Showing posts with label dorm recipe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dorm recipe. Show all posts

Cajun Stir Fry

| Tuesday, May 12, 2009


Oh Snap! This dish was amazing, easily the best thing I've made so far. I went grocery shopping with my mom and sister this past weekend and I was thinking of things to cook during the week. At the time I pictured myself cooking onions and bell peppers with a nice chicken breast in the oven, but when it came time to make dinner last night I just wasn't feeling it.

Instead I decided to use the stew meat (beef cut into chunks) instead of the chicken, and I wanted to do the whole thing on the stove top in a pan. When I started making the dish I decided to eat the beef, onion, and pepper mix over a bed of rice and peas, but as I was cooking and the smell overcame me I couldn't allow myself to waste any of the gravy in the pan. I decided to just throw the brown rice and peas into the pan and let it absorb all of the gravy. It was a great decision! Like I said earlier, this was the best thing I've made yet.

The best thing is that I'm pretty sure I could make this in the dorm as well. At the end of the post I'll tell you what to do if you want to make this without an oven.

Ingredients:
8oz of stew meat (any type of cubed beef)
1 medium green bell pepper
1 large onion
1 cup of Brown rice
1 can of no salt peas (8.5 oz)
4 tbsp of butter or margarine
1/3 cup of water
1 tbsp Tony Chacheres
1.5 tbsp of Kitchen Bouquet browning sauce
1 tbsp of worcestershire sauce
2 tsp of black pepper
1 tsp of cayenne pepper

Optional Ingredients:
Other sliced vegetables
white rice
Noodles

Ingredients

Step 1) Throw one cup of brown rice, two cups of water, and the can of peas into a dish and microwave it for 20 minutes or so, until all the water is gone.

Cooked rice and peas

Step 2) Take a pan and turn the stove top to medium-high heat. Chop up your onion and pepper into thin long strips. Throw them into the pan and put the butter on top. Stir and let cook for about 15 minutes or until the onion and pepper are a golden color and are no longer hard.

Cooked onions and peppers

Step 3) Season your meat and throw it into the pan as well. Try to move the onions and pepper aside so that the meat can be touching the bottom of the pan. Just throw the onions and pepper on top of the meat. Let cook for about 10 minutes and then add your browning sauce. Stir the pan to make sure everything is nice and mixed.

After the meat is thrown in

Step 4) By this time your rice and peas should be done. Pour the mix into the pan and add the water. Stir so that everything becomes mixed. Turn the stove down to medium, cover the pan, and let cook for about 10 minutes.
After the rice is thrown in

That's it! Everything should be done now.



Now, if you want to make this using a microwave, here is how I would do it.

Step 1) Microwave the rice and peas same as above.

Step 2) Throw your seasoned meat into a separate, larger bowl and microwave it until it is completely cooked. Not sure how long this would take. I'm thinking about 15-20 minutes, just make sure to stir the meat every 5 minutes or so since the microwave cooks unevenly.

Step 3) Throw your onion, bell pepper, and butter into a third bowl and microwave until the onions and peppers are a golden brown color. I'm thinking at least 10 minutes, but I don't know as I haven't tried it yet.

Step 4) Mix all three bowls into one large bowl (hopefully one of the three was large enough to handle everything together) Throw in your browning sauce and water in as well and stir thoroughly. Stick back in the microwave for about five more minutes.

Done! I just want to say that I haven't tried the microwave steps yet, that is what I would do in the dorm room though, feel free to make adjustments. Just make sure the meat is cooked, that is the most important step.

Looking forward to next week . . .

| Friday, April 3, 2009

Well, sorry for not posting any updates this morning. I hope everyone remembers that I am in college, and that tests are unfortunately a regular occurrence. I had a Differential Equations test this morning and I pretty much spent all of yesterday and this morning trying to learn all about Laplace transforms! How exciting.

Anyways, I'm glad the weekend is here so I can catch up on some much needed relaxation. But, I'm also excited because Friday is grocery shopping day! Some people have been requesting that I post prices for the ingredients I use in my recipes, so I remembered to keep my receipt after getting back from the store so that I could put it up on here.

I think my plan for now is to post what I purchase from the store every Friday so that you can have an idea of what I might be cooking in the upcoming week. This way maybe some of you can go shopping on the weekend and have the ingredients ready for when I post the recipes up during the week. Or at least you'll have you're shopping list ready after you see how amazing the recipe turns out later on in the week.

So, lets see if you can guess what I'm cooking this week. Feel free to comment if you have any ideas. If you guess right I'll make sure to edit this and let you know!

