There are quite a few vegetables that need to be chopped, but we will discuss proper cutting techniques and tricks in the recipe description that will help you cut each ingredient quickly.

Making Cowboy Caviar is a super fun and easy process. Once you figure out different knife cuts and the proper way to hold your knife, it is really quite relaxing. Getting to spend a little bit of time just cutting veggies can be fun! The quick and easy preparation process makes this recipe a perfect choose for those times you are in a rush or need a quick healthy side dish to bring to a party. It is also very budget friendly if you are looking to save money. You just need to buy a few vegetables and in addition to few other ingredients that you probably already have at home. This recipe can be very versatile. The vegetables in this recipe can be switched if you don’t like them or if you have other vegetables at home you are wanting to use up.

This dish is very delicious, nutritious, budget friendly, and simple to make. It tastes very fresh and would be great to use for your next home barbecue. It is best served chilled with tortilla chips.

Cost Breakdown

Tips for Making this Budget-Friendly

• The Student Nutrition Access Center food pantry on the USU campus typically has canned beans and corn.
• Buy generic products such as Great Value or Kroger to reduce ingredient cost even more.

Making Cowboy Caviar and Knife Skill Tips

Tip before cutting vegetables: Hold the knife between your thumb and pointer finger on the bolster. Then wrap the rest of your fingers around the handle.

Step 1: Mix the ingredients for the dressing in a large bowl and set aside.

Step 2: Gather the vegetables and other ingredients that will be put into the dressing.

Step 3: Rinse and drain the beans and corn.

Step 4: To cut the bell pepper, gently cut around the top. You do not want to cut all the way through the pepper. Turn it upside down so the stem is facing downward. Cut along each of the sections of the pepper (there will be three or four, depending on the pepper). Gently pull each section away from the pepper. Slice each section into four thin strips. Then dice. See the video for a more detailed visual.

Step 5: Cut the top of the onion off, leaving the bottom intact. Cut the onion in half. Beginning at one side, make cuts all the way across the onion. Then turn the onion and make perpendicular cuts. You should have small, diced onions. See the video for a more detailed visual.

Step 6: Slice the jalapeno in half and remove the seeds (you can leave some in if you like more of a kick). Cut the jalapeno into thin circles and proceed to mince the jalapeno until you are left with very small pieces. See the video for a more detailed visual.

Step 7: Chop the cilantro. See the video for a more detailed visual.

Step 8: Cut the avocado in half, throwing away the seed. Peel the skin gently off. Flip the avocado so the rounded side is facing up. Make thin slices lengthwise all the way across the avocado. Then turn it 90 degrees and slice all the way across the avocado. This should create little cubes of avocado. See the video for a more detailed visual.

Step 9: Add all the ingredients into the bowl with the dressing and mix well.

Eat with your favorite bag of chips, as a side for a hamburger, or just straight out of the bowl!

Cost Breakdown

Our Thoughts

You’ll find that this recipe is easy to follow and that cooking under gluten and dairy restrictions can be much simpler than it is sometimes made out to be. This crustless garden veggie quiche is an inexpensive, simple, and incredibly tasty meal option for breakfast, lunch or dinner that everyone can enjoy.

The process of making this meal went very smoothly. We never felt too overwhelmed and were able to enjoy our time in the kitchen. The baking time is a little long but is one hundred percent worth the wait. Preparing your ingredients by chopping vegetables and pre-measuring before starting to sauté the vegetables will be a huge help later on. Whenever you have multiple pans on the stove it is always a good idea to have your ingredients ready to go to avoid leaving anything on the heat for too long. We fell in love with this recipe and will definitely be making it again.

Are you a busy college student? Do you miss warm, homemade meals? Well we have a solution for you!

We are going to make a simplified homemade chicken pot pie. This recipe is cost effective, healthy, and quick. Between classes, working, and blooming social lives, college students have busy schedules. They don’t have the time, skills, or supplies to cook gourmet meals, however, they do need to eat balanced meals to sustain their lifestyle. This chicken pot pie is perfect because it has minimal ingredients, yet is packed full of vegetables, protein, and carbohydrates. You might not have time to slave away in the kitchen all day, which is why this recipe if perfect; you get the homemade taste without the time burden. Now that your mouth is watering, lets learn how to make it!

See video of each step below recipe!

