Crunch Time: Baked Potato

Hey Foodies! For our university, this is the week before exams meaning it is full of stress, deadlines and late nights. Last night, I found myself needing to eat dinner but having zero time to prepare anything, so looking at the bag of potatoes in my pantry I was inspired to have a baked potato. I know you are probably thinking making a baked potato isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel, but some how it ended up being the best baked potato I have ever had so I thought I would share it with you all.  Here is what you will need:

• 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-

 

Cheap Date: Fajitas

How can you go wrong with a quick and easy Mexican recipe to spice up your date?

Here’s what you need for delectable fajitas:

• 1 pre-cut/packages container of green, red and yellow bell peppers
• Pre cooked, sliced chicken
• 1 onion
• Soft tortilla shells
• Mexican shredded cheese
• Salsa

First, sautee the vegetables in a pan with the onions. While that is happening, warm up the tortillas in the microwave (on a plate in between paper towels to prevent sticking). Put the cheese and salsa in separate bowls. Add the chicken in with the vegetables for a few minutes to warm it up. When the vegetables and chicken are done, put them in separate bowls as well. Now you are ready to make your fajitas.

Recommendations: Take a tortilla. Put some vegetables and chicken inside. Top with salsa and cheese. Enjoy.

-Sarah

Baked: Makeshift Mac and Cheese

Hey everyone,

I was feeling macaroni and cheese for dinner tonight but I did not want to eat a boxed macaroni and cheese with the powdered cheese, if you can even call that cheese… So I decided to make my own makeshift mac and cheese from some pasta noodles, cheese and a few other ingredients.  It was quite cheesy and easy.  Hope you like it.

What you need:

• 2 cups raw pasta noodles
• 1/4 cup chopped onions
• shredded mozzarella
• bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 lb Velveeta cheese

1. Boil water and put the raw pasta noodles into the water and leave them in there until they are 3/4 cooked.  Drain the water from the pasta and add the Velveeta cheese until it completely melts into the noodles.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
3. Put the pasta in an oven safe dish and mix in the chopped onions and milk.  Top the mac and cheese with the mozerella cheese and bread crumbs and put the dish in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until the cheese on top has melted.
4. Enjoy

-Ryan

Chicken Enchiladas

Today, I decided to try something new.  I am a big fan of Mexican food but never want to spend money to eat out.  One of my all time favorites is chicken enchiladas so I took a stab at making up a recipe myself.

These chicken enchiladas were super cheap, extremely easy and delicious! To make these enchiladas you will need:

• tortillas
• chicken or beef
• can of enchilada sauce
• tomato (optional)
• cilantro (optional)
• cheese
• olive oil
• small glass pan
• skillet
• sour cream (optional)

Prepare chicken or beef any way you like and then begin the enchilada process.  Preheat the oven to 350 and heat a small skillet to medium heat.  Put 3/4 of the enchilada sauce, all chicken or beef and half a cup of cheese in the skillet.  Stir occasionally.  At the same time heat each tortilla (I used 5 to feed myself and roommates) in the microwave for about 20 seconds to soften them.  Grease the glass pan with a bit of olive oil and then put it all together!  You will want to put a bit more cheese and 1/5 of the mix from the skillet into each tortilla, roll it up and place next to one another in the glass pan.  Once all of the tortillas are in the glass pan pour the rest of the enchilada sauce from the can on top and sprinkle more cheese.

Once the oven is preheated, place the glass pan into the oven so that it can bake for about 10 minutes until the cheese has melted.  Carefully take a glass pan out of the oven and sprinkle chopped fresh tomato and cilantro on top.  You can also add salsa or sour cream to the dish if you would like. Enjoy!

-Katie

BYOBowl: Cheesy ANYday

A classic D-hall favorite that attracts tons of JMU students each week is “cheesy Thursday.”  This weekly menu option attracts long lines of students eager to get one grilled cheese and a small bowl of soup.  You may be thinking that this is a very simple recipe… you’re right, it is. To make this recipe more interesting I have a couple of different ideas to improve the meal.  Adding croutons to the soup is the first option.  This idea came from Panera which serves its tomato soup with a handful of croutons.  The second option is to put multiple types of cheese as well as slices of tomato on your grilled cheese.

Another great reason to make this meal off campus or at home is because you will save a meal plan punch or around $9.50.  Every JMU student will admit that they wait in the grilled cheese line and beg the chef to give them two at a time. This begging almost always fails to convince him or her and they end up in the back of the line to wait again for a second grilled cheese.  At home you can cook as much as you want while also saving money. Cheesy Thursday can now be on any day of the week!

Ingredients:

• can of tomato soup
• pepper
• milk & water
• croutons
• two slices of bread
• cheese
• butter

Empty the can of tomato soup into a pot.  Then fill the empty soup can half and half with milk and water.  If you prefer your tomato soup extra creamy fill the entire can with milk, no water.  Stir occasionally on medium heat for about 7 minutes.  At the same time, butter both sides of each piece of bread and allow the bread and butter to heat up on a skillet (medium).  Once the first two sides of bread are headed put the cheese in the center of the heated sides and then allow the cool sides to cook until golden brown. This will take a minute or so on each side.  Once the soup is heated up add a touch of pepper and some croutons!

-Katie

Egg Noodle Recipe

Ingredients:

-chicken

-cheese

-butter

-bread crumbs

-broccoli

-can of cream of broccoli soup

-milk

-noodles

Preheat oven to 350.

Steam broccoli in microwave and place in casserole dish. Cover broccoli with cooked shredded chicken Mix one can of cream of broccoli soup with milk to thin and put on top of chicken Sprinkle shredded cheddar cheese on top. Melt 1/4 stick of butter in microwave mix with Italian bread crumbs and sprinkle over casserole.

Cook about 20 minutes or until bubbling.

While casserole is cooking cook egg noodles as directions state. Then drain noodles and put it all together on a plate.

If you have a little bit of extra time you can….
Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in large frying pan. Add drained noodles add sprinkle breadcrumbs over noodles. Cook until noodles become slightly crunchy

-Katie

Parmesan Tilapia

This week for Spring Break, I am on a cruise in the Caribbean. In honor of the sea surrounding me, I am bringing you a slender spring break fish recipe, which happens to be one of my family’s favorites.

You will need:
2-4 tilapia filets (1 per person you are serving)
1 cup bread crumbs or panko
½ cup finely grated parmesan cheese
2 tbs. butter

First you need to melt the butter in a wide bowl, so you can dip the fish in it later. I actually used butter flavored Pam instead to reduce calories and it worked just as well, but is a little more expensive. Then in a second bowl, mix the bread crumbs and parmesan. Rinse and dry the fish and coat it in the butter. Then cover in the bread crumb parmesan mixture. Lay the filets in a baking dish and bake on 350⁰ for 15 minutes. Then turn the oven on broil and broil the fish for about 5 minutes (watching carefully) to crisp the coating. This one is sure to be a crowd pleaser and is great if you want a figure flattering meal to prepare your spring break beach bod.

Kelsey