Posts Tagged Dorm Friendly
Baked Potato Soup with Andoullie Sausage
Posted by Thomas in Microwave, Potato soup, cheap recipes, college recipes, dorm recipes, healthy recipes, potatoes, sausage on May 14, 2009
Last week, my girlfriend and I went to an Italian restaurant to eat lunch. I won’t say what restaurant because I didn’t particularly like my meal and I don’t want to bash anyone, but I did have an amazing soup before my meal came out. It was a roasted garlic potato soup and it was undoubtedly the best part of the meal.
Now, I’ve always liked potato soup, something which I think started from eating chunky soup when I was younger. Obviously from there, the soups I’ve tried have only gotten better over time, but I had never made one before. The soup I had last week made all that change. I couldn’t resist the urge to my hand and give potato soup a go.
Also, if you like this, check out my other potato soup recipe.
Ingredients:
6-8 medium potatoes
16oz andoullie sausage
2 cups milk
2.5 cups chicken broth
1 can cream of chicken
1 can cream of onion
1 cup of shredded cheese
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Optional Ingredients:
Any type of sausage
cream of whatever you’d like

Ingredients used in this recipe
Step 1) Peel the potatoes and cut them in 1/2 inch cubes and put them in a large pot and cover them with water. Turn the stove top on high and let water come to a boil. Add a little salt to the pot to give the potatoes some flavor. Let boil for about 20 minutes. You’ll know if they’re done if you can take a spoon and slice a potato in half with ease. When done, turn the stove top off.

Boiling Potatoes
Step 2) Chop up the sausage in small little pieces, similar in size to the potato. I cut the link in half, and then in half again, then cut the 4 slices of sausage into little cubes. Throw this all in a pan and brown the sausage. Shouldn’t take any longer than 10 minutes.
Step 3) Once your potatoes are done, drain all the water from the pot leaving just the potatoes. Take about 4 cups (half of the cooked potatoes) and put them in a bowl and mash them up. Leave the other potatoes in the pot you cooked them in.
Step 4) Throw your milk, cream of onion, cream of chicken, and chicken broth back into the first pot with the rest of the potatoes. Stir a little bit just to mix everything up. You’re not trying to mash the rest of the potatoes you started with. Now throw in your mashed potato and your sausage and stir again. Now is when you can throw in all your seasonings. I put a lot of garlic in mine because I wanted it to taste garlicky. Turn the stove top back on to medium and continue stirring the mixture so all of the potato and sausage don’t stick to the bottom. I let it cook for about 30 minutes.
Step 5) Turn the stove top off after 30 minutes and let the soup sit for about 10 minutes. I found it gets a little thicker after sitting for a while. Now serve in a bowl and pour about a tbsp or two of shredded cheese on top. Enjoy!
Cajun Stir Fry
Posted by Thomas in Microwave, beef stir fry recipe, cajun recipe, dorm recipe, easy recipe on May 12, 2009
Oh Snap! This dish was amazing, easily the best thing I’ve made so far. I went grocery shopping with my mom and sister this past weekend and I was thinking of things to cook during the week. At the time I pictured myself cooking onions and bell peppers with a nice chicken breast in the oven, but when it came time to make dinner last night I just wasn’t feeling it.
Instead I decided to use the stew meat (beef cut into chunks) instead of the chicken, and I wanted to do the whole thing on the stove top in a pan. When I started making the dish I decided to eat the beef, onion, and pepper mix over a bed of rice and peas, but as I was cooking and the smell overcame me I couldn’t allow myself to waste any of the gravy in the pan. I decided to just throw the brown rice and peas into the pan and let it absorb all of the gravy. It was a great decision! Like I said earlier, this was the best thing I’ve made yet.
The best thing is that I’m pretty sure I could make this in the dorm as well. At the end of the post I’ll tell you what to do if you want to make this without an oven.
Ingredients:
8oz of stew meat (any type of cubed beef)
1 medium green bell pepper
1 large onion
1 cup of Brown rice
1 can of no salt peas (8.5 oz)
4 tbsp of butter or margarine
1/3 cup of water
1 tbsp Tony Chacheres
1.5 tbsp of Kitchen Bouquet browning sauce
1 tbsp of worcestershire sauce
2 tsp of black pepper
1 tsp of cayenne pepper
Optional Ingredients:
Other sliced vegetables
white rice
Noodles
Step 1) Throw one cup of brown rice, two cups of water, and the can of peas into a dish and microwave it for 20 minutes or so, until all the water is gone.
