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Sunday Night “Family Dinner”
Happy Labor Day, everyone! I hope you are doing something fun and productive with your day off! The weather is gorgeous here and I can’t wait to go on a long leisure walk after breakfast.
Last night was such a fun night in the dorms. A group of us girls in the same hall decided to make a Sunday Night Potluck dinner! The six of us split into pairs and divided the courses: Salad, Main Dish, Dessert. My suitemate Fernanda and I were in charge of the salad. Kerri and Amber cooked an amazing pasta dish with pesto and chicken, while two more girls provided enough chocolate to undo all the healthiness of the first course. It was such a good way to have an inexpensive but delicious dinner with a group of friends instead of going out to a restaurant. Each of us spent roughly around $6 and look at the meal that awaited us!
Giving Olive Garden a run for their money!
We have some pretty decent chefs in the residence hall! The salad was a combination of healthy ingredients that we could find at target and that were cheap (first rule of college cooking). The base of the salad was a bag of mixed greens, to which we added diced tomato, sliced cucumber, chopped bell pepper, sliced carrots, diced apple, dried cranberries, almonds, crushed cashews and a lite raspberry vinaigrette. Not too shabby at all! And splitting the cost with another friend made our contribution to the dinner pretty reasonable. There was enough for the six of us girls plus leftovers (for lunch today, yay!).
It’s so much fun to cook and have dinner outside of the dining halls, even more so with company like these girls! If you can get a group together, cooking is half the fun, dinner is a well-needed break from cafeteria food, and meeting new people becomes easier than ever. Great way to spend a Sunday night. Dinner was followed by a chick flick and I think we’ve all agreed that this needs to happen more often! :)
Summer Seafood Finale
The LAST post in my Summer Seafood series and YES, it is shrimp. I promise more variety in the future, but this summer I have really experimented with all kinds of crazy shrimp recipes from burgers to quesadillas, so I thought I’d round out the season with a more conventional dinner. A Grilled Kabob Salad with BBQ’d veggies and pesto shrimp.
There really is no “recipe” because it’s so simple but that’s why dinners like these are so great! If you’re a mushroom person, add mushrooms. Like tomatoes? Throw them on the grill! It’s a medley of color and flavor ;) We just seasoned some bell peppers, onions, zucchini and peaches (the best part!!) with a garlic-y blend plus some “Slap Yo Mama” spice….I bought it just for the name alone but love the added kick to veggies or chicken!
After coating the shrimp in some basil pesto, we skewered them and sent them onto the grill master (AKA my dad).
I had to get my seafood fill before I left home for school, because while our cafeteria does a pretty good job of supplying healthy options, shrimp is definitely not one of them. (Speaking of which, ‘Cafeteria Cuisine’ coming up tomorrow!)
Then its just a matter of assembling your grilled goodies onto a bed of lettuce with whatever add-ins you want! And arranging them in a beautiful display of course:
So that concludes the Summer Seafood series. Onto bigger and better things: College Girl Cuisine! Which of course applies to all people not in college as well.
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Hot Summer, Spicy Empanadas
Muy Caliente (Homemade!) Empanadas
Hey, Autumn? Cool, crisp autumn….you can start any time now. Really, feel free to take over. I am SO ready for fall weather. And fall flavors. Mmmm pumpkin, cinnamon, apple, sweet potato. Not that summer cooking isn’t exceptional too – grilling and fresh fruits and ice cream. But who else is counting down til the return of the Pumpkin Spice Latte?
This recipe doesn’t contain any of that. In fact it is non-seasonal. It’s EMPANADAS! The first time I had an empanada was four weeks ago in Manhattan at a tiny, colorful, Cuban restaurant called Empanada Mama. (How cute is that name!) Dinner inspiration comes from all over and when my family was planning our week’s menu, we decided to recreate our own empanadas.
They looked easy enough to make: a “crust” and filling of your choice. We made a cornmeal crust and spicy chili filling with cheese, onions and tomatoes topped with avocado and more tomatoes. Good call on the cornmeal! There are literally unlimited ways to make and fill these things though…pizza-stuffed, veggie-stuffed, seafood, cheeseburger, fajita – it doesn’t have to be Cuban! (In theory, you can even make a dessert empanada. THINK about the possibilities!) Haha basically, have fun with them :)
The dirty work
Stuffed and ready to bake!
Baked Chilli Empanadas:
For the crust:
1 cup non-fat milk
1 package active dry yeast
2 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs brown sugar
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 cups white or wheat flour (we’ve used both and both are great!)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
For Filling:
1/2 lb. or ground beef or ground turkey
1 packet of chili seasoning
diced onion
diced tomatoes
shredded cheese
Tomato, avocado and light sour cream to top
1. Warm milk in a saucepan to 110 degrees. (Watch carefully, it happens fast!) Stir in yeast.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together olive oil, brown sugar and cornmeal. Add in the milk and stir. Stir in the flour, salt, and baking soda.
3. Knead the dough on a floured surface, shape into a ball, place into the bowl and cover with a towel. Allow to sit for 1 hour. Meanwhile, prepare your ground beef or turkey with the chili mixture or seasoning of your choice.
4. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
5. Roll out dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Using a circular cup or small bowl, cut out discs of dough to fill for your empanada (ours were about 6 inches in diameter)
6. Fill the middle of the dough disc with chili meat, cheese, onions and tomatoes. (If you are a bean-eater, those might be well-suited in this mixture as well.)
7. Dip your fingers in water and dampen the edges of the dough disc; then fold in half to a half-moon shape and pinch closed.
8. Bake for 15-18 minutes until golden delicious. Top with avocado, tomatoes and/or sour cream and enjoy :)
Like an EXTREME hot pocket
What would you fill your empanada with?
