Spring semester is here, and for many of us it means saying good-bye to home-cooked meals and the luxury of having your meals already prepared. As many of us indulged in delicious holiday meals over the winter break, many of us are dreading our meal options over the upcoming semester.
Especially with schoolwork, clubs and activities and work, it can be difficult finding time to cook a meal that requires little effort. On the plus side, stirring up a meal will also save you some cash from dining out and tends to be healthier.
Food critic Michael Hill states in one of his reviews, “Restaurant food has up to 200 percent more calories than advertised.”
Luckily, there are many quick, easy recipes you can utilize over this semester.
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner will be broken up into different sections to give you an array of meal options that can be made quickly. Two meals will be given for each different mealtime.
However, if you don’t find any of these recipes useful, there are great cookbooks available online on sites such as Amazon.com and bookstores such as Barnes and Noble. These cookbooks are easy to understand and geared at college students.
There are also many online sites dedicated to quick, easy recipes such as, supercollegechef.blogspot.com and squidoo.com.
The following recipes listed below display quick breakfast meals that will give you the energy you need to get you going through your classes.
For starters some basic breakfast ingredients that are commonly used for breakfast meals include: milk, eggs, bread, different types of spreads (i.e. butter, jelly, peanut butter), a variety of vegetables and fruits.
These ingredients can be used quite often in the breakfast department, and together most of these create a delicious meal to get your day going.
The following two recipes can be found at delish.com, and are just two of the many delicious breakfast recipes located on the website.
The first breakfast recipe is known as Shantay Sisk’s Veggie Scramble.
Time: 15 minutes to prep and make
Ingredients: 1 large egg, ¼ cup sliced mushrooms, ½ cup of sliced peppers and onion medley, 1 turkey sausage, ¼ cup of cheddar cheese.
Alterations: This meal can be altered to your preference and can have any additional vegetables/meat/cheese of your choice substituted or added in additionally with the ingredients.
Directions:
1. In a small skillet, cook sausage over medium heat, breaking it into small pieces.
2. When almost done, add the mushrooms and your vegetables of choice to the skilled and cook for 2-3 minutes, or until heated thoroughly.
3. Pour the egg into the skillet and stir it in thoroughly.
4. Remove skillet from heat and top the dish with you choice of cheese, until the cheese is completely melted.
The next breakfast recipe is a dish known as Granola-Yogurt Parfait.
Time: 5 minutes
Ingredients: 1/2 cup of fresh/frozen raspberries (or your own choice of berry), ¾ cup vanilla yogurt, 2 tablespoons of granola.
Directions: With a parfait glass spoon some raspberries, vanilla yogurt, and granola. Continue to repeat layering the ingredients until all ingredients are used.
Now that breakfast is complete, onto the next meal of the day: lunch. If you are crammed for time during the day, luckily there are many recipes available that require little preparation/cooking time to make.
The following two lunch recipes were located on BettyCrocker.com, as are a variety of other recipes.
The first dish is known as Adobe Chicken Wrap. This dish is great if you have leftover chicken and are looking for a way to zest it up into a meal!
Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients: 1 and 1/2 cups chopped, cooked chicken, ½ cup Chunky Salsa, 1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained, 1 can of whole kernel corn drained, 8-10 inch flour tortilla, 1/3 cup sour cream.
Alterations: This dish can be served hot or cold and can be served with cheese or extra spices for more taste.
Directions:
1. In medium-sized bowl, mix the chicken, salsa, the beans and corn.
2. Spread the mixture to within 2 inches of bottom of each tortilla.
3. Top each with sour cream.
4. Fold both ends of tortilla and serve.
The next lunch dish is known as the Roasted Turkey Sandwich. With a few extra ingredients, a typical turkey sandwich turns into a more delicious, gourmet sandwich in just minutes.
Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients: 1/3 cup mayonnaise, 1 table spoon chopped or fresh basil leaves, ¼ teaspoon garlic powder, your choice of sandwich bread (recommended: sourdough bread), 8 large spinach leaves, ½ pound of turkey breast, and ½ cup drained, roasted red bell peppers.
Directions:
1. First, mix together the mayonnaise, basil and garlic powder in a bowl and then spread the mixture on each piece of break
2. Next, layer the spinach, turkey and bell peppers on the bread. Top the sandwich with the pieces of bread.
After a long day of classes and work it, may be inconvenient and frustrating to make a meal for dinner.
Say goodbye to ordering out, because with these next two recipes found at BettyCrocker.com, a satisfying dinner can be made in 10 minutes or less!
The first dinner dish is known as Grilled Picnic Taco Nachos. These nachos will satisfy your hunger in just minutes, and will leave your mouth watering for more.
Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients: 5 cups of tortilla chips, 1 can of black beans (rinsed and mashed), 1 can of Old El Paso chopped green chiles, drained, 2 teaspoons of taco seasoning mix, 2 tomatoes (chopped), 2 green onions sliced and 2 cups of shredded Monterrey Jack cheese.
Directions:
1. Spray and set up a foil pan with cooking spray and disperse chips on the pan
2. In a bowl, mix the beans, chilies, taco seasoning, and pour this mixture on top of the chips. Finish the chips off by topping them with tomatoes, onions and cheese.
3. Place pan on the grill on medium heat dish for 8-10 minutes (or until cheese is melted). Serve when done cooling.
The next dish that is great for dinnertime. It is known as, the 4-Ingridient Pizza Bake! With only four simple ingredients, this may be the easiest, fastest way to cook up dinner.
Time: 10 minute prep / 20-25 minutes of baking
Ingredients: 2 pouches of Bisquick Complete buttermilk biscuit mix, 1 jar (14 ounces) of pizza sauce, 1 cup of water, 1 package of sliced pepperoni and 2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese.
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In medium bowl, stir Bisquick mix and water until soft dough forms.
2. Drop half of dough by spoonfuls evenly in bottom of baking dish. Next, drizzle the pizza sauce over the dough and top the sauce with the pepperonis and cheese. Repeat the layers until the mix is done.
3. Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Cut into squares and after cooling serve.
Now that you are done cooking, why not treat yourself with some desssert? This desert is the perfect ending to a meal.
The dessert dish is known as Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Swirl Cupcakes. This dish requires more ingredients, and time then the previous dishes but after you bite into these cupcakes, you’ll be happy you took the time and effort to make them! For more dessert recipes, visit BettyCrocker.com.
Time: 30 minute preparation/ 30 minute cooking = 1 hour total.
Ingredients: 1/2 cup of sugar, two 3 oz packages of cream, 1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips, 2 ¼ cups of all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup of cocoa, 1/2 cup of vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons of white vinegar, 2 teaspoons of baking soda, 2 teaspoons of vanilla, and 1 teaspoon of salt.
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat the sugar and cream cheese in an electric mixer until the mixture is smooth. Add in eggs, and chocolate chips and continue to beat. Remove the bowl and set this mixture aside.
2. With another empty bowl, add and beat the remaining ingredients on a high speed for three minutes. Once all the ingredients are mixed up, remove the batter from the mixer and fill the muffin pan with a tablespoon of batter in each muffin cup.
3. Top the cupcakes with the reserved batter that was set aside before. Bake for 30-35 minutes.
There you have it, seven recipes available for you or someone you know to utilize over the semester.
These are only a few of the endless amount of recipes available and there are so many different types of recipes, especially through Internet searching.
Not only is cooking a great hobby and skill to take up, but it is also a great way to save money and calories. College is a great time to learn independence in the kitchen, and a fun way to learn new foods you may like.
Cooking is also something for friends and family to do together! Enjoy these recipes, and with practice you may even become a top chef.
PHOTO COURTESY of bettycrocker.com
