Coffee Addiction

source: http://www.spiralpocus.com/

Let's face, it most of us sleep deprived college students cannot go a day without coffee. The amount of money I spend at Starbucks or Dunkin Donut was absurd. I'm a proud owner of a Starbucks card and I must confess that I had a set goal last semester to earn gold member status at Starbucks. That meant purchasing at least 30 drinks within 3 months. Another confession: I had program my card to be on auto-load, which meant I always had money on my card. The main motivation for the auto-load was to avoid the utter shock and guilt I got from noticing how fast I went through $25 worth of coffee.
Let's do the math: 1 cup of coffee / 6 days a week for a $4 cup of coffee comes to approx. $1,152.00 a year.
Yes, I'm on a student budget but I can't survive without my daily dose of caffeine.

Solution = Purchase a coffee maker! There are many options to chose from:

For those living in a dorm and don't have a stove

• On the expensive end there are counter-top espresso makers or a coffee pod machines like the Keurig.

• You can also use a french press and an electric kettle. All you have to do is boil the water, pour it offer the coffee and let it steep for 5 min. 

For those living in an apartment / house

• Invest in a percolator. This is the most used appliance in our apartment. There are several sizes from ones that produce 2 shots of coffee to up to 6 shots. We own one that makes 4 shots. This means that my roommate and I can both have a double-shot cup of coffee, which is the equivalent of a Grande drink at Starbucks.

The cost of buying a percolator or french press is around $20 and a bag of Starbucks ground coffee is $9.59. A 12 oz. bag between 2 people lasts us approximately a month. That averages out to $115.00 a year between the two of us ($57 per person) for espresso add some extra for the cost of milk and sugar bring the cost $200 per year / person.

Total Savings: $952 per year x 4 years of college = $3,808

Heaven in a Bite

Found this incredible recipe for Red Velvet Cake Balls courtesy of www.bakerella.com
We recently made these for a friends birthday and they were devoured within minutes. I still dream about these. Whether you are a Red Velvet Cake fanatic or just an enthusiast you will grow to crave these.

Recipe below:
(you can chose either covered in semi-sweet chocolate or white chocolate)

 

Red Velvet Cake Balls
1 box red velvet cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can cream cheese frosting (16 oz.)
1 package chocolate bark (regular or white chocolate)
wax paper
1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
2. Mix thoroughly with 1 can cream cheese frosting. (It may be easier to use fingers to mix together, but be warned it will get messy.)
3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50. You can get even more if you use a mini ice cream scooper, but I like to hand roll them.)
4. Chill for several hours. (You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.)
5. Melt chocolate in microwave per directions on package.
6. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra.)
I also only melt a few pieces of chocolate bark at a time because it starts to cool and thicken. It’s easier to work with when it’s hot.
Source: http://www.bakerella.com/red-velvet-cake-balls/

Everything is easier when cooked in one pot...

Chicken Veggie Curry

... well maybe two. Over the past year an half my roommate and I have realized that when cooking for a crowd it is best if you try to limit your cooking to as few pots as possible. The benefits: Easy Clean Up!!!! Also, these dishes tend to be what I like to call "stir once, walk away and let it do its thing" - they take care of themselves. Lastly, they are great leftover meals that are easy to re-heat for lunch or dinner the next day.

some of our favorite dishes include:

• Chicken and veggie curry with steamed white rice

•  For the curry we use S&B Golden Curry Sauce Mix Medium (also available in mild or hot). You can find this in the international section of your local supermarket
• you can incorporate any veggies you like but we have found the following to work best: potatoes, green beans, carrots, peppers (red and green) and zucchini
• for the rest of the cooking instruction follow the instruction on the sauce mix box

• Meat and Veggie Lasagna
•  Follow the assembly directions and cooking time of the noodle package
• Ingredients needed: meat pasta sauce, no-boil lasagna noodles, mozzarella, ricotta, grated zucchini and broccoli. 
• Tips:
• add a small amount of sauce to the bottom of the pan before the first layer. this will prevent the first layer of noodle to stick to the pan.
• using grated zucchini adds nutritious veggies to the dish as well as a nice texture. not to mention since it is grated picky eaters who don't veggies don't notice it
• Meat sauce options - 
1. if you have the time and know-how make your own
2. store bought
3. my recommendation: befriend the manager/chef of your favorite small and local Italian restaurant and ask if you can buy their meat sauce. most of the time they will agree and you can bring your own Tupperware for them to put it in. buy plenty and keep it fresh by storing it in the freezer. 

