Microwave Time: Tuna-Broccoli-Cheese Casseroles

So you're hungry and you don't want to leave your room.  Microwave to the rescue!

This is far from healthy, but if you're tired of Hot Pocket after Hot Pocket, this is a welcome alternative.

If you're not a fan of tuna, I imagine canned (or leftover) chicken would substitute well.

Easy Mac Casserole for One

1 cup frozen broccoli florets
splash of water
2 single-serving packets/bowls Easy Mac
1 can tuna, drained

1. Get a covered glass dish or steaming bag.  If you don't have either of these (I don't), a microwave-safe bowl covered with a microwave-safe plate will do.  Add broccoli and a tiny amount of water - seriously, you need less than a tablespoon.
2. Microwave for about 2-3 minutes.  Check for tenderness.  Add 30 seconds of cooking time and repeat until to desired tenderness.  Set aside.
3. Prepare Easy Mac according to the package.  Immediately add tuna and broccoli once finished cooking and mix well.
4. Warm in microwave for 30 seconds to warm broccoli and tuna.

Brown Rice and Nacho Cheese Casserole for One

1 cup frozen broccoli florets

splash of water

1-2 tablespoons nacho cheese (I like white Tostito's cheese)

instant brown rice

1 can tuna, drained

1. Prepare broccoli as above:  Get a covered glass dish or steaming bag.  If you don't have either of these (I don't), a microwave-safe bowl covered with a microwave-safe plate will do.  Add broccoli and a tiny amount of water - seriously, you need less than a tablespoon.
2. Microwave for about 2-3 minutes.  Check for tenderness.  Add 30 seconds of cooking time and repeat until to desired tenderness.  Set aside.
3. Prepare instant brown rice according to box.  Drain water, if any is present.
4. Add cheese and broccoli.  Mix well.  Microwave for an additional minute.

Gross?  Maybe.  But these got me through freshman year.

Cookbook Review: The $5 College Cookbook

I'm usually a skeptic of things that promise a lot for a little. A lot of flavor for little effort? A lot of food for little money? Yeah, right. I see it like this. Pick three:

It's delicious.

It's cheap.

It takes no time to prepare.

It's nutritious.

Maybe you have recipes that match all four of these – if you do, show me! But for the most part, in my little experience, either you have to use high-quality meats, vegetables, and spices or spend a good amount of time on a meal to make it both nutritious and delicious, unless you have time-saving tools like slow cookers, food processors, and other awesome kitchen toys... which I, living in a dorm, do not.

So when I saw this for $5 at Hastings, I decided to give it a try.

I'm not a fan of the binding – it's bound in glued paperback, just like a chintzy romance novel. Want to keep it open to a page? Better have some paperweights nearby. Eschewing the popular comb and metal ring bindings most cookbooks go by, it instead closes themselves while you're cooking. I gave up and now copy my recipes from this book to ChefTap instead.

Inside, you'll find a disturbing lack of information and knowledge.

The author expects students to have access to a stove, oven, microwave, toaster oven, blender, food processor, toaster oven, grill, hot plate, room to store dozens of ingredients in a pantry and a fridge, and LOTS of excess time to cook breakfast and lunch... has the author even BEEN to a college dorm? I don't know about other college wanna-be chefs, but the only appliances I have in my room are my microwave and refrigerator, all of my ingredients have to fit on a single bookshelf, save for my potted herbs (which double as room decoration), and I usually have about half an hour maximum to throw down breakfast and lunch before my next class. Far more suited for students in apartments or couples getting their first apartment, I really have to recommend against this cookbook for anyone living in tight quarters without their own kitchen. Some of the recipes are pretty stupid as well. Take this one for peas:

½ cup water 1 cup frozen peas Bring the water to a boil. Add the peas and cook until they turn a bright color and are tender. Drain and serve.

Or this one for pasta:

8 oz pasta 8 cups water 1 tablespoon salt Bring the water to a boil. Add the pasta to the boiling water. Stir while cooking. Drain and serve.

