Jeweled Rice with Browned Butter

I'm not sure if this is an authentic "jeweled" rice salad, but it has the essentials of what I'd call jewel-y ingredients: dried cranberries, pecans, and pretty orange butternut squash cubes.

It'd be even better if Jewel were photographed eating the dish decked out in royal jewels and jewel-toned clothing. But hey, you gotta work with what you've got.

The browned butter takes the recipe over the top. Over the top of what? I'm not sure. Maybe the Empire State Building. Possibly over Mt. Everest. All you have to know is this rice salad will make you feel all warm and tingly and intestinally jewel-infested. How appetizing is that?

Jeweled Rice Salad with Browned Butter    Serves: 1 as a main, 2 as a side
1 cup cooked white rice
1 cup cubed butternut squash
2 t. dried cranberries
1 T. chopped pecans
1 T. butter
Salt and pepper
1.) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2.) Spread squash on a greased baking sheet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Mix with the cooked rice and cranberries.
3.) Melt the butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Watch carefully and remove when the butter smells nutty and is golden. Pour into the rice and mix. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper and top with the chopped pecans.

Fancy(ish) Ramen

I love Thanksgiving.

Let me repeat: I love, love, LOVE Thanksgiving. 

Seriously, just hook me up to a gravy IV. 

This, however, clearly is not a Thanksgiving recipe. This is more of a "returning to your apartment post-family holiday feast to find nothing in your cabinets" type of dish. It's when you realize turkeys and mashed potatoes don't quite fit the busy student's cooking schedule. It can also be for those with sprained wrists from all the gravy-whisking, turkey lifting, potato mashing action that comes with T-Day. 

But the cold, hard reality of packaged Ramen doesn't have to smack you across the face quite so hard. A little green onion, shake of sesame seeds, fried egg, and swirl of hot sriracha sauce almost makes you want to stick a pinky out. And it takes about 1/50th of the time that preparing a Thanksgiving meal requires.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! And please, forget the diet on Thanksgiving. Don't let the terrorists win, bros. 

Fancy(ish) Ramen    Serves: 1

1 egg

1 package Ramen noodles

1 small green onion, sliced

1/2 t. sesame seeds

Sriracha sauce, to taste.

1.) Boil Ramen according to package directions. Pour in half the seasoning packet and discard the remaining powder. Set aside.

2.) Meanwhile, heat a small skillet over medium high heat. Add a bit of butter and crack the egg into the skillet. Sprinkle with a pinch of pepper. Cook until the white is almost set, then add a teaspoon of water and cover. Cook until white sets and yolk is still runny, about 30 seconds. 

3.) Pour noodles into a serving bowl. Top with the fried egg, green onion, sesame seeds, and sriracha. 

Loaded Mashed Potato Casserole

I began this blog post lamenting the term "casserole," but something far more interesting occurred mid-type.

There's a weird, ghoulish, moaning sound outside of my window. So instead of freaking out, I'm attempting to put this in a funny blog post. Because nothing solves problems more than a little 21st century writing medium, am I right? Right?
I'M COMEDY-IFYING MY TERROR, OK?

Ok.

Let's hypothesize at least three options of what the freaky weird creepy howl-y barfy pee-my-pants noise is:
1.) Nothing.
2.) An axe-murderer who's also packing heat and replaced his fingers for butcher knives.
3.) Cher.

Here's to hoping it's option three. Maybe a little comfort food in the form of starch will quiet my fears.

Baked Potato Casserole    Serves: 1 as a main, 2 as a side
1 russet potato, washed and scrubbed clean
1 stalk green onion, sliced
1 T. sour cream
1 T. bacon bits
1/2 cup pinto beans
1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper
1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.) Poke a few holes in the potato with a fork. Microwave in 1 minute intervals until soft. Scrape the potato flesh into a bowl and mash slightly.
3.) Mix in the sour cream, bacon, beans, green onion, and a dash of salt and pepper. Scoop into a small casserole dish (or oven-safe bowl) and top with the cheese.
4.) Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until filling is heated through and cheese melts.

Breakfast Bowties

Ah, hello readers! Happy Monday.

You know what can amp up the TG part of your TGIM? Pasta with scrambled egg, cheese, bacon, and hashbrowns-- aka a little trip to Carb City.

Wouldn't that be a happy community? Unless you're Dr. Atkins, I'd say yes. Imagine grain-paved streets, baguette bread posts, and a hollowed-out sourdough boule as a car. And every resident is a part-time baker, so none of the infrastructure would turn stale.

But since a true Carb City will never emerge, you might as well build this mini one in your kitchen. It's a hearty and cheap pasta dish that my carb-loving self indulges in regularly.

Breakfast Bowties    Serves: 1
1/2 russet potato, shredded
1/2 cup bowtie pasta (farfalle)
2 T. chopped onion
1 egg
1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 t. bacon bits
1 green onion, sliced (green part only)

1.) Boil the bowtie pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
2.) Meanwhile, heat a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add a bit of butter (or cooking spray) and toss in the onion and shredded potato. Press with a spatula to spread the potato evenly over the skillet (like a pancake). Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper and cook until one side is golden brown. Flip and cook the remaining side until golden. Remove from skillet and set aside.
3.) Add a bit more butter (or spray) to the same skillet. Crack in the egg and scramble with the spatula. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
4.) In a bowl, toss together the pasta, potato, egg, bacon bits, and cheese. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with sliced green onion on top.

Peanutty Banana Crunch Oatmeal

I've got a weird habit of saving notes on my iPhone and subsequently forgetting their existence. I need the Post-It note's physicality. I need the sharp, palpable edges. I need that sticky backer to adhere to whatever needs remembering, which (at times) may or may not include my pants.

While scrolling through my notes during a particularly unexciting span of my TA office hours, I found some gems:
Note 1: flatbread tacos biscuits and gravy.
Note 2: New Deal and religion.
Note 3: Window treatments +240
Note 4: Going to mime school    good idea?

Just kidding about that last one. Stripes are unflattering!

Note 5 is where the gold resided: a recipe for peanut butter and banana oatmeal. I made it a while back and accidentally forgot how good it was. I'm willing to bet it's because I was attempting to find my pants.

Peanutty Banana Crunch Oatmeal   Serves: 1
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 banana, mashed
1 T. peanut butter
1T. brown sugar
Cinnamon
1 t. vanilla
1 T. granola
1.) Cook oats according to canister's directions. Stir in the banana, peanut butter, brown sugar, and vanilla. Add as much cinnamon as you like. Top with granola.

Nacho'd Waffle Fries

Do you have a Twitter account? Are your thoughts 140-character savvy? I had an undergrad professor who vehemently denounced students "tweeting" at him. Turns out he was talking about his email account.

Anyways, it's an excellent way to gather trendy phrases by looking at the hashtags. For example, #LemmeGetThisStr8, #UNotFromTheHoodIf, and a soon to be classic #FirstWorldProblems.

But my all time favorite has to be #SorryImNotSorry. It's brilliantly simple-- apologizing for not apologizing. How freeing! How convoluted! How grammatically questionable!

So in the spirit of TMI-loaded social media, I'm going to throw out some #SorryImNotSorry's for you.

#SorryImNotSorry that I'd trade a prime-cut steak for a waffle with non-maple, generic-brand "lite maple" syrup and butter in every crispy square.
#SorryImNotSorry that my glasses lenses never seem to get cleaned.
And finally, #SorryImNotSorry that I swapped waffle fries in place of tortilla chips to make nachos.

And you won't be sorry, either!

Nacho'd Waffle Fries    Serves: 1
1 serving (on package) frozen waffle fries
1/4 avocado, diced
1-2 T. salsa
1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 green onion, sliced
1/8 t. chile powder
Salt
Sour cream
1.) Bake waffle fries according to package directions. Sprinkle fries with salt and chile powder. Top with  cheese, avocado, salsa, green onion, and sour cream.

Mac n' Cheese Frittata

I must confess a bad habit of mine.
A habit that's become an everyday occurrence.
Sometimes, it even happens more than once in one day.

I make nun jokes.
Get it? ...Habit? Sorry.


But wait!, that's not the only one. I also burn my tongue. A lot.

When food is placed in front of my burn-penchant face, pfff...why would I ever wait for it to cool? Those extra 4 seconds it takes to expel a cool breath on my steamy food is 4 seconds that I cannot use to work on statistical analyses!, exam grading!, and most importantly, my fake tan!

It's especially difficult when a bubbling mac n' cheese frittata is awaiting your growling stomach. Sorry, tongue. Sometimes you gotta take one for the team.

Mac n' Cheese Frittata    Serves: 1
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup cooked macaroni noodles
1/4 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 T. breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper
1.) Preheat oven to 400.
2.) Heat a small skillet over medium heat. Spray with non-stick spray (or a dollop of butter) and add the beaten eggs. Cook and lifts the sides of the egg occasionally to let the uncooked egg set. When the top is almost set, add the cooked macaroni, cheese, and breadcrumbs. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3.) Add the skillet to the oven and cook for 1-2 minutes, or until cheese is melted and eggs are cooked.

Recipe adapted from: Williams Sonoma