Earth Day Ideas

Happy Earth Day foodies! In honor of this holiday, check out these great environmetally friendly grocery shopping and cooking tips from a kaboose.com article written by Lisa Bell.

Celebrating Earth Day- Every Day 

Date night: Chicken and pasta, with a twist

Hey foodies! For this week’s cheap date theme, I am bringing you a super easy chicken recipe with a side of pasta, sure to impress any date.

Things you will need for chicken:

• 2 chicken breasts
• 2 lemons
• ¼ cup dry white wine (I recommend chardonnay or Pinot Grigio)
• ½ tsp. poultry seasoning
• 2 tsp. dried thyme leaves
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• ½ tsp. dill
• Salt and pepper

In a medium bowl, juice both lemons; add the white wine, thyme, poultry seasoning, dill and some salt and pepper. Then, slowly add in the olive oil, using a whisk to vigorously combine them. In a zip lock bag, pour the marinade over the chicken breasts and let them marinade in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Once you are ready to cook them, preheat the oven to 375⁰, put the chicken in an oven safe dish and bake for at least 30 minutes. You could also grill them if you have a grill and the weather is nice; this would add some good flavor to the freshness of the marinade. Hint for guys: watching you man a grill is a big turn on and it can give you and your date an opportunity to talk while you finish grilling. Once the chicken is cooked through, aka not pink in the center, you are ready to enjoy.

Things you will need for pasta:

• Leftover marinade
• 2 tbsp. butter
• ½ box bowtie pasta
• Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper

To go alongside the chicken we have a great pasta side dish, using the left over marinade. First, boil water for the pasta (I recommend bowtie for date night, but I used angel hair) and cook according to the package. While the water is boiling, put the marinade in a bowl over medium heat and bring to a boil for at least 2 minutes. Then let simmer on low. When the sauce is no longer boiling add in two tablespoons of butter and let it melt. Add salt and pepper to taste. Once the pasta is cooked and drained, pour a little of the sauce over the pasta and toss (do not drench the drench, a little will go a long way). Then toss in some parmesan cheese and enjoy. I suggest bowtie pasta because you can eat it in one bite so there is none of that slurping noodles awkwardness that can happen on a date. Note: this is a great date meal because there is no garlic or onion involved in the recipe and lemon is actually great for your breath, so no need to run for a mint right after you eat (it is date night after all). Plus, this recipe is fairly cheap and very healthy. Enjoy foodies and happy dating!

-Kelsey-

Guest Blog: Frittata- Breakfast Any Time, In No Time.

It’s as simple as scrambling eggs, cutting up veggies, and adding seasoning. My mom used to make this all the time when I lived at home. The smell of peppers and onions would fill the air as I barreled through the door, ravenous after expending most of my day’s energy at track, soccer, and/or dance practice. This Italian style dish is one of my favorite home-cooked meals, but I never took the time to try to recreate the deliciousness for most of my college career. It wasn’t until recently that I discovered how simple, affordable, and time-savvy this recipe really is. My mom typically served it as dinner, but is just as good between ciabata bread for lunch, and of course, as a protein-rich start to your day. It’s got the lightly crisped browness of a omelet and the fluffiness of a quiche, and it’s just as good cold as it is hot. Here goes.

Ingredients for Mama’s Zucchini Frittata:

• Whip up about 8 eggs
• Onion slided in rings
• Orange and red Bell peppers sliced length ways
• Zucchini sliced in coins
• Salt and pepper

Preparation:

Heat the pan with olive oil and sauté the onions until they’re very brown with a just a dash of salt and pepper. Then, throw in the peppers, and when the peppers are soft, add the zucchini as a top layer. Continue to gently sauté all the ingredients. Once the zucchini is tender (but not over-cooked!), pat it all down, so it creates a flat pie-like layers. Then, pour the well-beaten eggs into the pan, completely covering the arranged layers of veggies, and let it sit. I repeat, do not stir! Then, lightly salt and pepper the ingredients, and cover it up with a lid.

When the eggs are completely puffed up (should take about ten minutes), slide it onto a big plate and flip it over on the other side onto the pan. Since the eggs are already cooked, the flip maneuver is just to brown the other side for a couple minutes. And that’s all there is! Put it on a plate, and serve in slices, like a pie.

About the Guest Blogger: Alicia Hesse

I’m a senior with SMAD major with a minor in Italian and British Communications, graduating in December 2012. I am a staff writer for The Breeze, in addition to having a health column for a year, and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. I am a group fitness instructor at JMU, teaching boxing, cycle, body sculpt, and yoga, etc. Being an athlete my whole life, and now a coach, I’ve spent a lot of time studying and practicing nutrition and exercise. From a young age I learned this: it feels good to eat well. It’s a pretty simple equation.