Cost Breakdown

See below for the cost breakdown. Surprisingly, this recipe is relatively cheap, especially if you get ingredients from the USU SNAC Pantry. SNAC pantry ingredients may include mixed vegetables, cream of mushroom soup, and cream of chicken soup.

We highly recommend you try making this recipe as it is an inexpensive and healthy way to fuel your body. We hope you love this recipe as much as we do!

Reference: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/237960/campfire-chicken-pot-pie/

You have likely stumbled across this blog post because you are craving a Chick-fil-A sandwich. One of the following situations probably just took place:

1. 1. It was a long day. You are a hungry but broke college student. You are tempted to go out to eat. Where to? To Chick-fil-a, of course! But the low balance on your bank account causes you to pause and consider if you can really afford it.
2. 2. You are with your friends, and everyone wants to go out for food together. The consensus is…well, of course: Chick-fil-a! But the cost and calories cause you to reflect on the potential consequences of this decision.
3. 3. You just thought about Chick-fil-a (well, of course)! But you don’t have the time or energy to go change out of your sweats and get into the freezing cold car.

Ladies and gentlemen have no fear! Whether one of these situations really took place or not, we have a wonderful solution THE HOMEMADE CHICK-FIL-A SANDWICH from StaySnatched!

Can you even tell that it wasn’t bought from the real fast food chain?! Look at that genuine thumbs up! Follow this recipe by @StaySnatched and our personal tips to make this easy, cheap, less processed and delicious alternative to a Chick-fil-a Sandwich. After this, you are going to be saying to everyone around you: “Eat more chicken – AT HOME!”

Cost Breakdown

Let’s take a look at the cost breakdown for these sandwiches:

Tips to make this cheaper

• Find chicken that is cheaper per pound, look at multiple grocery stores.
• Use frozen chicken rather than fresh chicken, it is usually cheaper.
• Buy spices in bulk so you can only get the amount needed for the recipe instead of the whole bottle.
• Save money by buying a jar of pickles for the essential juice and then using the remaining pickles for your sandwiches.

Reference: https://www.staysnatched.com/air-fryer-chicken-sandwich/

Ingredient Cost Breakdown

Tips when Cooking Steaks

This recipe helps improve both food skills and confidence. I have found that making this recipe gave me confidence in making all steaks, not just this simple recipe. Because this recipe is subjective to the chef’s liking, it teaches the skills of having freedom and fun with a recipe while ensuring it is still prepared properly.

The fun part about making a steak is the freedom to choose how well-done it is. The different levels of doneness are rare, medium rare, medium, and well-done. From rare to well-done, the levels increase in brown color and decrease in tenderness. The more red and rare a steak is, the more tender it will be to the bite. Personally, I like my steaks right about medium-rare (shown below). It creates a perfect tenderness and juiciness without risking toughness. The easiest way to check for doneness aside from a thermometer is simply to cut a small slice down the middle of the steak. Usually, about a half inch slice at the thickest part of the steak is good enough to be able to peek into the inside of it and check for doneness. 

Another measure I use to determine medium-rarity is after the first side of the steak is done and the second side is cooking, if red juices start rising to the top of the slices that I’ve cut, then I know I only need another minute or two before the doneness is just right. With that being said, if your doneness preferences are more rare, then don’t cook quite as long after that point, and of course if your preferences are more well-done, then cook it for a little longer.

(Good brownness at initial flip)

Every steak and every cut of steak differs, and thus the tenderness and toughness of those steaks are also going to differ. In this case, we used a sirloin cut, which is one of the more tender cuts of steak. Cuts generally more tender than sirloin consist of ribeye, t-bone, top loin (New York strip), and tenderloin (like Filet Mignon).

Regardless of which cut is used, the way it is cooked and the way it is sliced both affect tenderness as well. It is often thought that meat should be cut with the grain, which is the direction of the muscle fibers. However, cutting against the grain in small pieces makes the steak have an even more tender texture. At the end of the day, regardless of what steak you’re making or how it is cooked, having a steak is going to make your day better, so quit reading this and get cooking!

Our Experience Cooking Steaks

The process of preparing these steaks was actually pretty seamless. It is easy and very straightforward to season and make. One part of cooking that can be forgotten about is the fact that cooking with hot oil can get messy. The oil is hot and starts to bubble when the steak is placed on it, thus it will splatter quite a bit. To avoid getting oil where it is unwanted, it is always good to make sure valuables are moved or put away and clothes are covered with an apron. Another good tip to use when placing food into hot oil is to lower it down facing away from yourself. This prevents splash back towards yourself when cooking.

