Making use of the kitchen

Mark recently moved into the townhomes here on campus, which are fully equipped with a stove, fridge, pantry, dishwasher, etc. Simply put, they have kitchens. Because it is summer and the oh, so wonderful dining hall is closed, and because eating out costs way way way too much, we have begun the quest to learn how to survive with limited restaurant interference.

Neither one of us is a spectacular cook, mind you, so our culinary journeys are somewhat limited. The first thing we made was a well-known staple-spaghetti. It tasted great, minus the fact that our noodles stuck together quite nicely. The next attempt at satisfying our hunger was, again spaghetti. This time, the noodles didn't stick quite as badly, due to the fact that we added a little cooking oil. Next time, I suspect that we'll be adding a little more.

On our third try, we popped in a frozen pizza for lunch. MMMMM....it was great. :) After that, we decided to go all out. We made a nice dinner of chicken, sweet corn and red potatoes. It was very good, but everything was frozen before we heated it back up...I mean made it from scratch.

Last night we made a pizza with a great crust from Mama Mary (try it!). I also whipped up an amazing and easy summertime fruit salad of my own recipe. It takes blueberries, strawberries and peaches in whatever quantity you like combined with Cool Whip. This is by no means a healthy fruit salad, thanks to the Cool Whip, but it is downright tasty. The pizza was amazing as well, exponentially more so than its frozen cousin. We will soon be seeing a repeat performance of the pizza as the crust came in a two pack.

Next on our list? Tacos...with whatever side we scrounge up. Following that, hamburger helper with green beans, corn and rolls. I'll be making the fruit salad again, much to my delight.

Soon, I think, we'll be ready to make really nice meals, all for a fraction of the cost of our previous lifestyle of "Where would you like to go for lunch?" Don't get me wrong, though, Quizno's, Panda Express, Chick-fil-A and Taco Bueno haven't lost our business...they will just be seeing us less frequently. Super Target, on the other hand, will get to know us well.

If anyone has some delicious meal ideas, they should totally tell me because I am not really used to this meal planning thing.