Best Friends Visit URI!

Feeding Visitors...

Having friends visit at school is always a great time once they get there but can be very stressful in planning to accommodate for your guests. The major issue for me always is based around food, what will I feed my guests or where do I want to bring them to eat? It's a little less stressful though when the visitors are your best friends for almost eight years and you know exactly what they like. Thankfully this was the case for me when my two best friends came up to visit for the Third Eye Blind concert here at URI back in the beginning of April. 

I knew I had to feed them for two nights and wanted to make something that would last. The motto I learned from my mother, cook once eat twice, has been seeming to really apply to my life a lot lately. I chose to make a large fresh tomato, basil and mozzarella salad for us to eat during the weekend. I always seem to think I am cooking for an army and we had more than enough to snack on from Friday night until Sunday for dinner.

We were getting ready to head to the show and wanted to eat something quick and easy that still tasted good. I suggested we just throw on a pot of pasta and open up a jar of red sauce and everyone seemed to agree with the simple go-to dinner idea. 

When I opened the fridge to pull out the jar of sauce the remaining tomato, basil and mozzarella salad was starting me in the face and I had an idea...

I drained the pasta and before placing it back in the pot I quickly threw in some olive oil in the pot and poured in what was left of the salad, sauteing it for a few minutes until the tomatoes started to cook down. Then I mixed in the hot pasta and some of the jarred sauce. We used our fresh left overs to add great flavors to a simple pasta dish, it was delicious.

  

Puerta Vallarta!

SPRING BREAK!


So, all the time spent getting ready for spring break vacation came and went so quickly. My two best friends and I had an AMAZING time in beautiful Puerta Vallarta, Mexico. We had a little bit of troubles with flights getting down but once we made it we spent the week enjoying the gorgeous weather and relaxation of the tropical atmosphere. 


 We stayed at an all inclusive resort, the Puerta Vallarta Marriot, and had three different restaurants to chose from for any of our meals through out the day, breakfast, lunch and dinner. There was one restaurant in particular that we found to be exceptionally better than the rest. The calamari and Cesar salad were delicious and almost always ordered during our dinners. For lunch, there was on salad I just couldn't get enough of. Although the deep fried crispy chicken and bacon probably wasn't the healthiest of choices, it was after all vacation and wanted to eat as I pleased.

The salad came served in a large crispy taco shell on a large bed of fresh lettuce. On top there was pieces of bacon, black olives, ripe avocado, cheddar cheese, tomatoes, the crispy chicken and was topped with a light honey mustard dressing. It was absolutely delicious and I believe I ate it three or four different afternoons during lunch, always washed down with a cold Miami Vice. Oh spring break why did you have to end?

SNACK WRAPS

I know it’s probably a lot easier for everyone to stop at a McDonald’s and grab one of their ‘really healthy’ snack wraps…  but for the amount of time you most likely will spend sitting at the numerous drive through lines and windows, you could’ve easily already have just made your own.

Buying any sort of whole-wheat wraps, your own deli meat, vegetables and dressing is a quick way to make a much lower calorie version yourself PLUS you’ll have enough left over to make them again for another day.

My new personal favorite?

     -       whole wheat wrap

     -       deli sliced turkey and provolone

     -       lettuce

     -       tomato

     -       oregano

     -       dressing (my top three choices: balsamic, light Italian or a little red wine vinegar with salt and pepper)

I’m still not really that talented at actually wrapping it all up together myself but that’s really all the time and skill it takes.

     1.     Wash tomatoes and lettuce before slicing and cutting them up

     2.     Place cheese and turkey on the wrap (toast open faced at this point if you want to melt the cheese a little bit) and then top with tomato, lettuce, oregano, dressing and rolllll it up.

While on a mission to stay in shape and be healthy for spring break, sometimes I like to limit the amount of cheese I use in a day and will opt to replace it or just eliminate it from the wrap all together.

Instead of the cheese a mashed up avocado with a dash of salt tastes really good, it also adds an extra source of protein, or try any other low-calorie condiment you want, like mustard.

BOSTON!!

