The Response to the Freshman 15

Well, it's a new year. And 2012 hit the BF and I like a ton of bricks. Quite literally.

I miss high school. I was a competitive volleyball player, I could eat any amount of anything I wanted and still look pretty good in Homecoming photos.

I was never the skinniest girl on the planet, and my sister... well was. So I thought I was just different. After 2 and 1/2 stressful years in college, the attitude that I'm just always a little bigger than everyone else is not working for me anymore.

I am in a very good place in my life. I'm doing well in school, I have an amazingly supportive BF, and life seems to be going exactly where I want it to go. So why should I accept the extra pounds? Why can't I be in control of that too?

This is no New Year's resolution. It is just a written plan of action that I will try to adhere to until I try on a pair of jeans and don't feel self conscious about the size. No weigh ins, just a plan to be more mindful about how I am eating.

Alton Brown of the Food Network's Good Eats is a giant in my universe. I've loved watching him for many years and still draw a lot of my culinary knowledge and inspiration from his shows.

In his episode Live and Let Diet, he changes his diet in the Greek definition: a way of life.
He created 4 lists and stuck to them, with much success.

I think that this "diet plan" is the most compatible with a college lifestyle, due to its ability to be done cheaply, and how it cuts down on the panic that sets in when you are in the market and have no plans on what to make for dinners.
So, here is my Response to the Freshman 15

• Foods to Eat Everyday 
• Fruits
• Whole Grains
• Leafy Greens
• Nuts
• Coffee
• Some kind of veggies
•  Foods to Eat AT LEAST 3 Times Week
• Oily Fish or Chicken (Fish gets expensive)
• Yogurt
• Broccoli
• Sweet Potatos
• Carrots
• Foods to Eat NO MORE THAN Once a Week
• Red Meat
• Dessert
• Pasta 
• Fried Foods
• Foods Never to Eat
• Fast Food
• Soda
• Processed Meals
• Canned Soups (High Sodium)
• "Diet" Anything 

I don't know if any of this is going to work for me, or if I'll be able to stick to it. But at least for a little while I'll be trying to post recipe ideas inside of my lists. 

Happy New Year everyone.

College Christmas Fudge

I am home for the holidays. And it just passed the year anniversary of this blog.

So, I am going to do a post that exemplifies the stated purpose of Once Upon a College Kitchen. A simple, cheap recipe, that can be made easily, but which is also kick-ass.

Although I have not made this fudge in my college kitchen, I believe this fits the bill.

College Christmas Fudge

• 3 cups of Dark Chocolate Chips
• 1- 14 oz can of Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 1 teaspoon of the Extract of your choosing (I used Vanilla, but I believe BF would love this with mint)

Yep, that's it. These 4 ingredients will make smoother, tastier fudge than you can get with all sorts of messing around with marshmallow fluff.  

 Start by covering an 8 by 8 pan with aluminum foil. Don't worry about anything else, the foil will come out just fine. 

Melt the chocolate chips until mostly melted.

 Add the sweetened condensed milk and salt, then stir until combined.  

Once combined, allow the chocolate to melt completely. Mix in vanilla and nuts if you would like. I don't like nuts in my fudge.

 Spread fudge into the foil covered pan, then refrigerate for 20 minutes. Cut into little pieces, this is a very rich fudge.

Enjoy! This a very easy way to make fudge. Great for presents. :) 

Yukon Gold Cinnamon Rolls

So, I've been a very bad blogger. I only have 3 weeks of Winter Quarter before break, and my professors are trying to squeeze all they can out of me before Christmas.

Plus, I was hosting the Knitting Club's holiday party last  night. I was on my feet from 9 am until 2 am. Tired panda.

For this party, I decided to make Cinnamon rolls. Everybody loves cinnamon rolls, right? I used this Bon Appétit recipe, for Yukon Gold Cinnamon rolls. 

The potatoes in the dough makes them so moist you can't dry them out, and so tender, people will think you bought them.


I highly recommend this recipe to anyone who wants to make cinnamon rolls, with a few pro tips.


1. Have a lot of extra flour on hand, this recipe, while making very tasty, tender rolls, they do take about twice as many cups of flour as the recipe states.


