Whenever I’m trolling the internet, looking for something new and exciting to post over and over and annoy my friends with, I somehow always end up on OMG Facts. Every day OMG Facts comes out with new, interesting, shocking, and hilarious fun facts that will literally make you say, “What the f***?!” From Justin Timberlake’s experimentation with the ganja to tricks to being able to breathe underwater longer, OMG Facts never fails to make me laugh and go, “Oh really now?” You can also follow their Twitter account, where they are constantly updating with new facts. So check out some of my favorite ones and see if you were as fascinated as I was! Read More »

If you’ve been a CollegeCandy reader for some time, you know we run our Intro to Cooking series every week, where even the most kitchen-shy co-ed can find easy, yummy recipes to please her suitemates (and sweet tooth!). Well, we’ve changed up the syllabus for Intro to Cooking: you’ll still get the fabulous recipes you love, but we’ll be including background nutritional info on specific ingredients that are must-haves in every college girl’s pantry.

This Week’s Ingredient: Bananas!

Gwen Stefani wasn’t kidding when she said her sh*t was bananas (B-A-N-A-N-A-S). What better food to give props to than these sweet yellow babies? In all honesty, if I had to pick exactly one food item to live on for the rest of my life, it would definitely be bananas. Why? At just 100 calories (per medium Cavendish banana, the bright yellow kind most commonly sold in American grocery stores), the banana is an excellent source of vitamin B6, potassium, fiber, and manganese. It is sweet, creamy, filling, easy to digest, and soothes stomach upset. Protease inhibitors in the banana reduce bacteria in the stomach while its natural composition activates the production of cells that line the stomach to protect it from painful acids.  Next time you’ve got a hangover, try a banana or two for breakfast and tell me if your stomach doesn’t feel ten times better! Read More »

After pulling on your Nikes and adding that new Jason Derulo song to your iPod, you drag yourself to the gym for an hour. It’s hard to get started, you’re just so tired, but twenty minutes later the endorphins are kicking in and you’re feeling great. You finish your workout, do a little stretch, and walk home feeling happy as a clam.

But that happy feeling won’t last if you don’t eat a little something after all that exercise. You need something to replenish your body, girlfriend! You want to get stronger, not burn yourself out. Your friends have suggested everything from protein shakes to lemon juice.What should you really eat after you workout? I’ll give you a hint: it’s not lemon juice.

Let’s start out simple. First, drinking water is essential for replacing what you  lost in that intense cardio sesh! Everyone knows you should drink 8 glasses of water a day, but you should increase that to 10-12 on days you’re working out.

Now for food: when it comes to eating after a workout, the key is getting a snack in within 45 minutes of finishing. But that doesn’t mean chowing down on a piece of cake or snacking on a few celery sticks. Post-workout snacks should have both carbs and protein in them. The carbs help replenish glycogen, and the protein helps rebuild and rehydrate muscle tissue, as well as stimulate your immune system to keep you healthy. Read More »

You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream.

But I scream the loudest.

And my abs scream quite differently. That’s why I totally flipped out (in glee!) last weekend at Target while shopping for a blender. I wanted to buy one to make fruit smoothies and iced coffees instead of spending $5 a pop at Jamba Juice. When I dragged my friend along with me on my quest for smoothie heaven, she informed me that she also uses her blender religiously….for bananas.

WTF? That sh*t is bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

But then she told me that if you first freeze the banana, then blend it until it’s completely fluffy, it tastes just like soft serve ice cream! And guess what yummy flavor it comes in? Needless to say, I had to try it out, so my Target bag included not only a new 10-speed blender, but also a nice giant bunch of bananas. And now all I can say is… YUM.

Stuff you need:

2-3 frozen bananas
A powerful blender
Your favorite toppings (May include: berries, dried fruit, hot fudge, syrup, chocolate sauce, cinnamon, sprinkles, granola, even more cut-up bananas.) Read More »

College pranks generally include duct taping someone’s door, moving a school mascot across campus to another location, writing dirty messages in chalk throughout a parking lot, posting fake fliers for crazy sex parties, and maybe even sometimes, throwing tar on a fraternities front lawn at 4am. What about the word “bitch” being written over and over again on someone’s whiteboard? Does that count as a prank? If that counts, where is the line drawn?

As I danced through (and let me say, there was a lot of dancing on the weekends) my spring semester of freshman year, everything came to a screeching halt when I returned from class one day with the word bitch written in big letters across my whiteboard. My first intention was that my friends did it as a joke – no big deal. But when I asked them about it, they had no idea what I was talking about.