So after being a student here at URI for almost four years this past weekend we FINALLY made it to Boston. Despite that fact I am one of Manhattans biggest fans because I’m there basically every weekend when I’m back home, I had an AMAZING time. We were celebrating one of my best guy friends 22^nd birthday and went to ‘Howl at the Moon’.

It was WAY different than any club or bar I’ve been to in NYC and the new concept in how the bar was themed was a nice change. The fact they had a more NYC style nightclub attached downstairs though was also a plus and more my style. However, if you ever do have the chance to go here although the bar is attached to the club you need to re-enter through a different door and show ID again. I learned this the hard way and despite the fact the second bouncer had just seen me walk out of ‘Howl at the Moon’, he wouldn’t take my stamped had as a valid form of ID.

They had live performers who would take written down requests from audience members and would play your song right away if you threw them a nice tip. They also had these awesome drink buckets that a few of us split. 

Since it was a long night and there was no shot of any one going food shopping, we took the LAZY COLLEGE KID way out and ordered pizza for dinner. If you attend URI or live anywhere in Rhode Island and have NOT tried this pizza I HIGHLY suggest you do so IMMEDIATELY.

Like I said I spend a majority of my time in New York City and the pizza back home in New Jersey doesn’t even compare to the various pizza’s I’ve tried while away at school, but PIER PIZZA just BLEW me out of the water. It’s AMAZING, enough said. Their white pizza (called ‘greek pizza’ on their menu) is just phenomenal as well as their traditional cheese. 

CLASS CANCELLED!!!

One of the greatest things is waking up on a Friday morning to find out your class has been cancelled. Usually rushing out the door to make it to a 10:00 doesn’t leave much room to hang out and make something reallllll good for breakfast. However, since this wasn’t the case last Friday I had plenty of time to relax and actually make something for breakfast instead of grabbing something to go.

I love eggs any way whether they’re scrambled, over easy or my all time favorite, omelets. The best part about omelets is you can really add anything you want to them, or whatever it is you have in the fridge. This time it was the left over spinach and kalamata olives from dinner Wednesday night and it was delicioussss (and pretty healthy!).

WHAT YOU NEED & HOW TO DO IT:

     -       2 or 3 eggs

     -       splash of milk

     -        spinach

     -       chopped garlic

     -       kalamta olives

     -       feta cheese

     -       butter

  

     1.     Wash your spinach and chop up your olives and garlic (I don’t really measure at this point because it’s all up to you depending on how much you like or don’t like these ingredients)

     2.     Beat your eggs, add the splash of milk and a dash of salt and pepper, set aside.

     3.     Heat your pan, coat the bottom with butter and add chopped garlic followed by your spinach.

     4.     Once the spinach has cooked down and is ALMOST fully cooked, add in your eggs, olives and crumble a little bit of the feta on top (or whatever other cheese you want to use)

     5.     Let the eggs cook. You can poke at the middle of your omelet to let the uncooked eggs run through. Once you feel it’s cooked enough, fold over to sit for about a minute then flip it over to the other side.

* if you feel you don’t have the skill, and trust me I have dropped a few of these on the kitchen floor myself, just slide it off on to a plate first and flip it over that way. *

LAZY COLLEGE KID TIP: A lot of what I cook involves chopped garlic, which can be a serious pain in the asssss to peel and chop up all the time. So I also keep a jar of diced garlic in my fridge for the days when I just don’t have the time or want to bother with the fresh garlic!  

Spring Break Approved Dinners: Tomato Salad & Spinach Rotini

Since we all have been eating realllly healthy and getting ready for spring break we decided to keep it going even at our family dinners and this healthy, amazingggly delicious dinner is what we came up with (measurements for following was enough for all 7 of us with only a bowl of the pasta left over):

Tomato Salad:

      -       6 tomatoes (sliced)

      -       1 clove diced

      -       3 balls of fresh mozzarella

      -       1 small package of basil

      -       olive oil

      -       salt/pepper

      -       balsamic glaze or vinegar for dressing

FIRST! DICE&SLICE: Tomatoes, garlic and basil

Do it like this, if you want this:

1. Place sliced tomatoes on a plate with a few drizzles of olive oil, diced garlic clove, add a few dashes of salt, and sprinkle with half of the diced basil. 

