Kielbasa and Beans

“Man, D&E are on a kielbasa fix this week!” You got that right, it also goes along with our easy-cook-and-clean-meals theme for this week. But don’t worry, we’ll have another theme ready for you next week!

As you will see below, this recipe does call for a lot of ingredients. But, the majority of the items you might have on hand already. If not, feel free to improvise with the sauce (that’s pretty much what we do).

This is a one pan dish so clean-up is a cinch. And a one-a, and a two-a, and a...

Healthier than our “Kielbasa and Potatoes” recipe, this recipe is super-fun to improvise and customize to your liking. Yes grasshopper, you finally are cooking on your own now…

• Servings – 3 to 4
• Prep time – 5 minutes
• Cook time – 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 1lb of your favorite kielbasa (again: low fat, or low sodium, or fresh from a butcher)
• 1 small onion
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1/2 green pepper
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons of steak sauce
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 (15 ounce) can of white kidney or cannelini beans
• 2 tablespoons ketchup (Heinz of course!)
• 1 tablespoon of mustard

Protocol

1. Cut your kielbasa into 1/2 inch coins diagonally, just like in our previous post.

2. Chop both peppers and onion into small pieces (save the other half of the peppers for one of our recipes for next week). Since this is the first recipe post with peppers, please refer to this for help.

3. In your pan, cook the kielbasa on med-high heat for 2-3 minutes.

4. Stir in your peppers and onions and cook until the kielbasa is lightly browned and/or the veggies become tender. Another 3-4 minutes.

5. Combine the brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, cider vinegar, steak sauce, ketchup, and mustard. Taste to make sure the flavor is what you like, if not adjust with the ketchup, steak sauce, and/or brown sugar.

6. Rinse and drain your can of beans and add to the pan. Cook until the beans are done.

7. Serve over rice or on its own (like we prefer) and enjoy!

Tell us how this recipe worked out for you and if you have any suggestions for the sauce in the comments below!

-D&E

Kielbasa and Potatoes

We scoured the inter-webs looking for a funny video of kielbasa to start this post off, but alas, we only found videos of Polish polkas and (as you might have guessed) inappropriate videos that are not suitable for our family oriented blog. So we are going to dive right into this one.

Before moving on, however, we want to call out that this recipe does call for a quite a bit of butter. Now please don’t go posting on the inter-webs saying that D&E are hypocrites because we said we want everyone to start eating healthier. Yes, this recipe isn’t the most healthy but it is certainly a better option than fast food. Just remember, if you fall in love with it (like we did), don’t make it every night for dinner (we don’t).

Insanely easy and delicious, although not quite as healthy as our normal meals.  We like the butter, but you can definitely use less or substitute something else in its place. Make sure to serve a side of veggies (no we don’t consider potatoes as healthy vegetables) to up the nutrition value of the whole meal.

• Servings – 4 to 5
• Prep time – 15 minutes
• Cook time – 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 lb kielbasa (preferably low-fat or low-sodium; also even better if you can get it fresh from a meat market or deli!)
• 1.5 lb red potatoes
• 2 tablespoons of butter (1/4 stick)
• Seasoned salt (no, regular salt won’t do the trick!)
• Dried parsley

Protocol:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Wash and dry potatoes.  Cut into eighths (cut in half, halve those, and halve those).

3. Put cut potatoes onto large microwave-safe plate and cover in saran wrap. Microwave on high for 5 minutes.

4. Stir potatoes (be careful when removing the plastic wrap – the steam is hot!).  Replace saran wrap.  Microwave on high for another 5 minutes.

5. While potatoes are in the microwave, cut kielbasa into about 1/2 inch coins. Cut diagonally to create maximum surface area.

6. Into a large baking dish (we use a glass 9×13), add the kielbasa, potatoes, and butter.  Add about half a tablespoon of the seasoned salt and 1/2 tablespoon of the dried parsley.  Stir to make sure everything is evenly coated (the butter should be melty from the potatoes).

7.  Bake at 350F for 15 minutes. Stir.  Bake for an additional 5-15 minutes, until the potatoes are done.  Make sure you check every couple minutes so nothing gets overdone or burned.

8. Serve with your side of veggies that you prepared while it was baking, and enjoy!  Note: you can add more salt or parsley if you want; we usually just eyeball it in the beginning.

Tell us how the recipe went for you in the comments below!

-D&E

Not Your Average Lunch Ladies

Did you know that in some parts of Europe they call their mid-day meal dinner? So for our European readers, this post is about how to eat a healthy dinner for only a few pence a day. Now back to speaking American, since we’ve already discussed time and money-saving tips when it comes to breakfast, why not give lunch a try?

