Microwaved Omelettes

If you are, or were, a college student, there’s a good chance that someone told you that you could cook pretty much anything in a microwave. Bacon? Throw that on a paper towel and sure, it’ll be flimsy and oily, but hey, it’s edible. Cakes? If you like the taste of raw flour, then ditch the oven and open the microwave instead. Here's a microwaved mug meal tested by someone whose standards may not be too high, but are higher than the deflated chocolate cake that I tried microwaving.

The first time I saw someone microwaving eggs, they were in one of the biggest kitchens I had ever seen with a glistening stovetop literally a foot away from where they were standing.  There they were, popping the bowl into the microwave, taking it out, stirring it, putting it back in, and taking it out again. Horrified, I thought to myself, “That will never be me.” Then I came to college. Now I’ll admit, I normally don’t have raw eggs in my mini fridge, or any kind of egg at that. But here I was, determined to make something half edible in the comfort, or rather, confines of my dorm room. Having obtained some freshly laid eggs from a coworker, I got cracking, literally.

The recipe is as follows:

-1 egg, courtesy of my coworkers chicken

-1 ½ tablespoon of milk, courtesy of the cafeteria

-A sprinkling of chives, which I neglected to include because come on, I’m not spending money on that.

-½ slice of prosciutto or ham, which I happened to have from a leftover picnic

After mixing the ingredients and throwing them into the microwave for a minute and a half, I wasn’t disappointed with the results. Mind you, I’m fairly picky when it comes to eggs in the first place, so this might not have been the best recipe for an objective opinion. That being said, I ate it all.

Now I imagine that should I get a little more creative with this recipe, the results would likely become thoroughly enjoyable. Since I’ve made this omelette, I’ve thought about ditching the ham and going for cherry tomatoes and cheese, or bell peppers and a bit of olive oil.

The great thing about an omelette, whether it’s made on a stovetop or a microwave, is that if you can slice it, tear it, shred it, or dice it, you can throw it in. So if your coworker gives you eggs, grab your mug, open your microwave, and get to eating.

Dressings

Research for most school projects usually requires hunkering down in the corner of a library and scrolling through what seem to be endless online databases, or, if you’re especially unlucky, opening up an actual book- how very dreadful. Research for this blog post, however, involved nothing other than buying two ingredients and shaking some mason jars. If this blog will convince you to do anything, I hope it’s that mason jars are more than worth their weight in salt, or, in this case, their weight in salad dressing.

Is salad dressing just for salad? When your dietary needs can only be met with the food from the school cafeteria, salad dressing becomes liquid gold that’s necessary to make any sort of food edible. Sure, there’s a fairly decent selections of pre-made dressing to choose from in the caf, but after the second time of finding massive clumps of what you hope to be solidified mayonnaise, you begin to consider alternatives.

When you’re on a budget like me, you may find yourself wanting to whip up the fanciest of vinegarettes with truffle oil and sesame seeds, but let’s be real- spending that kind of money on dressing could, and probably should, be allocated for more pressing items, like overpriced parking permits.

Seeing as I refused to be more specialized and expensive items, I purposely limited myself to a few types of salad dressing with the intention of pairing them with a selection of salads and other foods. Most of these ingredients, I’d like to add, may or may not have been sneakily acquired from the caf. What’s a girl supposed to do, buy her own olive oil? For the thousands of dollars I pay to this school, I think I deserve a cup of olive oil, and maybe a cup of balsamic vinegar, and maybe some dijon mustard, and jam, and maybe a few other things too.

Dressing #1:  Balsamic Dressing

-½ cup balsamic vinegar

-½ cup olive oil

-Salt and Pepper to taste

-Teaspoon of dijon

-Optional: 1 clove of minced garlic (if you’re willing to buy a whole head of garlic)

-Optional: the less expensive alternative to adding garlic is a pinch or two of any sort of seasoning; I used a garlic herb mix that has parsley, oregano, basil, and marjoram.

Aside from an ordinary salad, I love to throw this on grilled chicken, which tends to be quite dry.

Dressing #2: Honey Mustard Dressing

-½ cup nonfat plain greek yogurt

-2 tablespoons honey

-3 tablespoons dijon mustard

-3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

-¼ cup olive oil

-Salt and Pepper to taste

This is perfect to add to any sandwich for an added element of moisture.

Dressing #3: Strawberry Balsamic Dressing

-2 teaspoons strawberry jam

-1 ½ tablespoons balsamic vinegar

-3 tablespoons olive oil

-Salt and Pepper to taste

This is great on grilled chicken and salads, but I love throwing this on chopped apples and almonds with a bit of parmesan cheese- no lettuce required.

Other than the yogurt and apple cider vinegar, every other ingredient was procured covertly from the cafeteria. If it wasn’t already implied, to actually “make” these dressings, all that’s required is measuring out the ingredients, dumping them into the mason jar, shaking, and pouring. Now that we know how to make our own dressing free of mystery clumps, let us go out dress this bland and overcooked world.

Rotisserie Chicken

I’ll preface this blog post by saying the following, if you’re at Whole Foods and you have a certain budget that you’re determined to keep to, you may actually be able to save yourself some money by purchasing completely ready-made meals. But if that was the case, this blog would be moot.