2. Next, slice the fresh mozzarella to top tomato slices and finish with a few dashes of salt and pepper along with the rest of the diced basil. 

3.  Cover and place in the fridge until ready to serve. Don't forget to top with balsamic before putting it on the table!

*the longer the tomatoes sit covered in the fridge, the more flavor they will marinate in and absorb*

THE MAIN DISH

WHAT YOU NEED & HOW YOU DO IT:

-1 box whole grain rotini pasta

-2 bags of baby spinach

- 4 cloves diced garlic

- Olive oil

- 1 jar sun dried tomatoes

- medium container of fresh kalamata olives

FIRST! Fill your water pot, salting and turning it on to boil.

1.    1. DICE&SLICE:  the garlic and kalamata olives while you wait for the water to boil and start sautéing the spinach. After you finish the garlic, add that and some olive oil to a pan and cook until they begin to brown and add in washed spinach. Let the spinach cook and reduce then shut heat.  

      2. Drain half of the oil from sun-dried tomatoes and add the rest to the spinach and garlic. Cut sun-dried tomatoes then add those to spinach as well as diced olives. 

     3. Once pasta is cooked (about 10 minutes) drain and mix in spinach and sun-dried kalamata sauté. Dish it up and serve! (top with parmesan cheese if you want)

Super Bowl Sunday

*first let me make a quick note that I honestly am HORRIBLE with the graphics aspect of all of this and whatever this green-looking thing I created is, is most DEFINITIVELY NOT staying for much longer and I'm not really feelings this title....*


Yeahhhhhhh GIANTS!!! So, in light of the recent super bowl win (sorry Patriots fans) I was inspired to write my first post about what I brought with me on game day. 
Anyway... I was debating between nachos and potato skins (both of which are my favoriteeee) and ended up going for the potato skins. I didn't go to a HUGE party and I knew everyone else was brining something as well so I ended up making only about a dozen and thisss is how I made it happen:


1. I couldn't making something out of the nothing that was in my empty refrigerator, so my two roommates and I ventured out to face the crowds of fans stocking up at Stop & Shop to buy:


- 6 large baking potatoes (aka 'russet potatoes') 
- 2 8oz. bags of shredded cheddar cheese
- Bacon bits (running late as usual I opted for these to save time, but it would have been SO much better if I cooked & crumbled actual bacon, next time) 
- 1 pint light cream
- 16 oz. sour cream
- Sticks of butter
- Garlic Powder
-Salt & Pepper


2. After we got back the first thing I did was preheat the oven to 375 & wash the potatoes. Once the potatoes were dry they were prepped to bake: stab them with a fork on each side about five times, cover each one lightly in olive oil and cook in the oven for an hour. I know, thats like FOREVER, but I just did my homework and got ready in the meantime....


3. Once the hour was up the potatoes were done I took them out to cool off. If they don't past the 'fork test' and aren't soft when you poke them, put them back in the oven for a few more minutes until they are. Once they were cool enough so I wouldn't burn my fingers off, I cut the skins about 1'' thick lengthways of each side and threw the rest of the potatoes in to a large mixing bowl.

4. Add in one whole bag of the shredded cheese, half a stick of butter, half of the light cream and sour cream and a few small shakes of salt, pepper and garlic powder. Thankfully my roommates bake and I had a hand mixer to use this time but I've mixed this all together before with just a fork or any other sort of mashing/mixing utensil I could find in the house.
5. After it's all blended together (it should be creamy with no chunks of potatoes) test the flavoring and add more seasonings to your personal taste. Just make sure you save AT LEAST half a bag of cheese to top it all off.


6. Lastly, I covered the tops of the skins with the potato mix, topped that with more shredded cheese then topped THAT with the bacon bits and put them back in the over and then 15 minutes later ...

 ... about an hour later at the party, they were all gone. Super bowl success.

I ended up buying an extra potato and saved it for dinner another night this week & have a MUCH healthier Spring Break friendly version of this recipe. Same concept, just replace these ingredients:
- light cream = skim milk
- sour cream = non-fat plain yogurt
- cheese = ONLY to top the potato
- butter = MINIMAL piece
- bacon bits = BYE!
- ADD: steamed broccoli as a side
- 30 days until Mexico!