College Worthy Recipes

This is the part where I talk about the recipes that I've tried and liked. I am always looking for something simple and amazing that also fits the I'm-In-College requirement. This is what I've found.

Homemade Pretzels
Spencer loves bread, anything bread. But pretzels especially. So we have made them a lot and I have finally got it down :) 

Dough Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 tsp dried yeast (1 package)
• 1 cup warm water

Let rise for ..... I don't know. I just wait awhile until it gets bigger.

Topping:

• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 Tbs baking soda

First set aside the warm water/yeast. The only thing I had to learn when mixing the dough was to slowly add all of the flour. It is pretty dense dough so if you add all the flour at once, it's hard to get it all mixed in and it gets weird and clumpy.

I started by following the directions which told me to dip the pretzels in the water mixture, but I've found it works better to just use a basting brush to cover the pretzels. 

I let mine rise again while I preheat the oven to 400 degrees.


I also had to play around a bit with the shape of the pretzels. I can twist them to look actually pretzel shape, but I get more pretzels out of it this way so I stick to the longer way.

Bake @ 400 for 10 minutes.

Then use that basting brush again to cover them in melted butter. I add salt into the butter and then baste them. Then salt them again after that. And "Ta-Da"!

http://shopgirlmaria.blogspot.com/2012/10/homemade-soft-pretzels-with-sweet-honey.html




Crock Pot Lasagna
This was my experiment for Sunday dinner. Spenc liked it so I call it a success. He's really easy to please though :) and doesn't mind me trying new recipes. 

Ingredients: 

• 1 pound ground beef
• lasagna noodles
• 1 jar spaghetti sauce
• 1 1/2 cups cottage cheese
• 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 Tbls grated parmesan cheese 

Directions:

Brown ground beef and drain. Spoon 1 c. spaghetti sauce in bottom of 4 quart crock pot. Mix remaining sauce with beef. Place 2 uncooked lasagna noodles on sauce in crock pot. Spread 1/3 meat mixture on top of noodles. Spread 3/4 c. cottage cheese over meat. Sprinkle 1/2 c. mozzarella cheese over cottage cheese. Add another layer of uncooked noodles, 1/3 meat mixture, the remaining cottage cheese and 1/2 c. mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle parmesan cheese over top. Cook on low for 4 hours.

If cooked much longer, it gets a bit well done.

http://www.recipetips.com/recipe-cards/t--92918/crock-pot-lasagna-6.asp

When I did it, I just put it in whatever size crock pot we have. It's smaller but that didn't seam to matter at all. Ours turned out like this:

I thought it was pretty good :) And this will last the two of us through the week. There is a lot of food there!

Baked Chicken Parmesan
I made this for Aaron's birthday. I think it was extremely successful.

Ingredients:

• two, 6 ounce boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup low fat buttermilk
• 1/3 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup of Marinara sauce
• 1 ounce fresh mozzarella
• fresh basil, for garnish

Directions:

1. Combine chicken and buttermilk in a shallow bowl or a resealable plastic bag. Marinate for at least 1 hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the breadcrumbs in a shallow bowl. Remove the chicken from the buttermilk marinade and press each side into the breadcrumbs to evenly coat.
3. Heat the olive oil in a medium frying pan over medium-high. Add the chicken breasts and sear on each side for 3 minutes.
4. Remove the chicken and  a flat baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes. (I ended up cooking them a  lot longer than 12 minutes.)
5. Divide the sauce, followed by the cheese, among the two chicken breasts and return the chicken on the baking sheet to the oven to allow the cheese to melt.
6. Garnish with fresh basil and pasta or any low calorie/low carb spaghetti alternative.