Another potential obstacle with this recipe is finding the right meat. Every grocery store is different, and not all of them have the right cut of meat or a good price on meat. There area few ways in which that can be fixed: look up online or on store apps to see that they have the right cut of meat for the right price before making the trip there, or, if paying higher prices for the steaks aren’t as big of a deal, get any of the other cuts that are listed in the above paragraph.

All in all, making this recipe was really fun and delicious. It was as good, if not better, than I remember the first time or two I ever made it. Steaks always go great with potatoes and other vegetables as well, which is how many prefer to have it served. The only possible change I would make is using garlic salt instead of regular salt. Another asterisk I would add to the recipe is that any seasoning can be used; the ones listed are the simplest and provide a very unique flavor. Feel free to get creative and find seasonings that work for you and your unique taste preference.

These tacos were made with ground beef because it is a relatively cheap protein that is versatile in its use in different dishes. For a substitution, ground turkey can also be used.

Cost Breakdown

The Step-by-Step Cooking Process

Start by heating up oil in a pan. Add meat to the pan and begin cooking the meat until it is brown and no pink is showing. Once meat is cooked, drain the grease. A helpful tip is to tilt the pan, and push the meat to the side.

Next, use a paper towel to soak up the grease, and throw it away. It is important that you dispose of grease properly; do not pour down the sink, either place it in a jar to be taken out later, or put it into the trash. Draining the grease also has nutritional properties. Reducing the grease reduces calories by nine calories for every gram of fat.

Measure out seasonings, including water and tomato paste, and add to meat. Mix until well combined and thickened. Feel free to add more seasonings to create a flavor you like.

For the taco shells, using corn tortillas helps give you a more authentic feel and taste to your tacos. Corn tortillas are very flimsy and breakable. Frying them in oil helps them stay intact when you build your taco.

To begin frying tortillas, heat up about half a cup of oil in a pan. This step can be done before, during, or after you cook your meat, whatever works best in your situation. A helpful tip to know when the oil is done is to stick the end of a wooden spoon in the oil. If bubbles form around the wood, and begin to float up, then the oil is ready. If the oil is bubbling really hard then it is too hot and needs to cool down.

When oil is ready, place the tortilla into the pan and cook each side for about 5-10 seconds. Next, fold the tortilla in half and hold the top half away from the oil while the bottom half is cooked for 10-15 seconds. Flip to the other side and repeat, ensuring that the top half is being held away from the bottom half. Cook to desired crispness. Once the shell is done cooking, place on a paper towel to drain any excess oil.

Cooking the tortillas like this can work for someone who is craving a soft taco and even a crunchy taco. The main purpose of this recipe is to learn to cook food that tastes good to you, so cook to your own desire of flavor and appetite.

Last step before you can build your taco is to prepare your toppings. Chop up lettuce and tomatoes, shred some cheese, and prepare any other toppings that you desire on your taco.

Now it is time to build your taco. Place your freshly fried taco shell on your plate, and fill with meat. Finish with desired toppings and pair with good company or with your favorite drink and TV show.

The best part is this meal can be refrigerated and used for a meal later in the week when you need a quick lunch before class.

Wondering how much it will cost to make this recipe? Here is a cost breakdown:

TOTAL RECIPE COST – $7.34

COST PER SERVING – $1.22

Tips to make it cheaper:

• Get ingredients in bulk – even though it is initially more expensive, it is cheaper by the ounce. Especially for ingredients like salt or flour that have a long shelf-life. You can also go to places like Winco that have a bulk section where you can get things for the measurement of the recipe(s) that you make.

• Find ways to freeze leftover ingredients – for example any leftover chicken so that it doesn’t go bad in the fridge.

Cost Breakdown

What else do I need to know?

1. This chicken is great over rice, noodle, or potatoes, and paired with some steamed broccoli.
2. To make this dish even more budget-friendly, try switching out the ingredients for all generic brands.
3. Not a fan of spice? The sauce is so flavorful you can eliminate the sriracha.
4. The lime can also be substituted out for white rice vinegar.
5. This recipe is easy to double, or even triple. Just multiply each ingredient by 2 or 3.

