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 »

Finals are coming, which means we are spending every waking moment trying to learn all those things we should have been learning all semester. We have only taken one break so far, which led to a drink, then five drinks, then a total late night pizza binge.

But Psych 350 and English 125 aren’t the only things we’ve learned this week (mostly because we still haven’t gotten through a quarter of the material yet):

We learned that you can be friends after sex, that you can be warm and chic, and that French men are the ones to go for.

We learned that jumping rope is the best calorie burner, that there is a big difference between dating undergrads and grad students, and that guys think hot girl models are intimidating, too.

We learned that the Big 3 automakers are totally screwed, that the best way to pay for school is by getting a sugar daddy, and that a guy’s condom preference says a lot about his character.

We also learned that 4th graders know more about dating than college boys, that we can put abortions on our wish lists this year and that lots of guys fear commitment.

We even learned how to make soup!

Whew. No wonder there is no room left in our brains for all that boring Psych shiz.

[I used to think I knew everything…until I found myself stranded in the middle of adulthood with no map and no one to guide me when I got lost. I have learned a lot since then - from how to balance a checkbook to how to sew on a button - and will share my wisdom with you.

Every Monday I will be back to teach you how to do something useful, even if it also happens to be completely random. Because, hey, you never know when you just might need to know how to change a tire…or mix a perfect martini.]

It’s that time of year again—a chill is in the air, you’ll freeze without your scarf, and a salad just isn’t going to cut it for dinner anymore. You need heartiness, and what better way to get it than from soup?

But hold the phone. I’m not talking about Chicken and Stars here. Ohhhh, no. I’m talking about real soup; soup that you make with fresh vegetables and your hands (although please refrain from putting your actual hands in the soup).

Read More »

Mmmmm, potato soup. When it’s cold outside and you just want something nice and warm and hearty to get you through the night, there’s absolutely nothing better.

So make this easy, delicious (vegetarian) recipe and cuddle up on your couch for a cozy evening in. Stay warm! Happy Autumn!

You’ll’s Be Needing:

6 cups of potaters (diced)

3 cans of vegetable broth

4 cups of whole milk

1/2 tsp of black pepper (ground)

1 cup of onion (chopped)

6 tbsp of butter (melted)

3 stalks of celery (diced)

4 cubes of vegetable bouillon Read More »

Listen to me: your mom is not coming with you to college.

There is not going to be anyone there to feed you soup when you have a cold or hand you band-aids when you’ve had too much to drink, fall, and cut yourself on glass. There is only the student health center and they don’t want to hear about your minor ailments; they’ve got a whole campus worth of people with real problems. Like broken limbs… and broken condoms.

Because of this you have to be prepared to take care of yourself when it comes to the minor things: the tummy aches, the colds, the bumps and bruises. And you have to be prepared.

Below is a handy dandy list of things you’ll need to build your very own medicine cabinet. No more unnecessary trips to the Health Center (where they probably can’t help you anyway), or crying to your mom on the phone. Well, you can still cry on the phone, but at least you won’t have to leave the house to get some Pepto.

1) A container

First things first – you’re going to need a place to store your medical supplies. This can be an under-the-bed plastic tub or a cool toolbox you decorate with stickers. Anything you want really, as long as it’s storable. And make sure that whatever you pick can hold a few 20 oz and cans.

2) Band-Aids and Bandages

This is the most basic part of your kit; the thing that you will probably be using most of all. You should stock up on band-aids of all sizes. You never know what you might need one for: blisters, shaving nicks, paper cuts, drunken falls. Also keep a few ace bandages handy. Thanks to the combination of stilettos and alcohol, sprained ankles and wrists are inevitable. Read More »

Every year for Passover, I give up bread, grains, etc. for 8 days. Why? Because this is how we do.

My mother told me she used to bring tuna sandwiches on matzoh every year every day for all of Passover. I can’t imagine how she did this. Tuna on matzoh is basically disgusting.

But I digress. This morning my Chinese-American-Non-Jew boyfriend walked into our living room, took one look at me eating buttered matzoh, and said, “Hey, Matzoh Girl.”

That was it for me, folks. I am going to document the 8 days of my Passover Diet here on College Candy.

Side Note: I am calling it a diet only in the sense that it is a way of eating. Unfortunately, it is not a losing weight diet. Every year I think it might be. I mean, the Atkins Diet is, right? Unfortunately, every year I also end up eating a lot of cheese and junk food to fill up when bread is not possible, and so it ends up…let’s say evening out. Yeah. Evening out.

So, okay, last night through this morning:

Right before the sun went down, I had my last bread meal before Passover: a chicken gyro. Mmmm. So long, dear pita, I knew you well. Read More »

I don’t know about the weather where all of you are, but where I live, it’s still pretty freaking cold. While I would love nothing more than for spring to come, in the meantime I’m going to make the best of the ugly weather by having nice, hot meals!

Corn chowder is one of my favorite soup/stew hybrids, and I made a delicious two-person batch last week from a really simple recipe I modified. I guarantee it’s delicious, so give it a try!

Here’s what you need: about a tablespoon of butter, 1-2 slices of uncooked bacon, one small onion, one carrot, half a red bell pepper, about one cup of frozen (or canned, or fresh) corn, two cups of milk, chicken or vegetable broth (optional, and 1-2 cups if you use it), a bay leaf, one potato, a dash of salt, about ¼ teaspoon pepper, and about ¼ teaspoon thyme. Read More »

Don’t get me wrong; there is absolutely nothing wrong with microwaving a frozen entrée/Hot Pocket for dinner in your dorm room. It is quick, easy and far tastier than the offerings downstairs in the cafeteria. And in terms of “cooking” in a dorm room, that is about as close as you are gonna get.

For those of you who have moved onto bigger and better things – mainly, an apartment or house on campus – a can of Spaghetti-O’s also makes quite a handy dinner. But, let’s be honest, there are only so many nights that you can handle the sound of the noodle/sauce combo loosening its grip on the inside of a Chef Boyardee can and plopping (still shaped like said can, mind you) into your microwave-safe bowl.

Not to mention the awful nutritional information.

Being that you are finally grown up enough to live in the college equivalent to a big girl bed (a house/apartment on your own!) it is time to step away from the microwavable meals of your past and move onto something far superior…without much extra work.

Below is a list of some super easy, super tasty and even super healthy alternatives to the microwavable meal. Step away from the Easy Mac, ladies; it is time to fire up the stove for a dinner your mother would be proud of, without cutting into your bar….er….study time. Just mix and match some of these tasty ideas and you have yourself a real dinner. Read More »