Category: Recipes

Hot chocolate turns any dorm room into a cozy paradise

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Honestly, I love the late fall and early winter. I find it absolutely wonderful that I can wear both a sweater and a coat on the same day. Nothing is as aesthetically pleasing as walking across campus bundled up and listening to the leaves crunch beneath your feet. However, it isn’t exactly logical to wear your coat indoors. There are many solutions to staying cozy inside, but my personal favorite is hot chocolate.

The reason I decided not to make this post a recipe is that there are so many different possibilities for hot chocolate.

You can make the iconic Swiss-Miss hot chocolate with mini marshmallows or Halloween themed orange hot chocolate. The possibilities are endless.

Follow the directions on the package to achieve the best possible results, but some additional ingredients can always be added.

My personal favorite addition is pumpkin pie spice. Just a sprinkle of this flavoring can instantly make your hot chocolate taste like thanksgiving day. I have used this almost every time I make a simple mug of Swiss-Miss hot chocolate, and I fall a little more in love with it each time.

You can also add caramel syrup, mint leaves, whipped cream or a spoonful of instant coffee.

The coziness that comes with a hot mug of hot chocolate can be what motivates you to put down the Netflix and work on your algebra or it can just bring you joy on a rainy day.

Cooking a delicious quesadilla with a dorm microwave

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It took me forever to have the bravery to make this recipe. It’s not that it’s particularly hard or that the steps are too complicated. I was scared that it would taste horrible. Therefore, the bag of tortillas sat untouched on my food shelf. Fortunately, hunger forced me to finally try making a quesadilla in the microwave. I’m so glad that I finally tried this, because it’s actually really good if you make it right. Another perk of this recipe is that it only takes two ingredients, but you can mix-and-match additional flavors all you want to.

Ingredients

  • two small tortillas
  • shredded cheese (I used a Mexican four cheese blend)
  • a microwave safe plate

Directions

  1. First, you are going to want to heat up your tortillas. This can be done by placing them on a microwave safe plate and cooking in the microwave for one minute.
  2. Once your tortillas are done heating up sprinkle cheese and whatever additional toppings you want on half of each tortilla.
  3. Fold each tortilla in half and place back in the microwave for 30 seconds.
  4. After the first 30 seconds, flip your quesadillas and place back in the microwave for an additional 15 seconds.
  5. Take quesadillas out of the microwave, and top with whatever you have on hand. I added salsa!

Enjoy!

Let me know how it works in the comments!

Want something cozy? Microwaveable Homestyle Mac and cheese

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In this post, I wanted to use one of the products I recommended last week. The Barilla Ready Pasta worked great for this recipe and made the whole process so speedy. Mac and cheese is one of my favorite comfort dishes, and as much as I love the Velveeta, sometimes I crave the real stuff. This recipe calls for more harder-to-store ingredients like milk and cheese, but the taste makes it so worth it. The awesome part about this recipe is that you can customize it based on what type of cheesy pasta you want at whatever time. You can add breadcrumbs, avocado or even just salt and pepper to create the mac of your dreams.

Ingredients

  • Barilla Ready Pasta
  • 1 cup shredded cheese (I used a Mexican four-cheese blend)
  • 1/4 cup of milk
  • (Optional) taco sauce
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  1. First of all, you are going to want to prepare your pasta. You can just throw the packet of Barilla Ready Pasta in the microwave according to the directions or if using dry pasta follow the pasta cooking directions from this recipe.
  2. After your pasta is ready, put it in a microwave-safe mug. Add cheese and milk. Microwave two minutes
  3. When cheese is melted, stir everything in the mug together to make the cheese super creamy. At this point, feel free to add whatever toppings you desire. I choose to drizzle on some taco sauce.
  4. Enjoy!

I’m so excited for autumn to be here! Any fall-inspired recipe suggestions?

Feeling hungry? 4 of my favorite products you can make in the microwave

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As the weeks of college go by, the dining hall becomes less and less appealing. I can only handle so much salad and cheese pizza. Sometimes even the thought of trekking across campus has me rethinking whether I actually need lunch. This was until I finally took a trip to Target and discovered the aisles of dorm friendly products. After sorting through the good and the bad, I’ve created this list of my personal favorites.

#1.  Velveeta Shells & Cheese

Okay, this stuff is amazing. I actually preferred it over the Kraft because the cheese comes in a squeeze pack instead of as a powder. I feel like that makes it feel more “real”. It’s super easy to prepare, it only asks for water and it is so fast.

 

#2. Barilla Ready Pasta

These are penne noodles that cook in 60 seconds! I couldn’t believe it when I first discovered the product. You can cook these noodles and dress them up any way you like including Southwest pasta salad, penne Alfredo, and maybe even plain noodles. The possibilities are endless.

 

#3. Purely Elizabeth oatmeal

This stuff is actually incredible. I felt so trendy preparing my bright blue oatmeal. The best part is that it’s totally natural and tastes amazing. Prepare this hot or as overnight oats.

 

#4. Skinny Pop Popcorn

Alright, I know what you are thinking. Popcorn is not technically a meal. However, Skinny Pop Popcorn should be.  The whole experience is magical. The Popcorn pops in this cute box that prevented popcorn from falling on the floor while I was binge watching Netflix and the popcorn somehow managed to taste like movie theatre popcorn while still being low-calorie.

Know anymore good microwave products? Let me know in the comments!

Speedy dorm room microwave spaghetti

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I felt that it was appropriate to begin this blog with the first microwave recipe that I mastered. Spaghetti is one of my absolute favorite dishes, but the process of having to carry multiple pots down to the kitchen didn’t sound all that appetizing. That’s when it occurred to me that I could simply boil the pasta in my microwave and at least save one pot. I tried this the first time I made spaghetti, but still used a sauce pan to warm the sauce. This was going great until I almost burned myself trying to carry the saucepan back upstairs. I knew that there had to be another way. After long research, I finally created this recipe that’s both dorm room savvy and delicious.

What you Need

  • ½ cup of dry spaghetti noodles
  • ½ cup of store-bought pasta sauce
  • Pinch of sea salt
  • Optional: Pinch of crushed red pepper/ parmesan
  • A microwave-safe mug (preferably with a lid)

 

Directions

  1. First you are going to want to prep your spaghetti noodles. The noodles are going to need to be lying straight across in the mug, so I recommend breaking each noodle into four pieces. This can be achieved in a short amount of time, by snapping the noodles in huge bunches together.7592056784_IMG_4224
  2. After the noodles are all lying in the mug, you can add water. Fill the mug until no noodles are above the water line, but overfilling can cause spilling in the microwave.
  3. Cover mug with lid and cook in the microwave for 4 minutes. After the timer runs out, check your noodles. If the pasta is soft proceed to the next step, if not, microwave for 2 more minutes.Mug in Microwave
  4. Once your noodles are done cooking, pour out water using a colander (if you don’t have one, just be careful to not spill any pasta when pouring the water in the sink) then fill your mug with the pasta sauce and stir till it is evenly distributed throughout the noodles.
  5. Microwave for just 45 seconds
  6. Top with crushed red pepper and parmesan.
  7. Enjoy!

 

Let me know how it works out in the comments! 🙂