Dorm Recipe Building Block: Quinoa

Quinoa is on of the best grains you can eat. It has lots of fiber, magnesium, and other things, but what I love about quinoa is that it is a complete protein, which is extremely rare in a plant derived food. The only other vegetarian food that I know that is a complete protein is soy/ tofu. If you know any others I'd love to hear about them, so please comment bellow! It's technically a seed and not a grain, but it acts kind of like a couscous or rice or other small scale grain. I to sleep at some point, so that's all I'm gonna say about the background of quinoa, but if you'd like to know more about the awesomeness of quinoa, go to this website where I did most of my reading, or google it :)

Anyway, now how to make it!
Quinoa is really simple to make and can be made in a microwave, so it's perfect for dorm cooking!
So all you have to do is put two parts water to one part quinoa...

Stick it in the microwave for four minutes, take it out and stir it, then put it back in the microwave for another minute.

If you take it out, there aren't little rings around the quinoa, then you probably need to put it back in for another minute. If there are rings, let the quinoa sit for a few minutes to let the rest of the water absorb.

See the rings around the grains? This quinoa is cooked

Then taste it. If it's nice and soft and not too al dente, the viola, you have quinoa. If it's still a little crunchy, you may have to put it in for another minute and possibly add more water. But that's all there is to it! Now you have a super protein packed grain that can become the foundation of so many meals!

What kind of meals you ask? Well this time I added cilantro and olive oil while I was still cooking the quinoa (as you can probably see in the pictures) and then I had made salsa and forgotten to buy tortilla chips. So I poured the salsa over the quinoa and had a refreshing meal.

My go to quinoa meal is to add olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and all kinds of fresh veggies to it to make a quinoa salad. I usually then take a tortilla, slather it in hummus, add the quinoa salad and make myself a nutritious wrap that is soooo delicious I can't even tell you! Even my mom likes it and she doesn't usually like my healthy recipes.
You can even use quinoa as an oatmeal substitute and flavor it with cinnamon and agave/ stevia/ honey/ whatever sweetener you use and eat it for breakfast. There are many other options to flavor quinoa for breackfast like fresh berries, dried cranberries and almonds, or my personal favorite, cocoa powder and peanut butter! It tastes like reses for breakfast, but it's actually pretty healthy! Don't forget to sweeten it though, because cocoa powder is very bitter.
Those are just a few of the things you can do with quinoa. I plan to post a more detailed description of these quinoa meals and others, so subscribe!! And if you like to use quinoa a certain way, I'd love to hear about it! Post in the comments bellow!

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 :)

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.