<p>My S lived on the various Cajun red beans and rice mixes, with onion and celery added. Almost as fast, and healthier than mac and cheese. With sliced sausage is a lovely meal, though higher fat.</p>
<p>The Zatarain’s mixes are delicious!
So easy to make a meal out of…I love the dirty rice and jambalaya mixes.</p>
<p>Patak’s makes ok stove top curry sauces: fry up onions, cut up boneless chicken breast, other veggies as desired, add sauce, simmer, serve over rice. We throw in lots of cilantro. Add heat if you like it. Most grocery stores around here carry them.</p>
<p>Buy some beef brisket, pour beer* over it so about the botton third is covered, sprinkle with salt and papper, add some cubed potatoes in the last hour, and bake covered it on a very slow oven (around 3-4 hours at 300 degrees for a big roast sized piece).</p>
<p>Serve it with a sauce which is a mixture of sour cream, horseradish to taste, and a bit of mustard all mixed together. Great with veggies, and then for sandwiches the rest of the week.</p>
<p>*difficult ingredient to find on college campuses</p>
<p>spideygirl,
That sounds delicious. Another very similar recipe that doesn’t include the very rare and hard to find beer ingredient…</p>
<p>beef brisket
can of cream of celery soup
packet of lipton onion soup</p>
<p>Place beef on top of heavy duty aluminum foil first (so you can wrap it up)
Mix the soups and spread on top of beef.
Wrap up roast with aluminum foil
Place in a baking dish with sides (it will leak all over the place)
Bake in a slow oven (300) for 3-4 hours.</p>
<p>Lentil Soup</p>
<p>Saute chopped onions & celery in soup pot. Add 4 cups water & 1 cup lentils (rinse in colander first.) Put in sliced carrots and cubed potatoes. Add canned tomatoes, salt & pepper. Cook about 45 minutes.</p>
<p>We used to call 411 (1970s) and ask the information operators for cooking instructions, such as how to cook a baked potato. I never knew you had to pierce the potato with a fork to prevent it from blowing up.</p>
<p>If you like beans, this is the easiest salad in the world:
1 can black beans, 1 can nibblets corn, 1 can chick peas
Rinse & drain.
Chop an avacodo & a red pepper. Mix everything toether with some balsamic vinegar & spices of your choice. (I like cilantro, salt, & pepper) </p>
<p>Those Zatarains rice mixes are great. We like them as a side dish with pork chops that have been browned & then cooked in the same pan with some salsa & shredded cheese.</p>
<p>Has anyone suggested taking along a wee little crockpot to college. Great for dorm party dips (and you know THAT will be happening).</p>
<p>Our twist on queso…</p>
<p>Scramble ground breakfast sausage (or chorizo…ick) in small skillet. Use low salt variety of sausage…in conjuction with chips, nothing needs more salt. Pat the sausage well with a paper towel to remove as much grease as possible.</p>
<p>Combine the sausage, small container of low-fat Velveeta cubed and a can of the famous (Mexican-style) Rotel in a small crock pot. Heat on high until melted and blended well. Lower heat to low and serve with chips. (Some small crockpots only have one temp setting…that’s fine too.)</p>
<p>My daughter always took this hearty dip to classroom parties at school and guys especially loved it. (If you are feeding football players…might want to use a bigger crockpot and double/triple the recipe. ;))</p>
<p>Here’s a weird sounding recipe, but I swear it is one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted (yes, it is dessert, but sometimes dessert is a real necessity):</p>
<p>Empty the entire contents of two cans of cherries (the real ones, not the dyed ones, and in their own juice) into a 9x12" pan. On top spread a mixture of crumbs which is nothing more than a box of vanilla cake mix and about a cup of oil (put in enough so that the result is crumbly, like the stuff on top of coffee cake). Bake at 350 degrees until the top is slightly brown and cooked.</p>
<p>Three minutes to make, and it is AMAZING!!! I bet you could sub other canned fruit as well. Canned fruit is sort of gross, but this is way too good not to make an exception.</p>
<p>ldmom, I have had that queso and it is good!
spidey, that recipe sounds heavenly. I wonder if it could be made with blueberries (I love blueberry cobbler with ice cream).</p>
<p>All these recipes- aren’t just for college students!</p>
<p>Baked potatoes - eat lots (and exercise). Seriously, they are inexpensive, filling, quick, and can be less fattening if topped with broccoli, bacon bits if fat is not an issue, and cheese (the latter can be lowfat), chicken pieces/peas/margarine/salt and pepper, etc. It all can be done in a microwave.</p>
<p>Another cheap way to get filled quickly, inexpensively, and nutritiously is pasta and beans. A quick one:</p>
<p>saute a few tablespoons of olive oil with spaghetti sauce. Add a half cup of chick peas (per plate of pasta) and crush about half of them well with the back of a fork. Season with salt, pepper, basil, and garlic powder (saute real garlic first in the oil if you are a less typical college student). Mix in about two cups of cooked penne. Toss, sprinkle with grated cheese (pecorino romano, if you can, or parmesan) and serve.</p>
<p>that dessert recipe would probably be fine with frozen berries, which would be way less gross than canned fruit.</p>
<p>Last Wednesday (July 18) the food section of The New York Times featured 101 easy and fast summer recipes. I cut it out to send to just-learning-to-cook son. I thought there were many good ideas in the articles (arranged like a list). I don’t know how to make a link to the newspaper. Maybe some more computer literate person could do that.</p>
<p>You have but to ask: <a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/dining/18mini.html?_r=1&ref=dining&oref=slogin[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/dining/18mini.html?_r=1&ref=dining&oref=slogin</a> </p>
<p>Those look like good, simple, summer recipes that can easily be made all year.</p>
<p>I especially like #51 – anything that begins with “put a stick of butter in a pan” has got to be good!</p>
<p>Moomin,
At first I thought you were talking about #51 on this thread, but you are talking about #51 in the NYtimes recipes.</p>
<p>My favorite “fancy” salad:</p>
<p>Greens, dressed with:
bottled honey mustard dressing</p>
<p>And sprinkle with:
cranraisins
walnuts</p>
<p>I had this salad at a $100+ per plate 6 course dinner!</p>
<p>That’s a good salad, but you can take it to next level by adding some crumbled goat cheese – yum!</p>
<p>Oh I love goat cheese on any salad!</p>
<p>Add some sliced Granny Smith apples to doubleplay’s salad & substitute crumbled blue cheese for the goat cheese.</p>