George Foreman Lemon Garlic Chicken

If you are ever trying to figure out what to give someone graduating from high school I can give you the ultimate idea: A George Foreman Grill.

Best. Gift. Ever.

I was given one when I graduated high school and it has been awesome. My freshman year, my roommate and I would have sunday dinner every week. Good Old George helped us make steaks, and chicken, and even toast one time.. all kinds of great stuff.

Now that I have a stove and an oven, he gets a little less use, but it is great to have him to grill something up quickly.

The other night I wanted something fast, so I fell back on the ultimate recipe finder: Google.

To be completely honest, I only used it for an idea, and then I pretty much made things up as I went along. It ended up pretty tasty though, so I must have done something right.

George Foreman Lemon Garlic Chicken

Ingredients:

• Chicken Breast
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp Olive Oil
• 1/4 tsp garlic (minced)
• Italian Seasoning
• Salt
• Pepper

Directions:

Preheat George Foreman Grill.

Cut chicken breast into strips (optional, but it helps to cook everything more evenly... pounding the chicken so it is flat is also another option).

In a small bowl combine lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Place chicken in bowl, mix to coat.

Place chicken in grill and close lid, cook for 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and serve with noodles, rice, or veggies. Enjoy :)

Brown Paper Bag Microwave Popcorn

I am about to blow your mind.

Seriously. This is the ultimate answer for quick and easy popcorn production. I found this somewhere on Pinterest and decided to try it out and it totally works... plus it eliminates the messy pot when popping popcorn on the stove, and it waaaayyyyy cheaper than store-bought microwave popcorn. 

Plus, if you are having a movie night, you don't have to dig up a bunch of popcorn bowls for everyone--just serve the popcorn from the brown paper bags! GENIUS!

Ok, hope you are ready for this:

Directions

1. Put 1/3 cup popcorn in a brown paper bag

2. Fold the bag a few times at the top to keep the popcorn from flying everywhere

3. Place in microwave and heat for 1 1/2 - 2 minutes

4. Done!! 

What?!? Ya. That's it! Put some butter or cinnamon sugar or whatever seasoning you want on there and eat up.

Told you I was going to blow your mind.

"Healthier" Sugar Cookies

As I was watching Harry Potter on TV last night, I got the urge to make some cookies. I don't really know why because I am not especially notorious for my cookie baking prowess, but the urge hit so I googled sugar cookie recipes and found this. The title claimed that they are healthier, but I don't think the fact that they have yogurt instead of oil really makes that big of a difference when you are eating a sugar cookie.... But hey, it was worth a try.

And if it is "healthier" that means you can eat more without the guilt........ right?

Healthier Easy Sugar Cookies

Adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup nonfat plain yogurt
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Stir flour, baking soda, and baking powder in a small bowl. (I saw something on pinterest recommending using cornstarch in place of baking powder for fluffier cookies, but I didn't try it)

Beat butter, yogurt, and sugar together until smooth (Once again had to resort to a wooden spoon instead of an electric mixer, but I've found I like it..... makes me feel in touch with my ancestors). Beat in vanilla extract. 

Mix in flour mixture until just incorporated. I don't know if I did something wrong earlier in the recipe, or if I was just impatient, but I had some issues incorporating the flour, so I added a couple more tablespoons of yogurt to help with cohesiveness... they still turned out alright so there's that.

Roll dough into "walnut-sized" balls and place 2-inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake in preheated oven until golden, 8-10 minutes. Let stand on baking sheets two minutes before removing to cook on wire racks (or in my case, due to lack of said wire-rack, a piece of tinfoil)

Microwave Coffee Cake

Last night I made a bit of a mistake while trying to make a little snack. I decided to make Microwave Mac and Cheese, but I only had shredded mozzarella cheese... So I thought, "hmm, I'll try something new and different." To say the least, it didn't turn out. It was like having a big lump of cheese with some noodles mixed in. Sooo don't try that at home, stick with cheddar.

