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.