Phew! So glad I got a cookbook out! Here, let me try one; maybe I can get in the next edition:

1 frozen, microwavable, filled pastry pocket Remove from plastic and place in cardboard sleeve. Microwave until no longer frozen. Remove sleeve. Serve.

Don't get me wrong, there are good parts as well. Most of the recipes are suited for one to two people, which is perfect for my purposes. They also include nutritional information, which is always appreciated, and as the cover promises, they are, for the most part, pretty cheap – that is, once you already have the stock of different condiments and exotic spices that you're expected to have. There are sections for party foods and desserts as well – a nice spark of variety as far as most of the “cooking for college” books I've seen go. The dessert section is well-rounded, including both the familiar things like peanut butter cookies and brownies as well as more unusual dishes like nanaimo bars and even sorbet. There are also ideas on using leftovers from previous recipes in the book, which is great for someone on a budget.

Tool Review: ChefTap App for Android

Sorry iOS lovers – this one is Android exclusive.

ChefTap is a recipe importer and collector. With the use of some kitchen voodoo (or perhaps search algorithms), it tries to recognize what's a title, what's an ingredient, and what's a step in cooking, and it's a lot better at this than I would have ever dreamed. Sometimes you'll get lucky and it will also automatically detect the picture of whatever you're cooking that's posted on the website – and trust me, it's really nice to browse your recipes by what looks the most mouth-watering.

So what do you do? The best method is using your device's web browser. Simply navigate to the recipe, click Menu>Share>ChefTap and it spits out a recipe – simple! Combine with a link importer like Site-to-Phone for maximum recipe browsability – it will allow you to send a link from your computer to your device of whatever you're browsing. The ChefTap developers are promising website synchronization soon, but it hasn't come out yet.

While some importer apps only import from large recipe sites like Allrecipes or Epicurious, ChefTap chews through them all – and more! Send a .txt file to your phone of recipes you get in emails or have saved on your computer and it'll process those, too. Apparently there's integration with accounts on Allrecipes, Epicurious, Pinterest, and other websites, but being as I don't hold an account on any of them, I'm not terribly interested in that. You can modify any recipe you import straight from the recipe, and if it tickles your pickle, even type the whole thing out without setting down your device. You can also add notes to the end.

There are also customizable tags. It won't auto-tag, but that might be for the better – I like to use “boyfriend approved” and “not in dorm kitchen” for example.

Your steps will separate out into different “pages” on Step-by-Step mode. Turn your device landscape and you have your ingredients list to the left and your directions neatly organized on the right. Never skip a step again!

If you couldn't tell already, I LOOOOOVE ChefTap. It's like using index cards but better. You can customize everything, write notes down, take pictures, not skip steps, collect from everywhere on the internet, and end up with an easy-to-read, organized, lovely little recipe book. Wrap your device in plastic wrap or put it in a Ziplock if you're worried about protecting it, then go cook!

I would love to see shopping list integration and an ingredient multiplier in upcoming updates, but the app as it is right now is still a very useful app, and one I recommend to all Android-owning cooks out there.

Best part?

IT IS FREE. It's ad-supported, but the ads aren't very distracting or bad at all. I still kind of wish there was a way to turn the ads off – I'd happily kick ChefTap a buck or two to support them – but that's okay.

Worst part?

Its photo recognition recognizes the faces of the chefs on FoodNetwork.com rather than the pictures of the food. So instead of your butter cookies, looks like you'll be making a nice batch of Paula Deen.

Last Night's Meal: Rosemary Chicken and Potatoes

So last night, I did rosemary chicken and potatoes, with heavy inspiration taken from the back of a spice card at the grocery store.  Stupid?  Yes.  Delicious?  Oh yes.

Honestly think this is pretty good for the busy folks.  The prep takes very little time - 10 minutes when you're still clumsy with a knife like me, but I'm sure some of you could knock it out quicker - throw it in the oven, and give it 30 seconds of attention every 10 minutes - or every commercial break - until it's done.

I resorted to two of my favorites for sides:  steam-in-bag frozen veggies and pre-made rolls.  So easy, so delicious.

