Back to School Shopping... At the grocery store

Or farmers market...
So here are my essentials to make sure your dorm is equipped for a great semester!
1) peanut/almond butter
2) spices (cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, cayenne, peprika, whatever you like)
3) chickpeas
4) popcorn kernels (that way you can control how much butter/ oil and salt you use)
5) olive oil (for the popcorn, and I use it on my quinoa salad, ext)
6) salt
7) agave and/or stevia
8) microwaveable meals from trader joes (they have this cumin something soy thing that I like)
9) nut milk (I prefer hazelnut which I get from the farmers market)
10) cocoa powder (I put in in all my deserts)

Dorm approved food prep tools

So if your school is like mine, you're not allowed to have any appliances, just a fridge and a microwave. That means no food processor, blender, hot plate, or even a coffee maker that doesn't have an automatic off switch. This is quite a challenge because most of my non cooking recipes require a food processor or blender, and cooking just doesn't taste as good from the microwave (besides it kills a lot of the nutrients in veggies). But I have found a few tools that make things possible.

1) My favorite tool is my pampered chef hand chopper. It's not cheap, but I got it as a Christmas present and it has really come in handy. It can be used for most things you would use a food processor for, but it's hand powered and obviously not a strong, so I would try to use it with anything extremely frozen and recipes don't get quite as smooth as they would with a food processor. That being said I've used mine to make pesto, banilla soft serve, hummus, chocolate covered Katie's "Brownie Batter", and my favorite thing to make, fresh salsa. It's the most versitile of my tools, and even though it's not perfect, it has made my life a lot easier!

2) The simpler and cheaper alternative would be a mortar and pestle. I got one from the Christmas tree Shop for $3 or $4. I accidentally broke it soon after, but that's beside the point. This is great for making humus, or any recipe with chickpeas, and guacamole. It actually will get the hummus smoother that the hand chopper will, but it is a little more work.

3) Another simple tool is a hand held cheese grater. I use this for garlic, parmigian cheese in my pesto, and my favorite, ginger (I love my ginger hot chocolate, especially on a cold day). You could also use it with a frozen banana for banilla soft serve if you don't have a better tool.

4) Next tool is kind of obvious, but measuring cups and spoons are kind of essential if you want to follow recipes. Now I hate measuring and usually like to guesstimate or make recipes that don't require measuring, just tasting (like my salsa, hummus, banilla soft serve, every recipe I make on a regular basis), but sometimes, much to my dismay, you have to measure.

5) I don't know if this counts as a "tool", but a microwave safe bowl with a lid is essential if you want to make homemade popcorn. Make sure you double check that it's microwave safe. I learned that the hard way, by melting a bowl in my microwave (fire alarm went off and everything).

6) While a can opener is not diverse in its uses, it is necessary if you need to open a can. I used it for chickpeas and pumpkin.

These were the only "tools" I can think of that were useful this past year. Obviously you'll need utensils plates and containers, but those aren't tools.. This should be a good start to your back to school shopping. I'll post soon about food I always keep on hand in my dorm, that you'll probably want to add to your shopping list :)

Juice day

Today was the last day of the juice fast my church was doing and I didn't have much juice in my dorm room, but I did have 2 small limes and a tiny bit of guava juice, and I recently discovered a patch of mint growing outside the library (very exciting). So I made guava limeade with mint or a virgin guava mojito, or whatever you want to call it. And I must say it was pretty delicious!

Getting in the Holiday Spirit with Eggnog!

At this time of year I'm always making eggnog with my family. It's one of my favorite parts of the holidays. Now for those of you who are thinking "I don't like eggnog," bare in mind that store bought eggnog is nothing like the kind you make at home. It's delicious, light, creamy, and frothy.


Here's my 'til now secret (don't tell my dad) Family Recipe:
1 1/2 cups of milk
3 "eggs" (I highly recommend using a carton of egg beaters or better'n'eggs or the like because it is pasteurized. The eggs do not get cooked saw regular fresh eggs pose a health risk, and the egg beaters are much safer.)
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp of vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp nutmeg

Just put all of the ingredients in a leak-proof container and shake it up until it gets frothy. Then enjoy!
If you do not drink it right away, just shake it again before you do, so it doesn't loose its foam.



I made it last night and got a lot of positive feedback. I didn't have nutmeg, but for some reason I had allspice so I used that (btw I love allspice. It's a very distinct flavor that is in gingerbread), but you could also use cinnamon. You could use almond/soy instead of regular milk or substitute stevia or agave for the sugar. I don't know of any vegan egg alternatives, but I'm sure they exist because Lula's (a vegan ice cream shop in the East Village) has an "egg cream".

DIY gift wrap- Sweet Paul Magazine

This Magazine has all kinds of fun stuff! Most of it can't be down in a dorm, but this DIY gift wrap certainly can:

Sweet Paul Magazine - Winter 2011 - Page 28-29

Tasty Tidbit- Be creative at the dining hall!

1) The salad bar can be used for more than just salads: use salad bar ingredients to make a delicious and healthy wrap. Wraps are also great because they're easy to sneak out if you need to eat on the go. I sometimes use ingredients from the main entree area for salads and wraps as well, specifically the salsa and sour cream they sometimes put out. (My favorite dining hall section cross-over, and guilty pleasure is ice cream and waffles, which are both available all day long!)

2) Be a cafeteria clepto: it's ok to sneak some food out of the dining hall, especially if you have an unlimited meal plan. I take bread to make sandwiches in my room, and today I took some chickpeas to make some humus (which I will post about soon). I also take fruit quite often. I like to take bananas and freeze them for Banilla Soft-serve (which is apparently now a proper noun because I capitalized it). I'll probably post about that at some point, too. I will sometimes take meals to go if I'm headed somewhere where food won't be easily available, like my 5 hour long costume practicum class.

3) See what made to order foods are offered: These foods are not necessarily healthy, but can certainly add variety to your diet. My cafeteria offers omlettes with a ton of topping choices, and also an option for egg whites ate breakfast time. They also offer a bunch of grill items from 2-4pm including burgers, fries, and my favorite (the only one I've actually ordered), grilled cheese. Like I said, not healthy per say, but the food tends to taste better than they're typical stuff.

Makin Guacamole!!

So guacamole is a super easy, healthy and delicious snack that also happens to be perfect for sharing! That's why I'm making it my first post. It's my second week of school and I've made guacamole 3 times, and guess what, the people on my floor love me for it!

All you really need is an avocado and salt, but if you want to get fancy add onion, lime or lemon, and if your really fancy, cilantro. My favorite chips to use are anything Trader Joe's brand because they're always non-GMO and still affordable (I love Trader Joe's!! If you don't know what GMO is I'll post an explanation about that soon. It changed the way I look at food!).

The avocados can get a bit expensive, so if you can, have everybody chip in a dollar or so. It cost a little less than $6 for 2 avocados, an onion, and a lime, and I already had salt. I opted not to spend three dollars on a big bunch of cilantro that would barely be used, but it does add to the taste of the guac, so if you wanna splurge more power to you.

So treat your floor-mates to something much yummier than most (if not all) of the stuff they've been eating from the dining hall!