*~*~*~*~Official Cheap and Easy Recipes to Learn Before Matriculation~*~*~*~*

[907914]

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Quesadilla
Prep time: 2-5 minutes
Cook time:4-6 minutes
Cost: $1 -$4

1) you will need at least a quarter cup shredded cheese per dinner-plate-sized flour tortilla used.1/2 cup for a full 2 tortilla quesadilla, 1/4 cup if you just want to fold the sucker in half. Adjust amount of cheese to tortilla size and preferences for Cheesiness. Pick your own cheese, shred it yourself or buy pre-shredded. I prefer a 50/50 mix of cheddar and colby jack. Spread cheese evenly around tortilla - stay about 1/2 inch (1 centimeter for you Canadians) away from the edge to prevent gooey leakage.

2) OPTIONAL - Add an amount of chopped or shredded meat of your choice - enough that you get some in every bite but not so much that it prevents the sides from sticking together.

3) OPTIONAL - take 2 tbsp of your favorite salsa and gently/evenly spread it over the cheese.

4) Fill fry pan with vegetable oil - just enough to be completely oily.but not deeper than the tortilla. heat at medium high (6.5 on a 0-9 stovetop). Once oil is hot, stick your quesadilla down in there being careful not to spill it. You can do butter as well, just cook on medium and watch for smoking.

5) Once the cheese starts oozing out of the sides, flip it. Once the top (former bottom) tortilla starts getting bubbles forming, it is good to go! feel free to flip back and forth until it is at the preferred crunchiness.

 

[meepdog]

Low-Carb Breakfast Salad
Prep time: 2-4 minutes
Cook time: 3.5 minutes
Cost: $1 -$4 (I don't know how much eggs are where you live)

Ingredients: 1 large tomato, 1/2 medium onion, 2-4 eggs, small pot of water, 1/2 tablespoon olive oil, 1/2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper

1. Cut tomato into generous chunks, slice onion into whatever size you're comfortable eating of raw onion. Optional: Add avocado, green pepper, any other veggies you like.
2. Drizzle all oil and half of vinegar over veggies, salt and pepper to taste.
3. Bring water to a simmering boil. Crack eggs into separate bowl, swirl boiling water with spoon quickly and then gently lower eggs into whirlpool. Let cook for EGGXACTLY 3 minutes and 30 seconds. TIP: add a half cap of white wine or apple vinegar to help egg whites congeal.
4. Remove poached eggs from water and spoon onto veggies.
5. Add rest of vinegar over eggs, again salt and pepper to taste.

Love this easy and healthy breakfast, eat it almost every morning.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

Fancy Spaghetti and sausage:

1 package sweet (or hot) Italian turkey sausage (Jenny-o brand)
1 large sausage and garlic prego sauce
1 box Pasta (I like Tri-color rottini)
1/4 onion, sliced
1 package sliced white mushrooms
Minced garlic
Italian seasoning
1tbsp Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Sauté sausages with mushrooms, onions, and olive oil on medium high.
When just browned (but still raw inside), remove the sausages and slice them into 1-inch chunks, return to pan.
Once thoroughly browned and onions are soft, add sauce.
Add ~2 tbsp minced garlic, ~2 tbsp Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to taste
Simmer on low heat for 10-15 minutes stirring occasionally
Pour over pasta

About 10$ total, makes enough for 3-4 meals, and will keep just fine in the fridge for a week. Tastes great re-heated in the nurses lounge microwave

 

[MomJeansandDadJorts]

Pre-Ortho Prep:

1 cup white rice
8 oz chicken

Simple and easy enough to save you time to smash some Anki and get those bench numbers up come match time.

 

[907914]

Anyone got any new recipes to share in the last 2 months?

 

[tessellations]

I made this vegetarian West African Peanut Soup recently and it was easy to make and absolutely delicious. I used chicken broth instead (so it wasn't vegetarian) and mixed bone broth with regular cause I wanted some more protein.

I also made this One Pot Chicken Fajita Pasta many times in college and loved it every time.

 

[Cornfed101]

Pinch of yum has some awesome recipes for tacos of all kinds. Here are some favorites:

• Hawaiian chicken tacos
• Crispy fish tacos with jalapeno sauce
• Chili lime fish tacos - super easy and probably my favorite of the list. With homemade chipotle mayo sauce.
• shredded brussel sprout tacos - for you vegans and vegetarians out there

 

[premed20172017]

I think ALL premeds/med students should purchase an INSTANT POT (ideally via amazon on prime day or black Friday or something). It's seriously a 1 pot wonder! You can use it as a pressure cooker, a slow cooker, a pot to sautee things, an oven to make cheesecake, and even a yogurt maker! I don't think you need any other appliances (maybe a toaster or toaster oven and blender) besides this! It's unreal!

Every week, my sister makes a few instant pot recipes that get her through lunches and dinners for the week. She makes our mom's secret recipe for chicken soup, Greek Chicken Lemon Rice Soup (SO GOOD, but it usually needs more salt), Spaghetti and Meatballs, Chicken and Rice, and a few other dishes. I'm waiting for her to get back to me with the recipes so I can post here, but if you google any of these recipes, you'll get a TON of results.

My other sister also SWEARS by instant-pot yogurt.

For the vegans, I went through a quick bout of veganism last summer and basically ONLY used my instant pot. It's wonderful for making lentils (you don't even need to pre-soak them!)