Test your Knowledge: What’s
Cross-Contamination?
Most people don’t know the importance of keeping cuts of meat away from shared surfaces in food preparation. Why is this so important? Well, raw meat carries pathogens that when put in contact with other foods may cause food-borne illness. This process is called Cross-Contamination. It’s important to keep raw meat on a separate cutting board (as shown in the pictures) and to handle it with great care, being mindful not to use the same cutting board for different ingredients. This recipe uses raw meat, following these safety practices will ensure that your Honey Garlic Chicken is not only tasty but free of harmful pathogens.

Let’s Talk About It
I absolutely loved this recipe. Not only was the cooking process fun, it was easy and timely. The only difficulty I came across was making sure the chicken was cooked all the way through. Some steps I included to ensure that everything was cooked properly was by butterflying the chicken (cutting one breast in half as pictured above) to make the breasts less thick and cook evenly. For good time management, I made sure to begin cooking the rice and broccoli right after putting the chicken in the oven. This meant that everything would be cooked and served hot right as the chicken came out. I used canned garlic that was pre-minced, however adding fresh garlic can be another way to make this recipe budget friendly, fresh, and sustainable. Next time, I might change up the cooking process by only pan frying and allowing it to simmer in the marinate. This way, sauce is not lost as it bakes in the oven and gives the chicken more flavor and tenderness.

Pasta primavera is generally served at dinnertime but can be prepared for lunch as well. In the U.S. we tend to put a greater emphasis on the last meal of the day. So, if you plan to serve this for dinner, you may consider adding a side dish. Warm garlic bread goes well with most pastas and can be an enticing choice. The veggies in this dish make it colorful and nutritious. It is a great dish to share with people of any age. This meal may be served with grilled or shredded chicken to add flavor and additional protein. Or if desiring to eat vegetarian, it can be easily converted by substituting the poultry stock for an all-vegetable one.

Cost Breakdown

This pasta primavera is easy to prepare and pleasing to the eye. It is a wonderful way to sharpen your kitchen skills and boost your confidence in cooking. As a college student, it may be hard to establish cooking self-efficacy. But having a collection of reliable recipes you can return to will make you a more competent and effective cook. It is a perfect dish to return to time and time again. Since most items are cooked together in one big pot, it requires little prep work and minimal clean up. You can easily impress your dinner guests or save the leftovers for later. It only takes about 20 minutes to cook and 10 minutes to prepare.

Recipe Lightning Round

Reflection and Tips

Our goal in selecting and preparing this recipe was to appeal to the increasing number of college students and to the emerging young adults everywhere. We searched for a dish that included all the major food groups, could be prepared quickly, and that is budget-friendly. This recipe says that it makes 6 servings, and we found each portion to be quite generous. That makes this dish perfect if cooking for a group of roommates, or if you plan on saving/freezing it to be eaten over the period of several days or a few weeks. It’s the ultimate food planner’s choice.

Several skills can be learned and implemented throughout the preparation process of this dish, thus increasing one’s kitchen abilities and level of self-confidence. You will learn the different ways of cutting vegetables, and how to implement dry and moist heat cooking methods – through sautéing the onions and simmering the pasta to al dente. You will also mix up a creamy sauce and learn about appropriate seasoning.

We learned that there is minimal clean up required after cooking this pasta primavera. It is fun to cook with a group so that certain individuals can be chopping the vegetables while others prepare the broth and additional ingredients. As your noodles are simmering, you might consider preheating the oven and preparing a nice cheesy garlic bread to serve on the side.

As we were preparing this meal, we discovered some of the best ways of cubing cucumbers. Make sure to create a flat edge on each side to avoid rolling during the cutting process. We also substituted the chicken broth for chicken bouillon which we dissolved into hot water. It turned out fantastic and was much cheaper. After pouring in the broth, you may find that it doesn’t completely cover the noodles. Don’t worry about that. The vegetables shrink down, and it all softens and comes together quite nicely. Also keep in mind that you’ll be adding more liquid to the pot when pouring in the cream. We decided against adding the can of peas, and as a result the dish tasted fresher and lighter. We didn’t run into any difficulties preparing the meal or performing the cooking techniques, but we did have a slight problem with managing our time. We started preheating the oven too late and ended up broiling our garlic bread rather than baking it. That alteration allowed us to serve all components of the meal at the same time and while they were still hot.

