Feed yourself, cont’d

Notes from my upstairs "office". See my first post here.  😃

 

I've started to collect recipes and other hacks for food ideas that can be easily and quickly prepared at your desk, in your dorm room, upstairs from your kitchen… Just sayin'  I'm considering mug-meals, dorm-room hacks, and the newly discovered Our Favorite 3-Ingredient Recipes section of the Epicurious website.

 

 

This week I have discovered that tortillas work better than bread for me and my mini-fridge. Additional packages freeze easier in my tiny freezer compartment. Plus, as a colleague once pointed out to me, kids will eat anything wrapped in a tortilla. I'm hoping that will happen with me, too (maybe even with vegetables or leftovers)!

 

I've also discovered ultra-thin cheese slices, which I suppose you could do by hand, but I can't anymore. Certainly, this is a safer as well as a more convenient option for me. And it's the taste of real cheese in my tortilla.

 

I plop a tortilla on a paper plate, add a slice of the ultra-thin cheese, than sprinkle it liberally with some baby spinach and nuke it in the microwave for 1 minute to melt the cheese and wilt the spinach. When done, I roll it up and eat. Easy-peasey and yum!

 

 

The other thing I discovered this week is 3-Ingredient Microwave Caramel Sauce, a quick recipe that gives you caramel sauce anytime you want it. At work or in the dorm even, in a mug melt 1 T. butter (or several pats from the cafeteria), then add 2 T. brown sugar (or 3-4 packets natural sugar), 1 T. heavy cream (or 3 mini creamer cups) and a pinch of salt. 

 

Check out this video on Epicurious:

 

Easier still is just to unwrap and microwave a few handfuls of soft caramels with a tiny splash of milk (or 1 mini creamer cup) and microwave on medium power for a few minutes, stirring at 30 second intervals until smooth.

 

I made some to eat with apple slices. Delicious!

 

 

I've been trying to eat oatmeal every morning, buying those little packs of microwave oatmeal.  Now that I have a microwave upstairs, and in order to cut costs, I have decided to switch to the regular container of quick-cooking oats. And after some experimentation, I can report that this version works just as well when simply adding boiling water, stirring, covering and letting it sit.  I didn't need the microwave to encourage me to switch.  

 

In the article on DIY oatmeal packets, on the MOMables website, the author suggests you cut the regular-sized oatmeal, with some other you have ground to powder in a blender or food-processor, and also add some powdered milk (provides protein), and cinnamon and sugar to taste.  From 10 cups oatmeal and 1 cup powdered milk, you can make 20-24 snack-size baggies.  

 

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