With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, you’re probably busy scheduling in every second of your break – a reunion with your high school pals, obligatory family time, and Black Friday madness – without giving much thought to what you’re going to pack.

Why should you plan out your packing now?

Because unless you are driving home alone, chances are you have limited packing room. (Do you really want to spend even more money for your overweight suitcase at the airport?) Packing smart helps you to maximize bag room, in order to a) bring home more laundry, b) return to campus with more leftovers and c) return to campus with an entirely new wardrobe.

Are we on the same page now? Here is a guide to items you should pack:

Clothing : Assemble clean outfit options for the first few days before you go home so you’re not scrambling to wash something (or forced to steal something from mom’s closet) before you head out with your high school buds on Thanksgiving eve. I’d take options for Thanksgiving eve, the Thanksgiving eat-a-thon, and Black Friday. By the weekend, you’ll either have a whole new batch of clothing (thanks to mom) or you can re-work what you’ve already got for what will most likely be major couch time.

In order to truly save space, pack smart. I recommend versatile items like leggings and long cardigans to:

1) Maximize eating capacity – the stretchier the clothes, the better.
2) Maximize space - not only are leggings small in a suitcase, but they can be worn dressy or casual, so you can pack fewer items, mix and match the pieces, and get more wear out of all of them.
3) Maximize your Black Friday shopping time – Layering leggings, a tank and a sweater means you can avoid those brutal lines for the dressing room and try everything on right there in the middle of the store!

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Is there anything better than a Thanksgiving sandwich? I think not.

As soon as you emerge from your Thanksgiving-induced food coma (What? Doesn’t it take everyone 36 hours?), it’s likely that there’s one major thing you’re going to want to do: eat again.

But navigating Thanksgiving leftovers can be a major pain. Just how many turkey-stuffing-cranberry sauce sandwiches can one girl eat, anyway? That’s why CollegeCandy has scoured the internet to find notable post-Turkey Day recipes. Here are seven dishes that especially grabbed us, for reasons good, bad, or ugly:

Most Idiot-Proof: Black Friday Pie (also works on a Saturday)

This recipe calls for lazy cooks to just layer all of their leftovers in a pan and cook them for 40 minutes. It’s like regular Thanksgiving, except all of your food has been mashed together!

Worst Middle School Cafeteria Flashback: Turkey Tetrazzini

Just look at that picture: a beige mess of pasta, gluey white goop, and sad turkey. The only good use for this stuff would be as a projectile in a massive food fight.

Best Way to Liven Up Dry Poultry: Curried Turkey

Heat up a cold, dreary Saturday with this Indian-inspired dish, which should make even Grandma’s dry white meat palatable.

Most Off-Putting Name: Aunt Wanda’s Turkey Carcass Soup

Okay, so this is basically just a regular recipe for turkey stock soup, which could be the least offensive use for leftovers ever. But I can’t get past the word “carcass,” which might be the most unappetizing term ever. Read More »

The only thing harder than saying goodbye to your roommate for the summer is packing up your dorm… and mopping all of the dried beer of the floor.  And scrubbing your desk where pizza sauce has been encrusted for months. And figuring out how to pack it all into your two-door.  Yeah, moving out sucks.  But moving IN with your parents again… well, let’s face it.  It rocks.

Here are my top ten faves about crashing with Mom and Dad for three months.  What are yours?

1.  You can live with your parents without looking like a deadbeat loser.

You have an excuse: You’re still in college and the dorms closed.  If you were 35 and working at the Venus Club and living with the ‘rents… you might belong on Jerry Springer.  But there’s nothing shameful about going back to your teenage years and living under their roof for one more summer.

2.  You’re a legal adult now.

Maybe your parents tried to force some strict rules on you in high school, and you vowed to move out asap.  But now, you’re an adult.  So even if they try to enforce a curfew, you at least have the “I’m a grown up” argument, which can be bolstered with “I just made Dean’s List,” or “In college, you aren’t keeping tabs on me and I made it home alive, didn’t I?” Plus, a lot of parents won’t even pick that fight, because they realize that you are an adult, you are a responsible collegiate, and they don’t want to know what happens on spring break. Read More »

Happy Post-Easter-Monday! I don’t know about you, but I hit the snooze button 5 times this morning before I could get my ass out of bed. 12 hours of Peeps, Cadbury Eggs and Jelly Beans had me on a serious sugar high last night (I went to the campus gym at 11:30…for real), but left me in some sort of diabetic coma this morning. And heading back to class after a long weekend?

Yeah right.

The only thing that really got me moving out of bed was a little hair of the dog that bit me… in the form of an Easter Egg filled with Starbursts that I found under my pillow. Thanks, roomie!

Anyways, a long weekend at home with the family was pretty tubular (yeah, I’m trying to bring that word back), but there are just some things about going home that are less than rad (yup, trying to bring that one back, too!): Read More »

Wednesdays are rough. Sure, you are halfway through the week, but you still have two more loooong days before the weekend. Barf.It doesn’t help that yesterday was filled with 16 hours of drinking…and dancing the Irish Jig. We’re pretty sure this is what an eternity in hell would feel like.

Anyways, in order to get you through the hardest day of the week we thought we’d play a little game of “Would You Rather?” Because what is more fun than pondering life’s most random conundrums?