Aside from that little debacle, the microwave has been my best friend in college. In the dorms it is much easier to heat something up in the microwave than to stand around looking like a looney in front of the oven. Plus it is easy and quick and I actually knew how to use it. This year, we didn't have one in our apartment for the first few weeks, I really don't know how people got along before the invention of the microwave. Luckily, Dave bought me one for our six month anniversary (romantic right?).

So speaking of microwaves, the other day I was sitting around the apartment and wanted something sweet, but still easy. Obviously I went straight to Pinterest and found this tasty treat, a five minute mug o' coffee cake. The original recipe has some really great pictures, but personally I hate when there are big pictures and the recipe is sandwiched between the graphics because I always feel like I am missing something. Anyways, I think it turned out pretty good, and my roommate Pat liked it too.

Microwave Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp Butter 
• 2 Tbsp Sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 Tbsp Sour Cream
• A few drops of Vanilla Extract
• 1/4 cup Flour
• 1/8 tsp Baking Powder

For the crumb topping:

• 1 Tbsp. butter
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

Grab a mug and add 1 Tbsp. butter.  Place in the microwave for 10-15 seconds to soften the butter (just soften, don't melt it.)

Stir in 2 Tbsp. sugar until it is fluffy and creamy, about 30 seconds. Add egg--the original recipe recommends scrambling the egg in a small dish and splitting it in half between two coffee cake mugs (which is why Pat got to try a mug full :P), but she also says you can axe the egg altogether, but without it your coffee cake will be less cake-y and more crumbly. 

Stir in 2 Tbsp Sour Cream and a few drops of vanilla. Then stir in 1/4 cup flour and 1/8 tsp. baking powder.

For the crumb topping, in a separate bowl add 1 Tbsp butter, 2 Tbsp flour, 1 Tbsp brown sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon, "smoosh" it together with your fingers then add it to the mug.

Place the mug in the microwave and cook for 1 min. Check the mug, then you can continue adding 10 seconds at a time until it is done. For me it was hard to tell how cooked it was through the crumb topping, so I mixed it up. Not only did this help me check for done-ness, it was awesome because then the cinnamon and brown sugar were mixed into the cake part and it tasted delicious.

Apple Cider Pancakes

Ok, excuse the picture on this one, my phone was in the other room and I was too hungry to get up and get it so I used Dave's phone and his camera is even worse than mine.

According to Dave, these are "possibly" the best homemade pancakes he had ever had... I think that means they were the best, that's just the way he talks. I have to admit, this isn't really a "college" recipe, and it was a little more involved than I thought at first glance, but I had some apple cider in the fridge and saw this recipe on Pinterest so I wanted to try it out. I really liked them a lot, a bit more work than the "just add water" pancake mixes, but they were delicious so I would vote that they were worth it.

Apple Cider Pancakes

Adapted from Tokyo Terrace

*This recipe makes a large batch. I actually cut the original recipe's proportions of the dry ingredients in half so I didn't end up with a huge tub of pancake mix leftover. I still have enough for two more batches if I'm feeling up to making them again.

Dry Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups white flour (I just used 3 cups of white flour)
• 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 tablespoon salt

Place ingredients in an airtight container and store until ready to use. Or continue with the recipe, which (according to the original) makes a nice amount of pancakes for 2 very hungry people or 4 not so hungry people.... According to my calculations, this made about 6 medium sized pancakes. So, unless you are feeding birds or small children, I think it feeds 2 normally hungry people or 3 not so hungry people (We did actually save one for Dave's roommate). But that might just be because I am a breakfast person and therefore am really hungry in the mornings.

Wet Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup buttermilk (or buttermilk substitute)
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt
• 1 tsp honey
• 1/2 cup apple cider (or apple juice if you can’t find cider)
• 1 egg, separated
• Unsalted Butter (both for cooking, and for topping them)
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon

Directions:

Place 1 cup of dry mix in a large bowl. 

