Food tricks

If you are ever trying to figure out what to give someone graduating from high school I can give you the ultimate idea: A George Foreman Grill. Best. Gift. Ever. I was given one when I graduated high school and it has been awesome. My freshman year, my roommate and I would have sunday dinner every week. Good Old George helped us make steaks, and chicken, and even toast one time.. all kinds of great stuff. Now that I have a stove and an oven, he gets a little less use, but it is great to have him to grill something up quickly. The other night I wanted something fast, so I fell back on the ultimate recipe finder: Google. To be completely honest, I only used it for an idea, and then I pretty much made things up as I went along. It ended up pretty tasty though, so I must have done something right. George Foreman Lemon Garlic Chicken Ingredients: Chicken Breast 1 tsp lemon juice 1/2 tsp Olive Oil 1/4 tsp garlic (minced) Italian Seasoning Salt Pepper Directions: Preheat George Foreman Grill....

I am about to blow your mind. Seriously. This is the ultimate answer for quick and easy popcorn production. I found this somewhere on Pinterest and decided to try it out and it totally works... plus it eliminates the messy pot when popping popcorn on the stove, and it waaaayyyyy cheaper than store-bought microwave popcorn.  Plus, if you are having a movie night, you don't have to dig up a bunch of popcorn bowls for everyone--just serve the popcorn from the brown paper bags! GENIUS! Ok, hope you are ready for this: Directions 1. Put 1/3 cup popcorn in a brown paper bag 2. Fold the bag a few times at the top to keep the popcorn from flying everywhere 3. Place in microwave and heat for 1 1/2 - 2 minutes 4. Done!!  What?!? Ya. That's it! Put some butter or cinnamon sugar or whatever seasoning you want on there and eat up. Told you I was going to blow your mind.

As I was watching Harry Potter on TV last night, I got the urge to make some cookies. I don't really know why because I am not especially notorious for my cookie baking prowess, but the urge hit so I googled sugar cookie recipes and found this. The title claimed that they are healthier, but I don't think the fact that they have yogurt instead of oil really makes that big of a difference when you are eating a sugar cookie.... But hey, it was worth a try. And if it is "healthier" that means you can eat more without the guilt........ right? Healthier Easy Sugar Cookies Adapted from  allrecipes.com Ingredients : 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 cup butter, softened 1/4 cup nonfat plain yogurt 1 1/2 cups white sugar 1 egg 1 tsp vanilla extract Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Stir flour, baking soda, and baking powder in a small bowl. (I saw something on pinterest recommending using cornstarch in place of baking powder for fl...

Last night I made a bit of a mistake while trying to make a little snack. I decided to make  Microwave Mac and Cheese , but I only had shredded mozzarella cheese... So I thought, "hmm, I'll try something new and different." To say the least, it didn't turn out. It was like having a big lump of cheese with some noodles mixed in. Sooo don't try that at home, stick with cheddar. Aside from that little debacle, the microwave has been my best friend in college. In the dorms it is much easier to heat something up in the microwave than to stand around looking like a looney in front of the oven. Plus it is easy and quick and I actually knew how to use it. This year, we didn't have one in our apartment for the first few weeks, I really don't know how people got along before the invention of the microwave. Luckily, Dave bought me one for our six month anniversary (romantic right?). So speaking of microwaves, the other day I was sitting around the apartment and wante...

Ok, excuse the picture on this one, my phone was in the other room and I was too hungry to get up and get it so I used Dave's phone and his camera is even worse than mine. According to Dave, these are "possibly" the best homemade pancakes he had ever had... I think that means they were the best, that's just the way he talks. I have to admit, this isn't really a "college" recipe, and it was a little more involved than I thought at first glance, but I had some apple cider in the fridge and saw this recipe on Pinterest so I wanted to try it out. I really liked them a lot, a bit more work than the "just add water" pancake mixes, but they were delicious so I would vote that they were worth it. Apple Cider Pancakes Adapted from  Tokyo Terrace * This recipe makes a large batch. I actually cut the original recipe's proportions of the dry ingredients in half so I didn't end up with a huge tub of pancake mix leftover. I still have enough for two ...

Probably the coolest gift I've received while in college was a crockpot my mom found for like $20 and shipped to me. It is really great when you have some time in the morning and wont be home until late and want food ready as soon as you get home. I always look for easy slow cooker recipes on  Pinterest , and I've found it is a lot easier to pick which one to use if you write down the ingredients and the cook time in the little comment box so you can pick which ones are worth a closer look at the time, without having to look through every individual recipe. Usually I make my choice based on the ingredients I have handy and the cook time. The other day I knew I wasn't going to be home for at least 6 hours, so I was trying to find an easy crockpot recipe that I could just throw in so dinner would be ready when I got home. The recipe I found I actually couldn't find because the pin didn't work (so ya... that suggestion above isn't always effective), but I tried it...

Most of the time I snooze my alarm until the absolute last second, dragging myself out of bed and then rushing around my apartment trying to get everything ready for the day. If I am lucky, I remember to grab a slice of banana bread or a handful of cereal before running (limping) out the door to amble into class (mostly) on time. But every once in a while, on the off chance I get to bed early and feel refreshed before my alarm goes off, I wake up early and have time for a nice  breakfast . On other mornings, I just want to have something good to eat without all the work.  This 1 minute mug muffin is great if I don't want to use a lot of dishes, or even if I just want something a little different. It is also really healthy so that is another plus. It goes really well with eggs or fruit or whatever really. 1 Minute Microwave Muffin Original Recipe:  blogilates.com 1/4 cup Quick Oats (One package of instant oatmeal) 1 egg Small handful of berries (Fresh or Frozen, optional) ...