The winning campus meal for our contest was Pad Thai.  Here is a recipe for you to enjoy and try in your own kitchen.  Just follow these simple steps, it’s easier than it looks!

Things you need:

• chicken
• peanuts
• one lime
• teryaki sauce
• noodles
• sesame seeds

First, boil the water and then stick the noodles into the bowl.  Let the noodles sit for two minutes then drain half of the water.  Add teryaki sauce to the noodles.  While that sits, cook the chicken in a frying pan until done.  Cut the chicken up in little pieces add some sesame seeds to the chicken.  Put the chicken on top of the noodles along with peanuts and two slices of lime.

Now sit down and enjoy this delicious campus meal that doesn’t have to be found at a dining hall.  We hope you have enjoyed all of our cheap and easy recipes throughout the semester and keep checking back for more in the future.

-Sarah

• 1 potato
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• aluminum foil
• assorted potato toppings (I chose cheese and ranch dressing)

First, preheat the oven to 350⁰. Wash your potato, then put it in the center of a piece of aluminum foil (large enough to cover the potato). Pierce the potato with a fork a few times so the steam can escape while it cooks. Coat the potato in a little olive oil and then sprinkle the pepper and salt on top. Roll the potato around in the foil to cover the entire potato, then wrap it up. Bake in the oven for approximately 1 hour for a small to medium potato and 1.5 hours for a larger potato. Then cut open your potato and top with your favorite things. Here are some ideas: chili, cheese, sour cream, butter, plain greek yogurt, ranch dressing, marinara sauce, bacon, chives, salsa and broccoli. This is the best way to bake a potato because you just put it in the oven and leave it, so there is zero energy and attention required as well as no messy clean up, leaving you more time to get in some studying. Plus the olive oil on the outside gives the potato skin a great texture and flavor. Enjoy foodies and happy stressing

-Kelsey-

Today, I decided to create my own version of one of my favorite childhood foods- the pizza lunchable. I assume many of you, just like me, used to beg your mom to pack you a lunchable to bring to school instead of  the usualy PB &J. Since this week’s theme is “crunch time,” I decided to try and find a crunchy-ish crust to substitute for pizza dough.  The cheapest and easiest substitute I could think of is flakey breakfast buttermilk biscuit dough.

Ingredients:

• Flakey breakfast biscuits
• marinara sauce
• mozzarella cheese
• fresh basil
• chopped tomato
• pepperoni
• other toppings of your choice!

Preheat the oven to 350* (follow the directions on the biscuits wrapper).  Flatten out the biscuits until they are about 5 inches in diameter.

Let the biscuits cook for about 12 minutes. While the busicuits are baking, go ahead and chop up fresh tomato and basil along with any other toppings you would like.  Once the buiscuits look slightly golden brown go ahead and take them out of the oven.  I removed the top layer of the biscuit, which had hardened over the flakey and soft inside layers. Add a spoon full of marinara sauce, fresh tomato, fresh basil, mozzarella cheese and pepperoni for a complete mini pizza.

This quick and easy recipe only took about 15 minutes.  It is a great recipe for when you are in a time crunch but still want to enjoy a childhood favorite!

-Katie

http://www.breezejmu.org/life/article_ce3b78ba-8ce4-11e1-a124-0019bb30f31a.html

Celebrating Earth Day- Every Day 

• 1/2 head of lettuce
• cherry tomatoes
• blue cheese crumbs
• blue cheese or ranch dressing
• mandarin oranges
• bacon bits

Put all the ingredients on top of the half head of lettuce and enjoy.  The amount of each ingredients is all up to you. I personally love to cover mine in the cherry tomatoes, I can a whole container of those things in one sitting.

-Ryan

(Here is a sneak peak!)

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Katie

Trail-mix

Here’s what you need:
-bag of M&Ms (whatever kind you’d like)
-small bag of pretzels
-A box of raisins, crasins or yogurt/chocolate covered raisins
-A small bag of peanuts or almonds (if you aren’t allergic)
-a small bag of chex
-some sunflower seeds
-A hand full of marshmellows

-other options: banana chips, oats, other nuts. Sweet and Salty is a great combination

The rest is simple. Just mix all of the ingredients in a bowl and separate out into bags to take it on the go.

Enjoy.

-Sarah

I was a dorm rat for three years (two of those being a resident advisor) and so I was excited to finally have a real kitchen my last year at school. I recall running to the grocery store and thinking of all the great things I would make. I grabbed my cart and started walking the aisles throwing a few items in the cart. I quickly realized that my budget was not going to match my culinary tastes. This was never more true than walking the spice aisle. I had gotten used to cooking at home with the variety of spices in my parent’s cabinet, but quickly had to settle for a much more limited set of choices.

The realization continued when I went into the kitchen and put my entire set of cookware on the stove at once. 1 pot. 1 pan. That’s it.

With that in mind, this dish is a 1 spice (well….blend) and 1 pot/1 pan dish.

While I am pretty organized in the menu department, sometimes I make things up on the fly. The other day I looked in the pantry and freezer can made a quick Cajun Chicken and Veggies Skillet.

The ingredients were a pound of chicken breasts, some oil, a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes, a few vegetables and some Cajun spice blend. Consider the ingredient list very flexible. Boneless thighs? Fine. Vegetable or olive oil? Your choice. Don’t like onions? Leave them out or substitute something else in. I had a half bag of pearl onions, some frozen corn and Parisian carrots. Don’t ask me how I ended up with Parisian carrots (they look like little carrot balls), but there they were. Any kind of fresh or frozen carrots will work.

Cut the chicken up into a few big pieces (you can dice and they will cook faster, but since I knew that my vegetables would all be bite sized, I was looking for some size variety). Fry them up in about 2T of oil until they are not pink and the juices run clear.

After the chicken is cooked, sprinkle with 1-2 T of Cajun spices. Continue frying for another 2 minutes.

Cook your vegetables while you are frying the chicken. If you have a steamer, use it. If you don’t, follow the microwave directions on the frozen or canned vegetables.

Add the vegetables and the diced tomatoes into the skillet. Cook on medium for five minutes until the moisture reduces and the flavors mix.

Serve. This works well on its own, or if you are craving some carbs, you can serve over rice.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day because it gets your metabolism running and your brain going after, hopefully, a good nights sleep.  A problem I face almost every morning is that I am in a rush do not have the time to prepare a good breakfast.  With finals approaching, I know I need to be on my A game so I came up with a cheap and easy solution.  For a while I was buying yoplait yogurts and taking them on the bus with me, but then I was stuck carrying around a spoon all day. I decided to do a little experiment, and it turned out great.

Ingredients:

• 1 bananna
• 1 yoplait yogurt
• 1 cup ice
• blender

Make sure to wash your blender before use it if it has been in a cabinet for a while. Then, put the cup of ice, yogurt and sliced banana into the blender and hold down the smoothie button.  After 30 seconds turn off the blender and mix it all around. Blend again with the smoothie button for about 30 seconds or until all of the ice is blended.

I actually made this smoothie last night right before bed, poured it into a disposable styrofoam cup, covered it in plastic wrap and hoped it would be perfectly chilled in the morning to grab on my way out the door. I definitely enjoyed the peach mango smoothie this morning and am going to try different fruit and yogurt flavors!

-Katie