My favorite food is definitely hot wings, I love spicy and ethnic food like Thai and Indian. Anything involving balsamic vinegar OR peanut butter (in addition to hot sauce) simply has to be delicious. I’m sort of odd in that I think in flavors first, and how to have those flavors second.

Cheap Date: Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Happy Monday everyone,

To start off the week of our cheap date recipes, I thought chocolate covered strawberries was a great and inexpensive way to impress your date.  The ingredients you need are simple and this meal is easy to make for dessert.

Things you will need:

• Fresh strawberries
• Chocolate chips
• A little milk
• A package of angel food cake

Put the chocolate chips in a sauce pan and melt, add a little bit of milk to make it creamier. Carefully dip strawberries in the melted chocolate and place them on a plate with wax paper under it. Put the berries in the refrigerator (feel free to eat excess chocolate) for a few hours. When time to eat, slice up a little bit of the angel food cake, plate the berries around it and enjoy with that special someone

-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

St. Patrick’s Day Corned Beef and Cabbage

Hey everyone,

St. Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite holidays considering all the goofy shenanigans that go on.  I mean it’s practically a holiday that celebrates terrible food and drinking a lot of beer.  If you are Irish or know something about Irish history you know that they are not well known for their food.  It feels like they eat bland old potatoes.  No worries though I’m about to present to you one of my favorite (and easiest) Irish dinners of all time.  I only eat this once a year on St. Patrick’s Day so you could imagine my excitement about this meal.

I present to you my St. Patrick’s Day Corned Beef and Cabbage recipe!

What you need:

Carrots

Potatoes (naturally)

Corned Beef

1 head of Cabbage

To prepare this meal you simply combine all the ingredients into a crock pot, fill the crock pot 3/4 full with water and let it cook for 8-10 hours on the low setting.  Most of the time the corned beef will come with a spice packet. Open that up and include it in the crock pot as well.  There is no need to measure out amounts of each item, it all comes down to how much you want of each ingredient and how large your crock pot is.  And there you have it, the most delicious and simple meal of all time.  While you wait for your corned beef to cook you can go out with your friends have a green beer or a Guinness.  Since it takes a good while to cook you can probably enjoy multiple beers and I’m sure time will just FLY by!

P.S. This meal is still extremely cheap, when I went out to get all the ingredients I spent around $15 total for everything and it will be enough food to feed at least 5 people

Happy St. Patrick’s Day enjoy,

-Ryan

Sloppy Seconds- Southwest Chicken Omelet

I found it quite appropriate that during our “Sloppy Seconds” leftover week I literally have no food in my apartment.  Well its dinner time once again and I knew for a fact that I didn’t have anything in my fridge to make, naturally I looked anyway.  All I could find is some leftover chicken I had from the other night, half an onion, eggs and one lonely bell pepper I felt I had to help out. I knew these few items, considering they are the only things left in my fridge, would be the basis for my meal.

If you are like me breakfast food is an anytime of the day food so I decided to make an omelet. Below is the list of ingredients and how to make my Sloppy Seconds Southwest Chicken Omelet. (Prep time: 5 min, Cook time: 5 min, Total time: 10 min)

What you will need:

1/2 cup of diced bell pepper (about half of a bell pepper)

1/2 cup of diced onions

1/2 cup of cooked chicken (chopped)

1/4 cup of shredded cheese

3 eggs

Salsa (to top omelet)

1. Dice the bell pepper, onion and chicken and make sure they are measured out properly.

2. After you chopped and diced the pepper, onion and chicken add them into a bowl with the shredded cheese and stir them together so that when you add the ingredients to the omelet they are blended evenly.  Set this bowl of ingredients aside for a few moments.

3. Crack the 3 eggs into a bowl and whisk them together so that it has a consistent look.  Pour the eggs into a heated stovetop pan and let them cook for about 2.5 minutes.

4. After the eggs are halfway cooked add the chicken and vegetable blend to the cooking eggs.

5.  Use a spatula to fold the omelet in half so that the contents of the omelet are covered.

6.  Carefully flip the omelet to its other side so that the contents don’t spill out and let that side cook for a few moments.

7. Remove the omelet from the pan and top it will Salsa to give it that “Southwest Kick.”

8. Enjoy.

I hope this guide is helpful and everyone enjoys the meal.  I made some for my roommates and they loved them. Leave comments let me know what you think and anyway you think we can improve the dish.

Thanks for reading,

-Ryan