And then it happened again. And again. And nearly every time I left my room. It turned into this monotonous cycle, where bitch turned into other words, and when I say ‘other’ words I am talking about every negative synonym under the sun. Then messages were left letting me know that I was disliked, “hated” in fact, around campus. My door decorations disappeared or were ripped up. My name was even blacked out on the community bulletin board for my hall. Eventually, my whiteboard disappeared into the grungy abyss of my neon green hallway. Every time I shut my door or pretty much blinked, I had to prepare myself with what would be there next. Read More »

We all get the munchies from time to time. No, not just the “It’s 2 AM on a Friday, I’m seven drinks deep, how much does that pizza cost?” munchies, I’m talking about the “It’s 8 AM on a Tuesday and everyone in my lecture hall just looked at my stomach because it made a noise reminiscent of the MGM Lion” munchies.

So, how do you feed the in-class hunger? You’re in college, so no one is going to reprimand you for eating, but that doesn’t mean you should go buckwild and order pizza to the lecture hall, Spicoli-style.

Here are the best and worst snacks for those mid-class munchies.

THE BEST

Cereal Bars, protein bars, PowerBars, you know, the edible bars that don’t serve alcohol: These are lightweight, filling and easy for on-the-go. If you have a long day of classes, throw a couple of these suckers in your bag and you should be set for the day. If you’re heading to the dead silent section of your library, stay away from the extra-crunchy bars, as you might receive dirty looks from people trying to study.

Nuts!: Almonds, peanuts, cashews, whatever your nut of choice is, throw a handful in a baggie and bring ‘em! They’re great protein and fill you up, fast.

Bananas: If this snack isn’t annihilated courtesy of your twenty pound Calculus book, bananas are one of the best mid-class snacks. Sure, you might look a little ridiculous eating it, but bananas are quiet and not stinky, two very irritating factors of the “in class snack.” Read More »

I’m sure I am not the only one who knows how frustrating it is to find the perfect recipe, start making it, and then realize that I am out of a crucial ingredient. (What’s that? You don’t make recipes without double-checking that you have all the ingredients on hand? Well, aren’t you special.)

Because there is nothing more annoying than having to run to the grocery store and leave your raw cookie batter sitting on the counter, I took the liberty of putting together a handy-dandy substitution cheat sheet of things you can use when you find yourself without the genuine article.

For self-rising flour, substitute flour with baking powder and salt. Self-rising flour is really just a fancy name for flour that already has baking powder and salt added, so you can cheat the system by adding those things yourself. For each cup of flour, just throw in 1 ½ tsp baking powder and about ½ tsp salt.

For cream/half-and-half, substitute milk. Keep in mind that this will only work sometimes. Milk is a lot thinner than cream and has a lot less fat (added health bonus), but that also means that it doesn’t behave the same way. For a recipe in which you’re mixing everything together anyway (quiche), it will work fine, but it’s not going to get you anywhere if you pour it in a bowl and try to whip it into real fluffy cream. If you don’t have regular milk, try using buttermilk, yogurt, or sour cream. Read More »

This past weekend I made hummingbird cake, and I still start to drool whenever I think about it. Oops… I better get a cloth for my keyboard.

Anyway, the cake disappeared almost immediately, and for once my final product actually came out looking exactly the same as the snazzy cookbook picture (yes!).

It’s a lot healthier than most other cakes out there, and it has a pleasant fruity and nutty flavor that I hadn’t tasted before. Basically, it was awesome. Want to make it? Read on.

Here’s what you’ll need to assemble:

• 2 bananas

• ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons of crushed pineapple (I used fresh-cut pineapple, which I threw in the food processor for a few seconds, but canned is OK as well) Read More »

Have you ever thought to yourself, self, I REALLY want something sweet and impressive tonight…what ever could that be?

Well, even if you don’t think out loud like some of us, no doubt you’ve run into a predicament that includes you needing to make something on the fly to impress someone, or just simply feeling a keen desire to impress your own stomach. But, if you’re anything like me, you’re A) a little lazy and B) too busy to make some kind of complicated recipe that will take hours and then be eaten in minutes.

That’s why this bananas in brown sugar with rum sauce dessert is like the Best. Idea. EVER. It’s fancy, it’s easy, it’s pretty healthy, and who doesn’t like cooking with a healthy dose of rum??

Ingredients: Read More »

You’ve been trying to stick to that New Year’s resolution like it is your job. You are going to eat healthy if it kills you, damn it. So, instead of stocking your fridge with beer and baked goods, you loaded up on fruits, vegetables…and beer. But, no matter how hard you try, bananas just aren’t as appetizing post-bar as, say, a giant pizza.

And where does that leave you? With some over-priced brown ‘nanas, that’s where. What is a college-girl on a budget to do? How do super low-fat, super tasty banana muffins sound? Too good to be true? Try again: Read More »