Microwave Denver Omelet in a Mug

When I was a kid, my family and I went on vacation to Disneyland. We spent hours and hours going on the rides, walking around the park, and meeting all the characters, but oddly enough being at the actual park wasn’t my favorite part of the trip. We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel and each morning we got up and ate at Mickey’s Kitchen and my most vivid memory of this trip was… the omelet bar.

I can remember walking up to a counter full of different vegetables, cheeses, and meats and being able to put whatever I wanted onto a fluffy bed of eggs. From that moment on I was obsessed. I would beg my mom each morning to make me one before school or if I was really craving it for a breakfast for dinner type of thing. As you can imagine, I got really sick of omelets after having them every morning for about a year.

Recently, my love for omelets has returned and I have been craving them all the time. However, unlike some schools that are lucky enough to have one of these magical omelet bars, mine does not. So I have come up with a solution! This omelet can be made in about 5 minutes in the comfort of your own dorm room. Click through the pictures to see how!

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Eggcellent Denver Omelet in a Mug

(yes, the egg pun was necessary)

• 1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped onion
• 2 whole eggs
• 1 ounce (about a handful) of ham
• 2 tablespoons shredded fat-free cheddar cheese

Serving suggestion: Whole-wheat English muffin

Tweeting about Eating

Freshman 15 Minute Meals now has a twitter!

 

Follow us to stay up to date on everything that’s going on with “Freshman 15.” We want to hear what you have to say. From horrific stories of what your college tries to pass off as food, to what kind of recipes you want to be featured, feel free to tweet at us! Check it out and spread the word.

 

 

Skinny Muddy Buddies

I’m just going to come out and say it. I am by no means a gourmet chef. I have just recently started to really like cooking. In the past, I think my lack of patience combined with the mindset that directions are beneath me has been my downfall. However, there has always been one thing that I love to make. My friends and I call it Muddy Buddies, but it also goes by the name of Monkey Munch, Puppy Chow, or that really good chocolate Chex Mix stuff.

To make Muddy Buddies basically all you do is throw a bunch of melted chocolate, some Chex cereal, peanut butter, melted butter, a little bit of vanilla, and some powdered sugar in a huge bowl and mix it all together. Put it in the fridge for a little while and boom. You’ve got the best thing you’ll ever taste. Seriously. Not exaggerating.

However, as you can tell by the ingredients Muddy Buddies aren’t necessarily considered a health food. So I present to you Skinny Muddy Buddies. In addition to substituting some ingredients to make this mouth full of goodness regret free, these ingredients can all be found either in dining halls or campus grocery stores. It also only require a bowl and a spoon, so it is ideal for the dorms.

What you will need…

SKINNY MUDDY BUDDIES:

    2 cup whole grain Chex cereal

2 TBSP of peanut butter

1 dark chocolate pudding cup

1 Pack of vanilla pudding mix (unprepared)

1/2 cup raw almonds

1/2 cup of dried cranberries

1 pack of Truvia or other sweetener

Direction (you should really use them even though they are annoying):

 1. Pour the cereal into a mixing bowl. Add the chocolate pudding to the cereal and stir together.

2. After the pudding is evenly covering the cereal add the peanut butter and mix again.

The finished product!

3. Once the peanut butter is mixed in, add the dried cranberries and the almonds and stir once again.

4. Add the vanilla pudding mix and the Truvia to mixture and lightly stir. Put the mix in the fridge for a little and it’s ready to eat!

“Those were the muddiest buddies I’ve ever had,” said Kennedy Gilbert, a freshman in college (as she finished off the bowl).

This mix tastes just as good as the original but the addition of almonds and cranberries improves the taste and the nutritional value. The substitution of chocolate pudding for the melted chocolate reduces the calories to make it a lighter treat that won’t result in the emergence of a food baby.

“I really like the contrast between the chewiness of the cranberries and the crunchiness of the almonds and Chex,” said Tiffany Miller, also a college freshman.

The combination of the almonds and the peanut butter make this a great mix to eat before going to the gym… or to just enjoy. “Almonds contain phytochemicals, which have been proven to help prevent cancer and heart diseases, and lower cholesterol. They are also high in protein, which makes them a long lasting source of energy,” said Carol Ross, owner of Personally Fit, a health and fitness center in Rancho Santa Fe, CA.

Whether you are looking for something that will supplement your attempt to get swoll at the gym or just something that tastes great and has some nutritional value, this recipe is great for the starving college student.

Adapted from Undressed Skeleton.

Better Food, Better College Experience?

As college students, we are given the same piece of advice over and over again: “Enjoy the next four year. They’ll be the best of your life.” While I am in no way saying that this is false (because frankly college is pretty great), I’ve been thinking about what exactly makes college such an amazing “experience.” I decided that a very small amount of it had to do the academic aspect of college, but mostly comes from the ability to do whatever you want whenever you want, the abundance of new people to meet, and the way there is most likely alway a party to go to.

However, there was one thing that I failed to consider until reading this article on USA TODAY.com: the food. According to studies conducted by The Daily Meal and The Daily Beast, there is a visible relationship between the universities with the best food  and the happiest schools in America.

The Ultimate College Grocery List

Lately, I have found myself really missing one thing about home… My pantry. Looking back I realized how often I took advantage of the fact that I constantly had unlimited access to whatever I was craving. Seriously, it was the Narnia of pantries. However, it is apparent that this magic was restricted to my house because the food supply I have at school pales in comparison.

Let’s face it; no matter how good your dining hall food may be it is essential to have food in your dorm. Whether it be that it’s way to hard to get yourself out of bed to walk all the way to the cafeteria, or you just really need some midnight munchies, it’s convenient to have something more than a pack of Skittles and some questionable milk in your fridge.

Now, the problem is: What to buy? “The most popular foods that college students buy are frozen dinners, cereal, and chips… and beer,” said Jessica Majors, manager of Albertson’s in San Luis Obispo. These foods may be good choices for conveniency (and parties) but they are not necessarily the healthiest picks. Some students have somewhat of an idea of what to buy, “I always have Easy Mac, peanut butter, bread, and popcorn in my room,” said Janelle Coccimiglio, a freshman at Cal Poly. However, many others don’t have the slightest idea of what they should have in their room, “I usually have some peanut butter, and that’s about it,” said Daniel Sweeny, freshman at Cal Poly. So, here’s a list to give you an idea of what types of food you may want to stock your room with.

Welcome!

Welcome to “Freshman 15” Minute Meals, a blog all about making the most out of the notorious ‘dorm food.’ Whether the food offered  in your dining hall consists of Creme Brûlée and New York Steak or grayish mush that is questionable to even be considered as food, dorm meals become repetitive and are often very unhealthy resulting in the dreaded… FRESHMAN 15. Thematically, we are similar to the blogs Dormet, but differ in design in that we take a softer, more feminine approach, more similar to the blog Spread Your Wings. In content, we are also comparable to the blog Small Kitchen College, but aim to use simpler recipes that anyone can use, regardless of their culinary experience. Esthetically, we are taking a similar approach to the blogs Can’t Spell Flirt Without Fit and Life Lessons Loved, utilizing the same theme.

Hope you enjoy the blog and realize that a college diet doesn’t have to just consist of ramen, popcorn, Easy Mac, and cereal.

  –The Freshman 15 Team