Rosemary Chicken and Potatoes
Ingredients:
1 1/2 tsp dried rosemary OR 3 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped (I used fresh)
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
2 cloves fresh garlic (I used 1 heaping tsp jarred)
2 Tbsp olive oil

1 lb chicken breasts
1 lb red new potatoes


Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Mix olive oil, rosemary, paprika, salt, pepper, and garlic in a large bowl.  You will want a lot of room to mix and cover the potatoes and chicken.  I did this in a dutch oven and it worked perfectly.
3. Wash potatoes well, leaving skin on.  Chop potatoes into bite-sized chunks.  I prefer smaller, more tender potatoes, so I did about 1/2 inch chunks, but however large and crunchy or small and tender you want them is up to you.  Place in oil & spice bowl.
4. Place chicken in oil & spice bowl.  Stir until all of the surfaces of your potatoes and chicken are coated.
5. Spray a 9x13 casserole dish with non-stick spray.  Arrange the chicken and potatoes into a single layer as well as possible.
6. Bake for 30 minutes or until chicken has reached 180°F (82°C).  Stir potatoes every 10 minutes or so.

Serves 3-4.
Prep:  10 minutes
Cooking:  30 minutes

Once the chicken was done, I put the rolls in the now-cooling oven while I microwaved the green beans.  Definitely think I should time the green beans better with the chicken next time - the chicken was fairly cool by the time it hit the table.

Still, all in all a delicious meal.  We decided to add this one to our "keepers" list.

Cookbook Review: The Auburn Cookbook

Years ago, my father's grandmother gave my mother a paperback cookbook, bound with a white plastic comb binding. It had a blue cover with a clocktower and an eagle in flight. Inside is a note scrawled in ballpoint pen: “This is an updated edition of the cookbook I was issued in home ec in high school. It has served Grandfather and I for many years and many meals. I hope you enjoy it!”

When I came to Auburn University, I recognized that clocktower. It was the same as was on the front of my mom's cookbook – the iconic Samford Hall. And today, in the university bookstore, I found what is now my newest cookbook!

The Auburn Cookbook is published by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. You can find it online for about $15, but it was at the bookstore for a steal price of $12.50. I had a 50% coupon, so I grabbed a second one as a gift – or a backup. With tax, it came up to $10 per cookbook – not bad for a cookbook of this size and usefulness!

I have to recommend this cookbook for any new cooks, or anyone who feels uneasy in the kitchen. Along with nearly four hundred pages of recipes, it includes sections in the front about planning a nutritious meal, pairing spices with food, common substitutes, food safety, and more things that a beginner might find useful. In the back, there's a somewhat antiquated manual showing the correct way of setting up a table, be it for morning coffee or a full-out formal dinner. It goes far beyond forks to the left, knives to the right – it shows where all of the serving dishes, down to the last slotted spoon, should go. I guess it would be good should you ever host the members of the Emily Post Society or something.

Anyway, on to the food. If you're an American, most of the recipes will look familiar, with very little departing from what's typically made in American kitchens. The main strength in this cookbook is just how many sections there are – twenty-one sections of food alone, including a section for candies & nuts, one for appetizers, and one for relishes and salad dressings. Each section is prefaced with useful information about the food in that section, like how to select fresh fish and how long you can keep meat in the fridge. It's not terribly exciting, but it gives you a great basis for surviving in the kitchen. This newest edition includes nutrition info on most of the recipes with calories, cholesterol, sodium, carbs, protein, fat, and calories from fat, which is really useful.

The only bad thing about this cookbook is that it's geared for family meals serving four to eight people, not singles or couples (usually I'm just cooking for my boyfriend and I). Still, recipes are easily halved or, as my friends prefer, guests may be invited to dinner.

In any case, I'm really excited to finally have a copy of my great grandmother's textbook for myself! I can't wait to try out all of the recipes I haven't tried yet at home.

Consider giving this cookbook a go – if not for yourself, then for some young couple that's about to get married and move out on their own, a high school senior about to have an apartment to himself, or anyone in need of solid cooking advice.