“D&E, you can’t possible be suggesting I run back to my apartment or dorm and whip up something for lunch everyday?! Isn’t easier to just buy lunch?”

Easier for you, yes. Easier on your wallet, no. We completely understand where you are coming from though. For some reason there is a general idea that lunch is the one meal a day college students should go out and buy. With class, work, and projects we have no time to cook anything in the middle of the day.

Fear no more, we have come up with only two options for lunch:

First Recipe Post – Balsamic Braised Chicken!

Yes the time has finally come! As promised we are going to show you how to make Balsamic Braised Chicken over Couscous.

“Whoa, D&E this sounds hard to make…and a little too fancy for college students.”  Trust us, it’s neither hard nor fancy. But first, we do need to go over some technique regarding the use of knives. We found the following video perfect for any beginner and highly suggest watching it before moving on.

If you need to watch this video again in the future, we’ve added it to our “Resources” page under videos. Onto the recipe:

Balsamic Braised Chicken over Couscous

This recipe will impress friends and family but only takes minimal effort and time.  It is flavorful AND healthy.  It also keeps great as leftovers, so go ahead and make all three servings (just store the chicken and couscous in separate containers)!

• Servings – 3
• Prep time – 5 minutes
• Cook time – 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 3 boneless chicken breast halves (they’re normally sold as halves)
• Salt
• Pepper
• 2 cloves of minced garlic (watch this quick tutorial first)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Small onion
• ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
• ½ teaspoon dried basil
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• ¼ teaspoon dried rosemary (if the leaves are too big, break them up with your fingers before adding or else you might get a big bite of just rosemary later)
• Couscous

Protocol:

1.  Cut onion crosswise into long slices.

2.  Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper (just a small sprinkle on each side).

3.  Heat about a tablespoon of the olive oil over medium heat in a large, high walled skillet. This should take a minute or two.

4.  Add chicken to skillet. Add onions around chicken. Flip chicken over after 3 minutes (or until lightly browned).

5.  After another 3 minutes, add canned tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, chopped garlic, and dried herbs.  Make sure everything is incorporated together. Note:  If you don’t know if you like  balsamic vinegar (we use it all the time!), you can substitute half with chicken broth or stock. 1/4 cup is 4 tablespoons, so use 2 tablespoons broth and 2 tablespoons vinegar. Also, if you use the broth, buy it in one of the resealable boxes instead of a can. They’re a little more expensive, but will last up to two weeks in the fridge.

6.  Reduce heat to medium-low, cover with lid, and simmer for 5 minutes.

7.  Start water or broth for couscous. Follow the directions on the container.

8.  After 5 minutes, flip over chicken and simmer for another 5 minutes.

9.  Serve over couscous and enjoy!

For a little added bonus – the total cost per serving is just under $3, and this is one of our more expensive meals! Make sure to tell us how your experience went and if you have any other tips or suggestions in the comment section below.

-D&E

New Tabs = More Fun!

Look up. No not at the ceiling! At the top of this page. Notice anything new? We’ve added two more tabs to our blog. One is a collection of resources such as books, videos and other blogs or websites that we find very helpful when learning how to cook in college. There is not much in it now but we will continue to add to it as we find more stuff. And if you have any favorite resources, please send them in so we can share.

For those of you who are completely new to cooking, we have added another new tab for a list of must-haves that you can start collecting. Most of the cooking gear we have amassed over the course of this past year have either been hand-me-downs and/or gifts from friends and family. The only thing we’ve bought so far is a banana holder fruit basket

Breakfast

Yes, family is the most important thing, but when it comes to the things we eat, George Michael, you have a point.

Breakfast being the first meal of the day, and usually the first meal since dinner (15 hours ago!), should be very nutritious and filling enough to last us until lunch.  Here’s our advice:

First tip, don’t skip breakfast!

Second tip, don’t eat donuts for breakfast.

Coffee Cart

We hope you have your fire extinguisher by now.  Seriously, we have two right by our oven.  If one catches on fire, we have the other to put it out.  That’s how serious we are about this.

If you don’t have one yet, go and buy one.  While you’re out, make sure to pick up a coffee maker.  Yes this is our first time and money-saving tip.  You don’t even have to buy one, see if your parents or friends have an extra one lying around that you can use.

“D&E, this doesn’t sound like a time or money-saving tip.”  Oh yeah, ask the frequent visitors of Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, or Java the Hut (is that a real place? If not we call dibs on the naming rights).  Over the course of a semester they will have wasted enough money to buy a textbook.

Still don’t believe us?  Let’s do the math: