When making meatballs, mix up the meat mixture then use a cookie scoop and scoop out the meat into nice, round balls onto a cookie sheet. They can be very close together if you’re doing a large amount. Now bake them in the oven for about 20 minutes at 350° or until done. Now they’re ready to freeze for future use, or use now. This is much easier than standing over a frying pan and turning them to brown all sides.
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Learn to make your own breads and rolls. This will save hundreds of dollars over the course of a year. When I go to the store, a decent loaf of bread is usually close to $2.00 or more, and the same loaf that you make at home is only $.24. Yes, that’s right, only 24 cents! You can experiment around with recipes, adding fruit, nuts, grains etc. until you find some good combinations. My book has many good recipes in it, if you just want to use those.
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Most college kids think that cooking is a waste of time, and far too difficult. So, we’ve created a little how-to explaining how to make the “easy”, yet usually unhealthy, college meals a little better for the great minds of tomorrow.
1. Gormet Ramen Noodle Soup
Ramen, as far as healthy is concerned, gets off to a very bad start. Manufactured into cute little squares by deep fat frying in a little mold, we already know that it isn’t going to be too great.
However, by putting in some frozen vegetables before the water has boiled, and just letting them boil right along side the soup is a good start to making it a little more healthy. This is very easy and actually is very tasty! Broccoli and cauliflower is very tasty in the chicken and beef soups, and a good stir-fry blend tastes good in the oriental flavor.
Also, various meats can be added to ramen also, including chicken, hot dogs, and ground beef to make it a bit more hearty. ***Just remember to brown the ground beef, or boil the chicken thoroughly before adding the vegetables or ramen soup!!
2. Macaroni and Cheese
My son calls this “man mac“, but I think everyone can enjoy it. To start off, add some vegetables in with the boiling macaroni just like the Ramen soup, but add some chunked hot dogs in to give it some protein.
Next, add some other spices, like a few healthy shakes of black pepper, some tomatos, and if you’re brave, some hot dried peppers (pequin works very well, and is cheap in the latin-american section of your local grocery store), to give it some real flavor and kick. Add some extra cheddar or american cheese to make it especially good.
Unhealthy? Most certainly, but they’re going to eat these foods anyway, so you may as well make them a little better!
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I once made Chicken Pot Pie for a family and the mother commented that she had never tasted a chicken pie so good! So what was my secret?
A flaky crust?
Fresh ingredients?
Baked with love?
Nope.
The secret for how to cook a really good chicken pot pie is rosemary. If you’re cooking chicken pot pie (or chicken vegetable soup for that matter), and you’re not using rosemary, then you don’t know what really good tastes like! Start with about ½ tsp. and increase as needed.
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Lets talk about “expiration dates” on foods. This is a fairly recent requirement from the FDA that all foods provide some sort of indication as to when the food is getting close to spoilage. Many people are being fooled by these dates, and are wasting food and dollars by discarding items long before necessary. For instance, milk will have a date that usually says “best when used by” but it does not spoil for several days after the posted date. The best way to tell if food is really spoiled is to taste it! If it tastes bad, then throw it out. If it tastes just fine, then go ahead and eat it!
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Mexican food can be difficult to get to taste authentic. So, to help you get a good response when someone asks “Whats For Dinner?”, lets take a look at a couple of tips for how to cook this cultural cuisine.
With Mexican flavored food, cumin is usually the spice that makes the difference between good and really good. Start with about ¼ tsp. and then taste it. Increase the amount by ¼ tsp. each time until it is as spicy as you want. Also, if you want that genuine almost musky flavor that Mexican food has, don’t hesitate to put in lots of cilantro.
Another good way to cook good Mexican food is to make your own tortillas. There are some great recipes out there for both flour and corn tortillas, or you can just buy some of the uncooked flour tortillas at the store and cook them stove-top in a frying pan. The trick with tortillas is to flip them often, that way the inside will cook as evenly as the outside. You know you’re cooking tortillas right when they puff up almost like a balloon.
Also, include some citrus in your Mexican spread! Nothing creates a good contrast to that spicy flavor like some fresh pineapple or cantaloupe.
Also, for those who want the peppers, but not so much heat (or intestinal discomfort), try to take all the seeds and pulp out of the peppers before adding them.
Happy cooking, and have fun making your cooking as colorful as Mexico!!
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