This year of college is going to be pretty exciting for me, food-wise that is. Because I eat only halal (the Islamic almost-equivalent of Kosher) meats, I worked it out with the athletic department to help me get half of my flexi dollars (the money that can only be used for on-campus dining provided by Bon Appetit) in cash, for eating out at various halal restaurants in the city or for cooking.

This is a huge relief for me, seeing as the main expense for me last school year was food--usually dining out for meat that I could eat.

So I've been hard at work acquiring all the essentials for a movable kitchen that I can transport from my dorm to wherever there might be a stove and oven (usually the dorm kitchen or a friend's apartment). I've got a crate full of pots and pans, utensils, baking equipment, and knives. And a fridge full of tortillas, pita, roti, hummus, butter, soymilk, lettuce, cilantro, salsa, cheese, nectarines, eggs, yogurt cups, and some leftovers (so far, at least).

This week is the first week I've actually gotten to cook (or maybe, this is the first week that I planned out well enough, leaving enough time to cook), so it's been fun preparing a menu of a few meals that I can cook on one day and eat as is or modify for the rest of the week.

Yesterday I went downtown to Salama Halal Meat market on Geary and Jones and picked up a pound of ground beef and three chicken breasts. But I was in a for a little bit of surprise with the chicken: I had expected 3 half breasts, but got 3 full butterflied breasts, and more than that, these chickens must have been on some super steroids because they were absolutely HUGE! So I ended up with 6 huge half breasts that amounted to about 3 pounds of chicken.

I went over to my roommate's boyfriend's on-campus apartment to cook dinner, which I had decided to be chicken pita sandwiches. Sauteed half of the chicken sliced into tenders, with some pre-minced onion, shallot, and garlic mix I got from Trader Joe's (my favorite), with some garlic powder and dried basil. Of course, the stove just wouldn't get hot enough to brown the chicken, so I ended up having to finish them off under the broiler. Worked out well enough though, and I stuck a pita in the oven to warm while the meat was finishing off. Stuffed my pita with some chicken, a dollop of roasted garlic hummus, and some butter lettuce drizzled with balsamic vinegar, and I had myself a delicious meal. (Sorry no pic of this one!)

But I ended up with some leftover chicken to use for the rest of the week.

And today I got some more groceries to cook my ground beef with, and headed down to the communal dorm kitchen with my crate of supplies.

Sauteed that same garlic, onion, and shallot mix with my pound of ground beef, added some hot sauce and let it brown. (I'm still waiting on my parents to send me a package full of spices, so for now hot sauce has become my go-to condiment.)

On the side, I started heating a can of vegetarian chili over the stove, to which I added half of the ground meat mixture that I just made. Let that simmer for a half hour--yum!

Back to my other half of meat, I added a quarter cup of prepared Trader Joe's salsa and some more hot sauce and let the meat brown a bit more.

So here's my end product, from left to right:

1) Seasoned ground beef mix

2) Sauteed chicken tenders

3) Jazzed up Chili


And by this time it was around 11 o'clock....Brunch time!

So I whisked two eggs with some cilantro, onion/shallot/garlic mix, and hot sauce, scrambled that with some of my newly made chili and topped it off with shredded chees and salsa. Mmmmmm.

My meal plan for the week is then as follows:

1) Any combination of taco meat or chicken with tortillas, salsa, cheese, lettuce, and cilantro.

2) Any combination of chicken with hummus, lettuce, cilantro, pita or roti

3) Chili with cheese and cilantro. Or chili over eggs, or chili wrapped in a tortilla with eggs

AND this all is in addition to whatever food I may eat out at restaurants or bring back to school as take out.

Ahhh life is good. Food is good.

The restaurant was open all day for the 4th of July, so my family didn't get to have our July 4th BBQ celebration and whatnot (though I did get to go out for fireworks and other exploding things after work, despite being so dead from a long day).

So my mom decides that instead we should have our 4th BBQ today, Monday the 6th, just with my parents and me. Good idea, I say, because the weather had been fabulous all week, anywhere from 70-90. But of course, I think my family jinxes the weather for barbecues... Today was stormy...a warm storm, but rainy and super windy nonetheless.

However, a little bad weather has never threatened my family's cooking courage, and lo and behold, we had a perfectly BBQ grilled dinner (overlooking the fact that I stood over the fire with an umbrella and the other fact that cedar leaves and pine cones were being blown into the grill by huge gusts of wind that rattled the house).

The menu tonight:

A couple well seasoned rib eyes, some rosemary marinated chicken skewers with a delicious plum sauce for dipping, grilled purple potatos, mini mild peppers, and portabella mushrooms, and for dessert, grilled fresh pineapple spears topped with my fabulous balsamic reduction.

I guess a late 4th of July BBQ is better than none after all. :)

When I came home from San Francisco for summer, I opened the fridge and found it to be an abandoned fixture with a gallon of milk, butter, and little more. However in the two weeks since, I'm happy to note that our fridge is brimming with fresh ingredients and lots of leftovers!

So I opened the fridge tonight to make dinner for my parents before they came home, and found the following ingredients for my use:

Sun-dried tomatoes
Half an onion
Leftover barbequed chicken breast
Heavy whipping cream
Blueberries
Pillsbury "Grands" biscuit ready-to-bakes

And so I decided to make spaghetti with a tomato chicken sauce, and a blueberry shortcake for dessert.

For the pasta, I boiled half a bag of spaghetti with a hefty pinch of salt until (unfortunately) over cooked just because my poor jaw is still not ready for heavy duty chewing due to my wisdom teeth extraction.

For the sauce, I softened some sliced onions over medium heat in olive oil, adding in my sun dried tomatoes and chopped leftover chicken, along with salt, pepper, and a pasta seasoning blend from Trader Joes. In my food processor, I blended a can of roma tomatoes until smooth and added about a 1/2 cup to my sauce, along with another 1/2 cup of olive oil. Then let this sit and worked on my dessert!

Stuck the biscuits in the oven as per package directions, but sprinkled Splenda (my parents are watching their sugar) on top of half of them for my dessert shortcakes.

For my blueberry topping, I heated about 2 cups of fresh blueberries with 3 tablespoons of Splenda with 1/2 cup of water until bubbling. Then, I added my secret ingredient, a couple tablespoons of quality balsamic vinegar, along with a little cornstarch mixed with water to thicken the sauce. I find that balsamic vinegar paired with berries is just heavenly, and so I added it to my shortcake topping.

Whipped up my heavy whipping cream with some more tablespoons of Splenda and a teaspoon of vanilla for my whipped topping, yum.

Assembled my spaghetti with sauce and a little cheese I found on top, and added in a biscuit (non-sugared!) for the main course. Then cut my biscuits in half, scooped some blueberry sauce inside, layered it with some whipped cream and the other biscuit half, and then topped it off with more whipped cream, blueberry sauce, and a few fresh blueberries for the perfect summer dessert.

Last, that wine-looking drink there by the pasta actually isn't wine, but rather is a Cabernet grape juice by a company called First Blush. Really interesting stuff, you should definitely try it!

So all in all, a really simple and delicious summer meal that I made in less than an hour.

Cheers.