In a small bowl, whisk the egg white, 1/4 cup buttermilk, 1/4 cup yogurt, 1 tsp honey and 1/2 cup cider. In another small bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and 2 tbsp olive oil. Whisk the wet ingredients in one bowl until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry mix and stir until just combined. It will be lumpy and, at least for me, a little thinner than traditional pancake mix consistency. Don't get rid of the lumps.

If you don't know how to cook pancakes, where have you been living all of your life? In the case you have been living under a rock, the original recipe provided these instructions: Heat 1 tablespoon of butter or vegetable oil in a medium pan. Measure 1/3 cup of the batter and pour into the pan. When you start to see small bubbles on the top of the pancakes and the edges are beginning to cook, flip the pancake. Be sure to add more butter or oil as needed so the pancakes don’t stick.

The original recommended: while the pancakes are still warm, top with some butter and allow it to melt over the top of the pancakes. Sprinkle with the cinnamon and sugar mixture and eat!

I tried it, it was ok, but I would recommend syrup. That's just the way I like my pancakes. The bacon Dave made on the side was an awesome addition as well. :)

Crockpot Lemon Chicken

Probably the coolest gift I've received while in college was a crockpot my mom found for like $20 and shipped to me. It is really great when you have some time in the morning and wont be home until late and want food ready as soon as you get home. I always look for easy slow cooker recipes on Pinterest, and I've found it is a lot easier to pick which one to use if you write down the ingredients and the cook time in the little comment box so you can pick which ones are worth a closer look at the time, without having to look through every individual recipe.

Usually I make my choice based on the ingredients I have handy and the cook time. The other day I knew I wasn't going to be home for at least 6 hours, so I was trying to find an easy crockpot recipe that I could just throw in so dinner would be ready when I got home. The recipe I found I actually couldn't find because the pin didn't work (so ya... that suggestion above isn't always effective), but I tried it out anyways. I don't think it was my favorite crockpot chicken I had ever made, but Dave really liked it.

Crockpot Lemon Chicken

Ingredients:

1 packet of Italian Dressing Seasoning
Cube of Butter (I think I used about half a stick of butter, but I think you could use up to a full stick)
Lemon Juice (I just sprinkled it on, but I think a few tablespoons)

Directions:

Super easy! Put the butter in the bottom of the crock pot, lay the chicken on top. Sprinkle the Italian dressing packet over the chicken, drizzle with lemon juice.


Pop on the lid and cook on High 4-5 hours, or Low 6-8 hours.

One Minute Microwave Mug Muffin

Most of the time I snooze my alarm until the absolute last second, dragging myself out of bed and then rushing around my apartment trying to get everything ready for the day. If I am lucky, I remember to grab a slice of banana bread or a handful of cereal before running (limping) out the door to amble into class (mostly) on time.

But every once in a while, on the off chance I get to bed early and feel refreshed before my alarm goes off, I wake up early and have time for a nice breakfast. On other mornings, I just want to have something good to eat without all the work.  This 1 minute mug muffin is great if I don't want to use a lot of dishes, or even if I just want something a little different. It is also really healthy so that is another plus.

It goes really well with eggs or fruit or whatever really.

1 Minute Microwave Muffin

Original Recipe: blogilates.com

• 1/4 cup Quick Oats (One package of instant oatmeal)
• 1 egg
• Small handful of berries (Fresh or Frozen, optional)
• Some brown sugar or stevia
• 1 Tbsp. Soymilk (or milk, or lactose free milk)

Mix everything together in a mug and put in microwave for 1 minute. If top is not firm, place back in microwave for 30 seconds at a time until it is cooked.

I had to improvise when I made this the other day because I got halfway through and realized I didn't have any milk. I used a little scoop of greek yogurt, probably about a teaspoon, and about a tablespoon of apple cider. Not going to lie, I was pretty impressed when it worked.