2. They do not need to bake as long as state, my rolls were quite thoroughly baked through after 9-11 minutes. 


3. Cut the recipe in half. I made a full batch and it made 3 dozen large rolls. I have no idea who can use this recipe to make 12 rolls. This is what happened to me with one batch...

You have been warned.


I do love these rolls, and I hope you all can use this recipe for your holiday celebrations. 


Enjoy!

Last Minute Thankgiving Bread

So, it's Thursday. Everyone congratulate me, as of 9:15 this morning, I am officially finished with Fall Quarter of my Junior year of college. *bows*

Yes, folks, that means that it has been Finals Week for me. And I did have every intention of posting this Tuesday... and last Tuesday for that matter.

I had these great frozen Spicy Chicken sandwiches that I made to reheat over the course of the week. Brillent, right?

Then my phone crashed, taking all of my photos with it. :(

So I had no photos and no time to come up with a fantastic new idea to tell you all about Finals Week. But now that the madness is over, I have time to think about Thanksgiving.

For those of you that don't know, I go to college a loooong way from home, as I detailed in my first every post, A Nice Change of Scenery. So, for the first time, I am not going home for Thanksgiving. No giant dogs to chew on me, no walking into -my- bedroom, no after dinner pie at Village in with my best friend Josh, and none of my mother's super fabulous stuffing.

I do, however, get to spend the holiday with my BF and his family. Remember BF? He's been working in San Diego for 6 months? Well, he'll be back just in time for the New York winter.

The key to my long, rambling story is that I needed something to bring to not only BF's mother, but her sister who is hosting the dinner... And I needed to plan all of this during Finals Week..

Quick Bread! It has the word quick in the name! It's perfect! I recently found out that his mother loves blueberries, and seriously, if you are going to bring food the hostess doesn't ask for on Thanksgiving, it really needs to be breakfast for the next morning, or alcohol.

I'm only 20.. darn you stupid 8 months before I turn 21, I guess I'm bringing breakfast.

So, without further ado...

Oatmeal Blueberry Bread or Muffins
Adapted from Blueberry Oatmeal Bread

1 dozen muffins (you didn't want to be making muffins all afternoon did you?)

• 1 cup AP Flour
• 1/2 cup Quick Oats
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder  
• 1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 2/3 cup Milk
• 1/4 cup Oil
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup Frozen Blueberries

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.

Mix egg, milk, oil, and vanilla in a glass. Trust me, the fewer bowls the better.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix until -barely- blended. Fold in the frozen blueberries.

Pour the batter into a muffin tin or 2 loaf pans, sprayed with non-stick spray. (I wanted to use my heart pan, so I had to have a second muffin tin.)

Bake at 350 degree for 15-20 minutes for muffins, 20-30 minutes for the loaves.

Enjoy! These are moist and delicious, I'm planning on making the loaves to take with me to Pennsylvania!

Peanut Butter Honey Cookies

So... Happy Tuesday!

... Ok, so I lied. It's not Tuesday. But yesterday when it was Tuesday, I spent so much time doing reading for Organic Chemistry, I convinced myself it was Thursday.

And since it was Thursday, not Tuesday, I had no reason to be working on a post for you lovely people.

Then my loving BF pointed out that it was actually Tuesday, ruining my productive feeling.

So today, the real Wednesday, I've decided to explain myself.

As it happens, I'm doing a Cell Biology on peanut allergies tomorrow, so I got the idea to make peanut butter cookies for my class. Haha. I gave myself an extra project right before final... I think I might secretly be a masochist...

Moving right along, I just spent the last 2 hours making cookies. It's not my recipe. Not even close. The recipe is the result of a quick internet search from me, and what tastes like countless hours of a lovely blogger named Annie.

Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe I used

I did make 1 substitution. Not because there is anything wrong with the original recipe. Nothing at all actually. But I am a college student. I do not keep shortening in the house and am waaay too lazy to drive to the store for one ingredient. So I used 4 tablespoons of butter and 1/4 cup of vegetable oil. They still came out great!

Told ya.

Now, I have also begun knitting items for my club's winter sale. So soon there will be pictures of all the adorable headband I am knitting, along with a link to the adorable pattern.

Not now though. Now I must go back to my studying and hope I pass all my exams.