- Cream of chicken soup (11oz can) - $0.82
- Yams (15oz can) - $0.87
- Whole leaf spinach (13.5oz can) - $0.54
- Long grain rice (32oz) - $1.24
- Low sodium chicken broth (14oz can) - $1.22
- Sliced potatoes (15oz can) - $0.58
- Loaf of double fiber wheat bread (20oz) - $3.13
- Hot pork sausage (16oz) - $4.57
- Mini marshmellows (16oz) - $1.16
- One white onion - $0.87
- Brown sugar (16oz box) - $0.86
- 4x chicken breasts - $5.00 ( I actually already had this, but I wanted to include it so you would know it would be in at least one of the recipes next week. Not included in total price below)

I also bought some measuring tools and another, larger tupperware dish.
- 8pc measuring utensils - $0.97
- 14 cup Rubbermaid tupperware - $5.74

Total price with tax came out to around $23.50 . This will probably make about 6-8 meals depending on how hearty of an eater you are. That comes out to only $3-4 per meal. You might be able to get that same price if you eat fast food, but I guarantee it won't be anywhere near as good as what I'm making.

Well, that's everything! I plan on making two main dishes as well as two side dishes. So there should be at least four new posts next week. Hope everyone will be looking forward to them!

Cajun Two Step Chili

| Tuesday, March 31, 2009

So as you can see, I'm trying to get a little bit crazier with the names of my recipes. I don't know how much you could really consider this a Cajun dish since I'm using Mexican hot sauces, but we'll ignore that for now. For those of you who don't know, the Cajun Two Step is a traditional Cajun dance similar to the country western two step, but none of this really has anything to do with the recipes except for the fact that this great tasting chili can be made in only . . . you guessed it, Two Steps!!

Ingredients:
- 7.5oz Hormel Chili with NO BEANS
- 7.5oz Tostitos Salsa con Queso (half of the jar)
- Frito Lays Scoops
- Black Pepper
- Cayenne Pepper
- Tony Chacheres
- Garlic Powder
- Onion Powder
- Chili Powder
- Any hot sauce you can get your hands on

Ignore the Kashi cereal, we won't be needing that this time

Optional/Substitute Ingredients:
- 7.5oz of any chili
- 7.5oz of velveeta or any other soft cheese
- Any chip really, goes best with corn chips
- Pretty much any seasoning you can imagine

Step 1: Pour out the chili and cheese into a bowl or tupperware dish. If you want, add a few slices of velveeta cheese as well. Season generously with whatever seasoning you wish to put in it. Stir it all up and make sure the seasonings aren't all bunched up in one area of the chili.

Doesn't the chili look great fresh out of the can?


Advice: If you decide to add lots of various peppers and hot sauces, remember that they will add up in the end! If you love the hot stuff, then go for it! But If your not a big fan of a nasty burning sensation in your throat, I would limit it to about a tablespoon combined for the various peppers, and about a tablespoon for the various hot sauces.


Chili seasoned and mixed

Step 2: Place the bowl in the microwave for about 1 and a half minutes on high. Take out and stir and cook it for another minute. Take out and let cool for two - three minutes.


That's it! Whip out the chips and enjoy.

Finished Chili

As I'm sure you can tell, this is a VERY flexible recipe. You can throw just about anything in a chili and it probably wouldn't taste that bad. I know some people love putting beans, tomatoes, cream cheese, etc, but I was never a fan of that. I always just stuck with the simple stuff. I find that the more you over complicate the dish the easier it is to mess it up.

Lastly, I realize I put "The Dorm Life" on all of my pictures. Sorry about that. It's 1:45 in the morning and I'm too tired to fix it. Hopefully this won't take away from your yummy chili.

Ham, Egg, and Cheese sandwich

| Monday, March 30, 2009

This sandwich is a great tasting and healthy way to start your morning. I saw a picture of a sandwich similar to this in the book Eat This, Not That: The Supermarket Survival Guide. There is just about everything you need in a meal between the two pieces of ultra healthy bread. Tons of fiber, protein, and dairy make this a quick and guilt free breakfast.

Ingredients:
- 3 slices of thin cut ham
- One slice of Velveeta cheese
- Half a cup of Egg Beaters
- Two slices of Double Fiber Wheat bread
- Salt and Pepper or Tony Chacheres
- Tablespoon of Milk


Optional Ingredients:
- Hot Sauce
- Spinach
- Tomato

Step 1: Pour the half a cup of Egg Beaters into a small bowl or tupperware dish and season it with the salt and pepper or Tony Chacheres. Add the tablespoon of milk so that the eggs aren't too dry, stir the mixture together. Cook the egg beaters in the microwave for 1 minute and thirty seconds. Take out and stir the eggs and then place it back into the microwave for 1 more minute. This step is very important otherwise the eggs will not be fully cooked in the center.



Step 2: Let the egg cool for about 30 seconds and then place the egg patty on the first slice of bread. Put your slice of cheese on top of the egg so that the cheese can melt just slightly. Then top it off with your 3 slices of thin cut ham. Finally put your last slice of bread on top of the ham and enjoy your amazing sandwich.



Optional Step 3: If you do choose to put the spinach or tomato on the sandwich, make sure to put the spinach between the cheese and the egg and put the tomato between the ham and the top piece of bread. I don't know exactly why, but it always seems to taste better this way.

Optional Step 4: If you have a George Foreman grill or sandwich press, throw it on for about two minutes so that the bread is nice and toasty.


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