RECIPES:
Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meatballs
Time: 8 minutes on high pressure
This recipe is all about layering!
Put frozen turkey meatballs (I like the ones from Trader Joe's) at the BOTTOM
Break spaghetti in half, and fan it out on top
Pour 1 jar of spaghetti sauce on top of that
Add 1 can of diced tomatoes on top of that
Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, pepper flakes, or whatever you feel like!
Once it's all cooked, open up the instant pot, and give it all a good mix.

 

[Engrailed]

Shredded mozzarella cheese
Sliced mushrooms
Spinach

cook together in pan
3 min

Plus bread

Sandwich, Done!

 

[Bonne Nuit]

Curried Chicken (or Chick'n) Salad

This is a great recipe to make for lunch the night before - it gets better as it sits.

-14-16 oz chopped cooked chicken or vegetarian protein (e.g., chopped cooked chickpeas, vegetarian "chicken" strips, baked tofu)
- 6 tablespoons mayo or Vegenaise
- 2 tablespoons sweet mango chutney
- 3-4 teaspoons curry powder (start with 3, add more to taste)
- 1/4 cup black currants or golden raisins (I bet dried blueberries would also taste really good here)
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds or roughly chopped cashews
- 3 or 4 thinly sliced green onions, both white and green parts
Lots of salt and pepper to taste

Throw everything from the list above in a bowl. Mix well. Adjust seasonings to taste.

Stuff in a whole wheat pita pocket with lettuce or arugula. This will make about 3-4 sandwiches/pita pockets, more if you're conservative, less if you're me.

 

[electropartyogram]

I got a meal prep recipe. Ground Beef with Rice and Mushrooms, with added Bell Peppers and Baby Carrots. Makes 10 12 oz portions. 45 minutes total (prep, cook, portion, clean up).

Ingredients:
5.5 lbs ground beef (I like 93/7), 1.5 cups white rice, 5 whole bell peppers, 2 lbs baby carrots, large pack of pre-sliced mushrooms, salt, pepper, garlic powder, olive oil.
You can always decrease or increase but I find these proportions work well for me.

Cost: About $4.00-$4.50 per meal, depending on the quality of ingredients.

Cooked in a large griddle, like the one that plugs into the wall.

Start rice in a large pot with salt and water/beef or chicken stock. 2 cups liquid per 1 cup rice. I use 1.5 cups of rice. Add a little bit of olive oil, plenty of salt. Heat on 7/10. 5.5 lbs of ground beef into a hot griddle. Add iodized salt, cracked pepper, garlic powder to taste. Heat on 400F.

Beef or chicken stock is usually sold in quantities of 4 cups.

Ground beef will sear for a short while. Mix up the beef. Add 1 cup of liquid you used in the rice. Re-cover. While the beef and rice cook, prep your bell peppers by cleaning them and leaving them cut as halves. Attend to the rice, if needed, take some liquid out of the cooking beef to keep the rice saturated. The beef will most likely take longer to cook than the rice. Once the beef is fully cooked, the rice should be done as well. Add 1/2 the beef to the rice. Mix. Add the other half. Mix. Add your mushrooms. Mix. The heat will partially cook the mushrooms so when you reheat your meal the mushrooms will finish cooking through.

Measure 12 oz of the beef, rice, mushroom mix into resealable containers. Cut a pepper half into slices, one-half pepper per meal. From a 2 lb bag of carrots, you should be able to add 9-10 baby carrots per meal. Cool to room temperature (10-15 mins) before sealing and refrigeration. Meals will keep for 5 days

Enjoy not having to cook lunch or dinner for the rest of the week. It is boring but if you don't mind it is very easy on your stomach, good quality protein, carbs, fats, and lots of micronutrients. You can always add A-1, BBQ sauce, more salt, and pepper if you need to.

 

[lull]

For the exotic people, try Ethiopian food. If you live in a bigger city, likely there will be a small street with a bunch of stores that you walk in and get hit by the heavy waft of spices, likely berbere, ask at the counter for this thing called “injera”, a “sour pancake like bread” as non Ethiopians call it. Then ask them for this thing called shiro powder and a red cayenne looking spice called berbere (a lot spicier tho), take some chopped onions, olive oil berbere, cumin, and anything else that smells good into your skillet, add the shiro powder, salt ofc, add water (guesstimate the amount) if you want it thicker less water, thinner? More water. And voila you got curry and some sort of strange bread that took all of about 15-30 minutes minus travel time.

 

[premed20172017]

Last night, I made a really good Indian inspired dish. I sauteed garlic, parsley, seasonings (curry powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, cayenne, chili flakes), onions, tomatoes, cauliflower rice, spinach, and browned some seasoned (with the same seasoning) ground turkey. I topped it with avocado. It was really good, super filling, and pretty cheap.

 

[Bonne Nuit]

For the exotic people, try Ethiopian food. If you live in a bigger city, likely there will be a small street with a bunch of stores that you walk in and get hit by the heavy waft of spices, likely berbere, ask at the counter for this thing called “injera”, a “sour pancake like bread” as non Ethiopians call it. Then ask them for this thing called shiro powder and a red cayenne looking spice called berbere (a lot spicier tho), take some chopped onions, olive oil berbere, cumin, and anything else that smells good into your skillet, add the shiro powder, salt ofc, add water (guesstimate the amount) if you want it thicker less water, thinner? More water. And voila you got curry and some sort of strange bread that took all of about 15-30 minutes minus travel time.

Ethiopian food is INCREDIBLE. Oh my God. +1. Great suggestions.