Week Three: The Art of the Home Cooked Meal

    As I mentioned in my first post, often the worst thing about being at college is that horrible longing for mom’s home cooking that seems to surface a little too often. In my freshman year, I lived in a dorm that didn’t even have a kitchen inside of it. I found myself often venturing across campus to my friends’ dormitories to bake cookies or make macaroni and cheese simply for the feeling of creating something for myself and eating it on my own time. I write this entry in hopes that you have access to a kitchen wherever it is that you may be living, whether it be on campus or not. I was lucky enough to have two experiences with home cooking this week- one meal of my own accord and one meal made by some of my friends.

    Every Tuesday night, my sorority’s executive team has a meeting. We take turns bringing snacks or desserts because we meet around dinner time and if we happen to run late we all end up starving by the time the meeting is over. This week happened to be my week to provide snacks and I decided to make it my mission to provide a quick, easy, inexpensive, and delicious home cooked meal for my sisters.

    My menu for this ideal dinner included a home made pizza, a salad, and a dessert. I began with a Pillsbury pizza crust- you can find it in the refrigerated section of the grocery store near the biscuit dough and break and bake cookies. I love using this dough because you don’t actually have to put in the work to make it from scratch, but it still feels homemade simply because you bake it yourself.  It is easy enough to use as well- just open the container, roll out the dough on to a cookie sheet, and pre-bake it for about five minutes or until the dough starts rising. I like to sprinkle a little parmesan cheese or a few herbs onto the crust before baking it as well. Once the crust was pre-baked, I took it out of the oven and added ½ cup of alfredo sauce and about half of a small package of shredded pizza cheese. Bake it for about ten more minutes and voila- you have your very own home made gourmet white pizza.

    As for the salad, they now sell convenient little caesar salad kits that include the lettuce, a package of croutons, and a little packet of dressing all in the same bag. I found this in the section of the grocery store with all of the other bagged salads. It takes all of 30 seconds to assemble this no brainer salad, and I usually put it together while the pizza is baking.

    For my grand finale I made cookie brownie bars. These little treats are always a huge hit and that’s no surprise considering they are two amazing desserts rolled into one. To top it all off they are extremely simple to make. I buy the boxed version, which calls for a stick of butter, a few tablespoons of water, and one egg. To create this dessert you spread the brownie mix into a pan and plop scoops of the cookie dough on top before baking. They are simple enough to make and definitely worth the five minute preparation time. I recommend putting them in early because they take about 40 minutes to bake.

    So next time you are looking to eat in for the evening or impress a few of your friends with a simple home made dinner this menu is a great option and very easy to put together. Not to mention the fact that you can put this entire dinner together for about the price of a normal restaurant meal that feeds one person.
    Most of my inspiration for this type of meal that is part home made and part store bought comes from my favorite Food Network show, Semi-Home Made Cooking with Sandra Lee. For a few more ideas similar to this meal, check out her website Semi Home-Made Cooking with Sandra Lee!
    Happy Eating!