Cookie Craving

Ever had a craving in the middle of the afternoon for some warm chocolate chip cookies? I have them all the time but I rarely have the time to bake a batch even if they are from the package. However, the other day we had the brilliant idea to just buy a package of already baked cookies and just heat them up in the counter-top oven (have I mention how much I love that appliance).
The cookies came out great and the apartment smelled like home.
Important note though they only have to be heated up for less than 5 minutes at 350 degrees. I learned this the hard way... the first three cookies went straight to the trash.

Second try... Success!

The most important meal of the day

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. However, I must admit I’m the worst at following this rule. Usually when given the choice between food and sleep I will chose sleep. This doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate a good breakfast. Actually, Sunday brunch might be my favorite meal of the week. So this post is my homage to breakfast.

To me breakfast always reminds me of home, especially of my father. That’s because his one culinary specialty is preparing scrambled eggs. So I share with you some of his secret tips on how to cook a perfect batch of eggs:

• beat eggs very well until the turn a pale yellow color - this incorporates air into the eggs and makes your eggs nice and fluffy
• use butter! 
• cook at medium heat
• once in the pan you don't need to move the eggs around too much instead using a fork push the cooked egg towards the center 
• do not over cook once the majority of the eggs are dry turn off the heat and finish cooking

If you are not in the mood to cook or rather go to brunch with friends here are some of my favorite brunch spots:

• Zaftigs Deli in Brookline - http://www.zaftigs.com/
• great sandwiches 
• serve breakfast items all day
• lines can be really long on the weekends
• Friendly Toast in Kendall Square, Cambridge - http://thefriendlytoast.net/
• one of the best pancakes I have ever eaten. The eggs benedict are also fantastic
• quirky atmosphere and friendly staff
• pretty busy on the weekends but usually doesn't take too long to be served
• The Breakfast Club in Allston/Brighton - http://dinetheory.com/tbc/
• be ready to eat! big dishes at an affordable price
• fantastic selection of omelets
• diner feel  
• everything is cooked right in front of you
• small location with long lines on the weekend
• bring cash - no credit cards accepted
• For more options check out what other Bostonians are recommending: http://bos.to/nBrunch

How it all started...

The concept behind Wednesday Night Dinner began without me a couple of years ago. Back in freshman year, my roommate and her friends would religiously meet on Wednesdays at the west campus dinning hall for dinner. The main reason my roommate and her girlfriends picked Wednesday is because that is the day of the week that the ROTC (Navy) wears their uniforms. Given that they were/are friends with several of the Navy boys Wednesday night was the perfect occasion to see and be seen with boys in uniforms. As the years past it became a tradition for us (By now I had join in on the occasion. let's be honest who doesn't like a man in uniform?) to meet the boys after their naval lab. 

Then we became juniors and got to enjoy the perks of being an upperclassmen aka living in an apartment at the Student Village. Now that we had our own kitchen we no longer took trips to the dinning hall to parade in the company of our sharply dressed boys. However we decided to continue our custom. Just because we would no longer be seen with them didn’t been we didn’t want to see them. Also, the boys still lived in a suite-style dorm without a kitchen. They loved that we could offer them a home cooked meal and a once a week rest from the dinning hall food.

Eventually, Wednesday night dinner became more than one night. My roommate and I both share a love for entertaining and cooking and realized that getting together on weekdays with friends was a nice way to relax after a long, busy day at school.

Hosting doesn’t have to be troublesome or time consuming. It is all about planning and a little bit of creativity. We find that picking a theme is the easiest way to organize a weeknight event.

In this blog I will document some of my favorite theme night ideas as well as tips and useful advice to students on how to prepare nutritious meals that are tasty, easy to make, relative inexpensive and crowd friendly. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.