So I walked into Whole Foods with one goal: to buy a rotisserie chicken. Why a rotisserie chicken, you ask? Because those things are totally cooked, relatively inexpensive, and one hundred percent versatile. This post will detail a few of the recipes you can make with a rotisserie chicken, but I’ll be focusing on one recipe in particular- dorm room ramen.

Grocery list in hand, I walked into Whole Foods and bought the following for about twenty five bucks:

-Rotisserie Chicken
-A handful of snap peas
-One carrot
-Three medium sized shitaki mushrooms
-Miso paste
-Rice noodles

Now, the recipe that I was going off of called for fresh ginger and garlic, but I wasn’t prepared to spend like five dollars on a head of garlic and I didn’t want to be stuck with a bunch of ginger, so I went without. Because I went to Whole Foods fairly late in the evening, I, or rather my wallet, was sad to see that the regular priced rotisserie chickens were sold out. All that were left were the fancy organic chickens for fifteen bucks. I’m fairly new to the whole grocery-purchasing scene, but that seems pretty steep to me. However, it was well seasoned, well prepared, and I wasn’t going to go bargain shopping at another store, so in my cart it went.

The most difficult and time consuming part of this whole recipe was removing all of the meat from the chicken; and I’d like to point out that I’m fairly confident that my hands will smell like chicken for the rest of my life. Anyway, with the chicken all shredded and put into a ziplock bag, I proceeded to whip out what may be the handiest of dorm room cooking supplies, mason jars.

I have a single knife, and it’s a pairing one at that, so it’s not necessarily ideal for chopping vegetables, but it did the trick. I made two separate servings, one for me, and one for my roommate. In the mason jars went carrot strings cut as thin as I could manage, sliced mushrooms, and halved snap peas. The miso paste that I bought had absolutely no directions, so I put what I’m guessing was about a teaspoon right into the jar. Next came the chicken and the uncooked rice noodles. Using my handy dandy tea kettle, I boiled some water and filled the two jars close to the top and screwed the lid on and left them for a few minutes.

Results: not bad. Perhaps I should’ve splurged and bought the garlic and ginger for more flavor, but the miso paste gave what I’m calling a five minute homemade soup, a very homey taste. A threw in a pinch of salt, and my roommate added a few dashes of hot sauce. I was most impressed with how quickly the rice noodles cooked, and considering the fact that they’re so thin, they’re extremely filling. 

Seeing as I have about half a ziplock bag left of chicken, I plan to be making more mason jar ramen and possibly some chicken salad sandwiches with cranberries that may or may not have been stolen from the caf. 

All in all, even though the rotisserie chicken was fairly pricey, I was able to get a staggering amount of meat off of it, and will get at least four large work lunches out of it. Not too shabby if you ask me.

Blog Post #1

I have spent the good majority of my life watching The Food Network and in doing so cultivated a vast and overly-specific knowledge base of everything food. I would love nothing more than to spend hours on end in a kitchen whipping up all sorts of recipes and sharing my food with friends and family. I’d make everything from beautifully hand made pastas to stocks that need half a day to simmer. Desserts, antipasti, main courses, aperitifs, hors d'oeuvres, you name it, I want to make it. 

One small issue. I don't have a kitchen. So what's a girl supposed to do when all she has is a mini fridge, a microwave, and a tea kettle? In a world where the main food source is a cafeteria that provides food that is often less than ideal, students get hungry. But why should we stuff our faces with Cup of Noodles and Totino's Pizza Rolls when we could, potentially, make some decent food without having to use the (sketchy) third floor kitchens?

This blog will include dorm-approved recipes, all tested and eaten by yours truly, a college student with excessively expensive tastes and very little money.

Recipe #1: Antipasto For One
Ingredients:
-Two fruits of your choice
-At least two types of cheese
-Nuts
-Bread
-Something pickled
-Dried/Cured Meat

There’s nothing fancier or more pretentious than making an antipasti for your lunch or dinner as a college student. That being said, there really isn’t anything easier or more delicious. Every single component of this meal is ready to eat; there is absolutely no cooking required. As long as you have a mini fridge to keep this all cold, you’re all set.

Here’s what I threw together: strawberries and grapes, a string cheese (balling on a budget) and a triangle of Manchego cheese, a third of a baguette, some pickled beets, a handful of cashews, and few pieces of salami. Given the time, this could all be beautifully constructed and meticulously placed on a cheese board, or, if you’re like me, a paper plate.

While these ingredients do sound relatively extravagant, they were all fairly inexpensive. Trader Joe’s is a college student’s best friend, with their extremely low cost produce and decent quality foodstuff. The most expensive thing that I purchased was a large bag of grapes, and that was completely my fault; I thought it was $2.99 for the whole bag; it was per pound. Stupid college student mistake, had I known it would’ve put be back a whopping eight dollars, I wouldn’t have gone through with the purchase. Anyway, even fancy cheese is inexpensive as hell, I got three small-ish wedges of Spanish cheese for like three bucks. With all the ingredients combined, I reckon I can make at least three different antipasti plates for myself, with plenty of my frivolously purchased grapes.

Considering I had neither the time nor inclination to make my meal look like it was ready to be on the cover of Bon Appetit Magazine, I was able to literally toss everything into my Tupperware in less than two minutes. I threw in a Frozen Ice Pack, complete with a cartoon of Elsa and Anna on one side, and boom, I look like a grown ass adult when I open my lunch box at the office. Little do they know, all this was made in a tiny, closet of a dorm room. College Student tested, College Student approved.