With this recipe, I actually 3X to everything. And.. added a lot more cheese... And it was super tasty. But I did have to cook it longer than the recipe said.

http://www.canyoustayfordinner.com/2012/08/12/dinner-for-two-lighter-baked-chicken-parmesan/

Apple Crisp
This new recipe got really really good reviews from Tim :) He went back for seconds. haha

Ingredients:

• about six apples, peeled and sliced
• 1 cup White Sugar
• 1 tablespoon All-Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1/2 cup Water

• 1 cup Quick-Cooking Oats
• 1 cup All-Purpose Flour
• 1 cup Packed Brown Sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/2 cup Butter, melted

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Place the sliced apples in a 9x13 inch pan. Mix the white sugar, 1 tablespoon flour and ground cinnamon together, and sprinkle over apples. Pour water evenly over all.
3. Combine the oats, 1 cup flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and melted butter together. Crumble evenly over the apple mixture.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/apple-crisp-ii/


Chicken Noodle Soup
I made this one because I wasn't feeling well yesterday. And chicken soup totally makes everything better.
Ingredients:

• 2 Chicken Breasts
• 5 cups Chicken Broth
• 1 cup chopped Carrots
• 1 bag of peas (the recipe said to use peas if you didn't want celery and I totally didn't measure how much I put in. I just put it in.)
• 1 cup Potatoes, diced
• 2 cans Cream of Chicken Soup
• 1/2 cup of Milk (I would actually use more than this next time.)
• 8-12 oz uncooked Egg Noodles (homestyle)
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Boil then shred chicken. Heat broth, then add carrots, celery, potatoes, and noodles. Simmer until veggies and noodles are tender. Add cream of chicken soup, milk, salt, pepper and shredded chicken. Simmer until heated through and ready to serve.

This recipe turned out really good :) Super creamy and amazing. Only, I would definitely add more milk the next time so it was a little more like a soup and not quite so thick. Very filling and really good though! Almost as good as my mommy makes it :)

http://whowantsdinner.blogspot.com/2009/06/lion-houses-creamy-chicken-noodle-soup.html

Shepherd's Pie
Ok kids, here's a really easy one. (In fact, I kinda made it up.)

Ingredients:

• Potatoes - like 7 or so
• 2 lbs of Hamburger
• 1 can of Green Beans
• 1 can of Corn
• Roast Beef gravy mix (not all of it though) + enough water
• Ketchup - just to add some flavoring
• 1/2 cup of Milk (that was totally a guess. I have no idea how much I added.)
• 1/2 cup of Butter
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Peel, boil and mash the potatoes. When I mash potatoes I slowly add butter and milk and mash them together until they are pretty creamy. Then I pulled out the mixer to make them smooth and added salt to taste.
2. While the potatoes are boiling, brown your hamburger. Drain.
3. Add enough gravy and enough water to make a decent gravy mix with the hamburger. Add ketchup to taste. Then add in green beans and corn. (and whatever else you want to put with it)
4. Put the hamburger mix in the bottom of a 9x13 pan and spread the mashed potatoes over top. Sprinkle the top with salt and pepper.
5. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. Or until it looks pretty good to you :)

If you want to get crazy, you can cover the top with cheese and set it back in the oven for a couple minutes.

This has been Ryan Reynolds approved. So it can't be too bad.

Dinner Rolls
Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of Milk
• 3/4 + 1 tablespoon of Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1 tablespoon Salt
• 2 tablespoons Yeast
• 2 cup of Warm Water
• about 9 - 10 cups of Flour
• at least 1 cup of Butter

Directions:

1. To start out: Scald 1 1/2 cups of milk, 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup of butter in a microwave safe bowl, for about 2 minutes. Cutting the butter into pieces helps it melt faster. There will probably be some little cubes of butter still floating in the hot mixture, they will melt.
2. Cool down the mixture by adding 1-2 cups of flour, 1 egg, and 1 tablespoon of salt. Leave it to cool for a few minutes. Meanwhile, in a measuring cup, dissolve 2 tablespoons of yeast in 2 cups of warm water and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Let it sit for a couple of minutes until it is bubbly.
3. Add yeast to the mixture. Just make sure it's not too warm.
4. Using a fork or wooden spoon, gradually stir in 9-10 cups of flour (counting the flour you have already added to cool it earlier.) It's recommended to only add 2 cups of flour at a time and stir in between.
5. At the end, the dough will be dense and sticky, and may be hard to stir. You can use your hands to incorporate the rest of the flour if needed. Be sure not to add too much flour. Then smooth the dough out and cover the bowl with plastic wrap (I just used a towel). Leave it in a warm place and let it raise to double its size.
6. When your dough is close to raising completely, butter 2 cookie sheets and set them aside.
7. Cover your working space with flour to prevent the dough from sticking. Dump your dough out and divide it into 4 balls. Eyeball the sized, then lift them up and feel the weight of each. Try to make them even, but they don't have to be perfect.
8. Using one ball of dough at a time: roll the dough into a circle on a floured counter. Once it is rolled out spread the top with butter from edge to edge. You will use about 2 tablespoons per circle of dough.
9. Cut the dough into quarters. Cut each quarter into 3 pieces. You should end up with 12 triangles from each circle of dough.
10. Start rolling the dough at the wide end and roll up to the tip. Like a crescent.
11. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Place the pans of rolls in a warm place (on top of the oven if possible) to let them rise. Once they are touching and full in size, cook (one pan at a time) in the oven for about 10 - 15 minutes or until they are golden brown.
12. While they are still hot and fresh out of the oven, run a stick of butter over the tops of the rolls for a delicious buttery glaze.

These rolls are really good. But they do take a while to make because the process is quite lengthy. Totally worth it though. They are so good. I have an apartment full of guys to back me up on this one. (Actually, they can back me up on most of my recipes.)

http://www.howdoesshe.com/delicious-dinner-rolls

Peanut Butter Truffles
Ingredients:

• 1 cup Butter, softened
• 1 lb Powdered Sugar
• 1 cup Peanut Butter
• 10-12 Graham Cracker sheets (basically the whole sleeve of Graham Crackers)
• Dipping Chocolate, melted

Directions:
Put graham crackers in a food processor or plastic Ziploc bag and beat until they are finely crushed. mix butter, powdered sugar, peanut butter, and graham crackers together in large bowl. Roll into 1" balls. Place rolled balls on large cookie sheet (I lined my cookie sheet with parchment paper) and stick in the freezer for about 20 minutes. In the meantime, melt dipping chocolate. Once the peanut butter  balls have set up, dip in chocolate and lace back on cookie sheet. Let set up before serving/sharing with neighbors (but you can pop a few in your mouth just to test them and make sure they are safe to eat - it's a chance that I am always willing to take).

http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2011/10/homemade-reeses-peanut-butter-cup.html

Easy Zucchini
Ingredients:

• 3 Zucchini
• 1 Medium onion sliced in rings cut in half
• 1/2 cup Water
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine
• 1/2 to 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon Corn Starch mixed in a little water for thickening
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Slice zucchini into 1/2 inch rounds. Add water, zucchini, onion and butter/margarine and cook over medium to low heat until zucchini is very tender and onion is translucent.
2. Turn heat down very low, add sour cream and mix completely. If too thin, a little corn starch/water mix can be added to thicken.

**If I do this one again, I would definitely add Parmesan cheese or something like that.**

http://www.justapinch.com/recipe/my-husbands-favorite-zucchini-recipe-by-jamie-burris-jamielb1972#.UCb_P9k_qO1.pinterest

Homemade Oreos

Ingredients:

• 2 Boxes of Cake Mix (one 'Devils Food Cake', one 'German Chocolate')
• 1 1/2 cups of shortening
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla

Bake at 350 for 10-12

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1 8oz package of Cream Cheese
• 1 cube of Butter
• 1 teaspoon of Vanilla
• Enough Powdered Sugar to make it good :)

Banana Bread
Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose four
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine four, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let break cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

This recipe was really simple and worked pretty well..... the only thing is that you have to let it bake for an hour. So if you have some time to spare, I would highly recommend this one :) (and it's Aaron Approved)

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Banana-Banana-Bread/Detail.aspx