So, here we go. Choose your answer and explain why in the comments section below!

Would you rather have sultry porno movie music sound out whenever you make a romantic advance OR lose all sexual inhibition in the presence of leftovers?

No, we did not think of these ourselves – we aren’t that sick. All questions come from our friends Justin Hiemberg and David Gomberg, creators of the Would You Rather…? series.

Tired? We are. This week was full of emotional ups and downs. And so much TV we barely had time to sleep. There was a lot of bad (like the economy) and a lot of good (like all those awesome sales caused by the economy). Oh yeah, and midterms.

We’re so pooped now we can barely form complete sentences.

Or is that the boxed wine we just drank…

Anyways, here is a look back at this hellish week.

The Bad:

The not-so-great news from the gyno.

The lack of a social scene on some college campuses.

That douchey Jason and his Bachelor mind games.

The leftover pizza…eaten off the floor.

A university preventing students from getting access to birth control.

The knowledge that Ryan Seacrest and I could never be.

The Good:

Getting ready for SPRING BREAK, baby.

Which can still be awesome even if we’re not goin’ anywhere.

An awesome dance playlist.

Relaxed fit (read: no muffin top!) pants are back.

Alexander McQueen is coming to Target!

That not-so-hot boy can still turn you on.

And, the best of all, there are some seriously hot professors out there. 

[Life isn’t black and white. As much as we wish we simply loved or hated things, there is often that whole annoying gray area in the middle. Like, we hate how Walmart treats its employees…but we love the low prices! Or, we love how that boy makes us laugh….but we hate that he has no motivation in life. Damn you, gray area; you make decision-making that much more complicated!

There are so many difficult choices in life (do we love or hate high heels??), so we thought we’d sort through ‘em right here. Every week we will discuss another issue we are torn up about. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!]

I LOVE FOOD and enjoy it as often as I can: for meals, between meals, on the couch, on the way to class, on the way to the gym… And I am an equal opportunity eater.  I love Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, Korean, Brazilian, Greek, and of course, American.

There’s nothing better than walking into a restaurant or – yippee! – a bakery and taking in that hot-off-the-stove smell; the yummy aromas of fresh-baked goods fluttering into my nose and making my stomach growl with hunger. And then that moment when that delectable dish is sitting in front of me and I finally get the chance to dig in…

OMG I’m drooling.

There is one “type” of food that I’m not completely head-over-heels for, though, and that is the leftover. Read More »

I am all about laziness—I mean, industriousness—and because of that, I love making dinners that I can use as leftovers later. Some things (salads) don’t keep quite as well as others (fruitcake), but it’s usually possible to find recipes that occupy a happy medium and can bail you out in a time crunch.

If you find yourself without the time to cook 3 meals a day, 7 days a week, these dishes are perfect for you. Get in the kitchen once and eat for days.

Door Number 1: Soup

Soup is a classic for good reason. It’s quick to make, it stays well in the fridge or the freezer, and it’s extremely simple to cook up a giant batch and use it for meal after meal. Soup is also incredibly versatile—in almost any soup recipe, you can add or subtract basically whatever you want (don’t like celery? Try some zucchini!) and it will still turn out tasting great. Plus, you don’t even know how much better it is than soup in the can until you’ve made it yourself and experienced the difference. A good starting point is this potato soup, which is All Recipes’s highest-rated soup recipe.

Door Number 2: Rice

My personal favorite thing to do with rice is to cook a huge pan of fried rice with tons of vegetables and bits of chicken or tofu, and then keep the leftovers for my lunches all week. Following this recipe will give you great Chinese fried rice. If you prefer a more Indian flava, leave out the soy sauce, sub the sesame oil with another type of oil (canola or mustard is good), and add turmeric, cumin, chili powder, and pepper. Read More »

Seriously. Wal-mart shoppers trampled and killed an employee.

Michael Phelps bring his GF home to mama.

Carry your lunch in (super cute) style!

Make your hair look 10 years younger! 

Old people aren’t so safe about sex. 

Milo Ventimiglia is better than sweeter than pumpkin pie. 

Jessica Simpson is anti-bras, apparently.

He’s Just Not That Into You, the movie.

Creative ideas for downing those leftovers. 

What a week! Between Heidi and Spencer’s “spontaneous wedding,” the surfacing of some scary pro-anorexia support groups on Facebook, and the arrival of yet another frigid winter, we couldn’t wait for the weekend to come. And by “weekend” we mean Thanksgiving, only the best holiday of all time.

Upon arriving at home to a comfy bed, clean shower, and lots of home cookin’, we immediately headed out to the bar to enjoy the Biggest Bar Night of the Year. We are using the term “enjoy” loosely, of course, because the evening was really just a night of awkward conversation and not enough alcohol. (Funny, that sounds a lot like Thanksgiving dinner when our bf met our parents.)

We loaded up on the carbs at Thanksgiving dinner to prepare for today’s Black Friday shopping spree, and besides a few broken nails and a black eye (on that bitch who tried to grab the last Flip Cam),  things turned out OK.  We came home with the perfect gift for our roommates, got some hot new jeans, and a really cute scarf to cover the hickey our BF left on the most obvious part of our neck.

Now it’s time to enjoy the rest of the weekend…and all the Thanksgiving leftovers.