Step 2) Take a pan and turn the stove top to medium-high heat. Chop up your onion and pepper into thin long strips. Throw them into the pan and put the butter on top. Stir and let cook for about 15 minutes or until the onion and pepper are a golden color and are no longer hard.
Step 3) Season your meat and throw it into the pan as well. Try to move the onions and pepper aside so that the meat can be touching the bottom of the pan. Just throw the onions and pepper on top of the meat. Let cook for about 10 minutes and then add your browning sauce. Stir the pan to make sure everything is nice and mixed.
Step 4) By this time your rice and peas should be done. Pour the mix into the pan and add the water. Stir so that everything becomes mixed. Turn the stove down to medium, cover the pan, and let cook for about 10 minutes.
That’s it! Everything should be done now.
Now, if you want to make this using a microwave, here is how I would do it.
Step 1) Microwave the rice and peas same as above.
Step 2) Throw your seasoned meat into a separate, larger bowl and microwave it until it is completely cooked. Not sure how long this would take. I’m thinking about 15-20 minutes, just make sure to stir the meat every 5 minutes or so since the microwave cooks unevenly.
Step 3) Throw your onion, bell pepper, and butter into a third bowl and microwave until the onions and peppers are a golden brown color. I’m thinking at least 10 minutes, but I don’t know as I haven’t tried it yet.
Step 4) Mix all three bowls into one large bowl (hopefully one of the three was large enough to handle everything together) Throw in your browning sauce and water in as well and stir thoroughly. Stick back in the microwave for about five more minutes.
Done! I just want to say that I haven’t tried the microwave steps yet, that is what I would do in the dorm room though, feel free to make adjustments. Just make sure the meat is cooked, that is the most important step.
Grilled Brisket
Posted by Thomas in brisket recipes, brisket rub recipe, cheap recipes, dorm recipes, grilled brisket on April 19, 2009
The other day I was out shopping with some friends and I knew I was going to be heading home after we were done so I thought it would be a great opportunity to just go all out and spend the rest of the afternoon making a great meal. I thought for awhile about what I wanted and I finally decided I wanted a huge piece of meat, so that is just what I got!
I have never even made brisket before much less tried one on a George Foreman grill. I wasn’t too sure it would even cook since it was so thick, but I bought it and decided to try it out anyways. Once I got home I got online and looked at a few recipes to get an idea about what people used to season the meat with. In the process I quickly realized that most people slow cook a brisket over a long period of time, which had me a little worried. I decided to just go on and try it anyways.
It actually turned out pretty amazing. This was probably the best piece of meat I’ve cooked on the grill so far.
Ingredients
- beef brisket (~32 oz)
- 2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp garlic
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp cayenne
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
Optional Ingredients
- any seasoning you want to use really
This dish will make about four – five servings, depending on how big the portion is. I also have recipes for the sweet potatoes and the rice that can be found on the site in previous posts.
Step 1: Cut your brisket into manageable sizes. I cut mine into about six different pieces so that they would grill up quicker.
Step 2: Throw your brisket into a bowl and throw in all the seasoning with it. Rub the seasoning on the meat and try to evenly coat all pieces of meat. Don’t be afraid to get a little messy! Wash your hands when done.
Step 3: Turn on your grill and wait about five minutes until it heats up. Throw a few pieces of meat onto the grill. I was only able to fit about two pieces at a time because of my grill size. My brisket was about an inch thick and it took about 25 minutes to cook completely through. I flipped it over every five minutes or so, which probably isn’t necessary in a George Foreman grill, but the bottom side of the grill always seems to cook faster than the top, so I flip it anyways.
Step 4: Take the brisket off of the grill and allow to cool for about five minutes before cutting it. This will keep the juices inside. Now serve with whatever sides you’d like and enjoy your meal!
Note: As I was cooking the brisket I was cutting them in half so that I could check if it was done, but this allowed all of the juices to come out of the meat. I didn’t think much of this at the time because as soon as I put the meat in a tupperware container, all the juices were coming out and tasted amazing when you pour it back over the meat. But when I went to heat up the left overs later, the meat was pretty dry. So try to avoid cutting the cooked brisket until about five minutes after it’s done cooking.
Sorry, I know a lot of you wanted easier recipes to follow, but I just really wanted brisket. I have a lot of good stuff coming up. I’ve been trying to find interesting casserole dishes to try out and I also have a lot of ideas for yummy side dishes. I’ve also started trying to find recipes that don’t require any cooking at all. So hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll have some simpler stuff thrown in the mix.



















