemade” pumpkin pie, so I searched the dinner table for something edible.

I picked out the foods on the table that looked like they would have only one flavor. First, I tried the turkey that I had previously stuck my nose up at earlier. It was dry and flaky, with very little flavor: not great but also not horrible. I deemed the bird edible. The next thing I tried was cranberry sauce. I chose this dish because it was similar in color and texture to red beets, which I had eaten before. My spoonful of maroon translucent jelly tasted interestingly bitter, but satisfyingly sweet before it melted in my mouth. I enjoyed all of what I had put on my plate and added it to the list of foods I could eat in the future.

Though I had somewhat enjoyed my voyage into the unknown, I was tired of the games. I wanted to eat some pie and wrap up the Thanksgiving festivities. “You have to try one more thing before you stuff your face with pie,” my mother established in response to my jittering. I ran up and down the table and between the legs of my older relatives searching for something that would go down easy so I could break into the pie. However, everything I saw had garnish or diced this or that as decoration, which didn’t appeal to me.

My grandmother then waddled over to me and suggested, “ If you liked the cranberry sauce, you should try the cranberry salad.” I was immediately skeptical. Salad? I had never eaten a salad before. That was the food my food ate to become food. The idea of eating something that blended so many foreign flavors together was preposterous, and I made that as clear as a little kid could. In the middle end of my long winded scoff, my grandmother told me I should reconsider and lifted a bowl off of the table.

I peered over the rim and was surprised to see no leafy greens, red onions, or any other “rabbit food.” What I saw was a red coagulated mass with maroon floating chunks. Jello! This was a side dish? It looked more like a dessert. I did an about face, asked for a scoop, and held out my plate.

I lifted a gooey spoonful of the gelatinous blob into my mouth. In that moment, I felt like I had really pulled one over on my mom. I was trying some new food that my grandmother made, but at the same time, I was just eating dessert. I tasted the bitter and firm cranberries contrast with the jiggling jello. There was something else in there, something with an intermediate texture and feel, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. I later learned it was pineapple. The clouds parted and a pillar of sunlight fell upon that bowl of cranberry salad. As soon as I was through with what was on my plate, I spooned out half the bowl for myself. I don’t think I ate any pie that Thanksgiving.

After a few years, my grandmother decided she was too old to host Thanksgiving at her house. This meant that my she would no longer make my coveted cranberry salad. I just couldn’t have that, so I asked my grandmother for the recipe. My mother and I made the cranberry salad that year and the few years following.

Unfortunately, for the past couple of years, there has been no cranberry salad at my Thanksgiving table. Fewer and fewer places were set to a point many of my relatives didn’t feel it was worth cooking an entire Thanksgiving meal. Instead, they elected for my family to go to a local restaurant and dine on their holiday buffet. These meals were not enjoyable.

This past November, I was to be one of the empty seats at the dinner table. I had no plans of coming home in the early days of the month, much to my mother’s dismay; she was upset that I would be spending Thanksgiving alone. She missed making the cranberry salad with me. Cranberry salad. I had almost forgotten about cranberry salad. It had been a few years since we made it. If she hadn’t mentioned that to me, I probably would have spent Thanksgiving alone with a ribeye. Instead, I decided to pull some shenanigans.

I intentionally painted her a bleak picture of my Thanksgiving arrangements. “Yeah, all my roommates are flying home for the holidays. I might do something, but I haven’t made plans yet. No, it would be impractical to come home for such a short time. I need to study for my Differential Equations final.” I also managed to subtly pick up my family’s Thanksgiving plans during my phone calls. They were planning to eat dinner at a little restaurant in Emmitsburg, Maryland at 5:00 on Thanksgiving Day.

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I gathered some ingredients, borrowed my friend’s food processor, and made cranberry salad by myself for the first time. I was largely unhindered in making the recipe in a dorm kitchen. I had all of the equipment I needed, aside from the borrowed food processor, in my dorm already: a pot, a mixing bowl, a large spoon, a measuring cup, and a stove.The only conceivable problem one might have when making this dish in a dorm, is fridge space. I took $100 out of my savings account, packed a weekend bag and made sure I got a good night’s sleep.

Early on Wednesday morning, I drove my friend to the airport in Birmingham, and started making my way toward the restaurant in Maryland. In order to avoid being tracked through my debit card, I used cash when I stopped for gas. I drove for about fourteen hours before making it to Emmitsburg, arriving eighteen hours before dinner.

I killed the next day doing homework in a nearby Starbucks. When 5:00 came around, I drove over to the restaurant and parked behind the building. I picked up my cranberry salad, walked into the restaurant, and asked the hostess where the “Joy” party was sitting. I was directed to go upstairs to the buffet section. I spotted my mom using tongs to pick up some green beans, her back to me. As I crept over, a few of my relatives, including my Dad saw me, disbelief painted their faces, “Has your mom seen you yet?” “Not yet,” I replied.

I tapped my mom on the shoulder. She turned around, her face awestruck. I held up the bowl of cranberry salad to show her.”Surprise!” I barely had enough time to put it down again before she embraced me in a spine-crushing hug.

Cranberry Salad holds a dear place in my heart, so naturally I wanted to make it again. This proved to be problematic the second time in my dorm. My friend no longer had a food processor, and so I no longer had access to one.  In need of a food processor, I went to Target and bought the cheapest one I could find.

The main ingredient, fresh cranberries, are hard to come by in January. Neither Publix nor The Fresh Market carries them. I modified the recipe by substituting strawberries for cranberries. Below are the recipes for cranberry salad, and strawberry salad.

This substitution had a few complications. Firstly, knowing that strawberries are much sweeter than cranberries, I decided to cut down on the added sugar. My other problem was that strawberries are much softer than cranberries. When I tried to chop strawberries in a food processor, I ended up with the baby food. That was no good, so I ended up with a bunch of strawberries I had to dice, a cup full of baby food, and plans for smoothies.

 

Cranberry Salad/Strawberry Salad

  • 12 oz. cranberries/ 20 oz strawberries
  • 20 oz crushed pineapple
  • 1 ½ cups of sugar/ 1 ⅓ cups of sugar
  • 4 cups of water

 

  1. Chop/dice cranberries/strawberries.
  2. Squeeze most of the moisture out of the pineapple. Drain and discard juice.
  3. Boil 2 cups of water.
  4. Add jello to boiling water. Stir until powder is dissolved.
  5. Add sugar, cranberries/strawberries, water, jello, and pineapple to a mixing bowl.
  6. Stir until thoroughly mixed.
  7. Refrigerate mixture for 5 hours.