Overall, we loved this dish because it is healthy, allows access to all the major food groups and does not go over budget. It smelled amazing and tasted just as good. It is a comfort food that can be served on almost any occasion. We would not make any alterations to the recipe; flavors were all there and it worked out quite nicely.

RESOURCES:

We found this recipe for Garlic bread very useful! https://bit.ly/FNGarlicBread

How can I start eating healthy when I’m in college?

I sent out a survey to some college aged individuals who attend various universities (primarily Utah State University and Texas A&M students) to figure out what most people struggle with to make a balanced diet. Most of the responses showed a high intake of meat and refined grains (think white rice, normal flour, white bread, etc.) and a low intake of vegetables and whole grains. Vegetables are jam-packed with nutrients our body needs. Whole grains are important to provide us with healthy carbs and fiber; certain grains are also a great source of protein and other nutrients. Young adults should be getting about 3-4 servings of vegetables a day. Young adults should also be getting about 8 servings of grains at least half of which should be whole grains. How can I start eating healthy when I’m in college?

So how does a college kid, or anyone low in time and on a budget, start to replace their high intake of meat and refined grains with vegetables and whole grains? One easy way to start is by changing the grains you buy. Many grains are in a similar price range as white rice but are much better for your diet. This recipe uses the grain quinoa but other grains like couscous, farro, amaranth or even brown rice can be used. They also take about the same amount of time to cook as white rice (sometimes even less time)

Vegetables can be a bit trickier because they can be expensive if you don’t plan them outright. The first step in figuring out how to incorporate vegetables is knowing what is in season. Along with buying in-season, vegetables (and fruits) can be bought out of season for a cheaper price if they are bought frozen or canned (if you buy canned make sure to look for a low sodium/sugar added option). You can also try buying vegetables that can be used for multiple recipes or snacks that week so none of them go to waste.

What is sustainable eating?

Sustainable eating is a practice that helps support sustainability in our food systems. Having sustainable food systems is important for the continued production of foods we have now, the cost of growing and producing food products, the environment/ global warming, our future generation’s ability to produce food, and more. Though sustainable eating is important, it does not mean you have to go completely vegan, eat organic foods, and never go to chick-fil-a again. There are many other ways to help with sustainability without completely changing your life or spending a ton of money.

Plant-based diets and meals are a growing popularity to help with sustainability. There are some amazing recipes online on how to make plant-based meals. Meals that are planted based tend to naturally be more nutrient-dense and include more fiber/vegetables/whole grains. An easy way to start implementing this is participating in meatless Monday or reducing your animal product intake to only 1or 2 meals a day.

Another way to save some money and help with sustainability is by buying local products. If you are living in Cache Valley a great example of doing this is buying dairy and dairy products that are produced/manufactured in the valley. This also goes for produce, meat, poultry, eggs, and pretty much anything that would have to be transported a long distance. Reducing the need for transportation helps with sustainability in multiple ways. Buying vegetables in season also helps with sustainability in part because of transportation but also because additional resources are needed to grow out of season produce.

Cost Breakdown

Ingredient	Amount	Ap Unit Cost	Recipe Ingredient Cost
Chickpea	1 Tbsp	0.72/ 16 oz can	0.72
Olive Oil	1 Tbsp	2.52/ 16.9 oz (~33 Tbsp)	0.08
Garlic Powder	1 tsp	0.318/ 1 oz (1 oz~6 tsp)	0.06
Italian Seasoning	1/2 tsp	0.286/ 1 oz (1 oz~6 tsp)	0.02
Salt and Pepper	To taste	–	–
Total Recipe Cost	–	–	0.88
Cost Per Serving (1)	–	–	0.88

Ingredient	Amount	AP Unit Cost	Recipe Ingredient Cost
Quinoa	2 cups uncooked	2.59/ 1lb (0.41 lb~ 1 cup)	2.12
Vegetable 1 (cherry tomatoes)	16 oz (48 tomatoes)	1.48/ 10 oz (~30 tomatoes)	2.40
Vegetable 2 (large cucumber)	2	0.87/ cucumber	1.74
Hummus	3/4	2.98/ 14 oz container (~28 Tbsp)	1.32
Lemon juice	6 tsp	.98/4.5 oz (~27 tsp)	0.24
Salt and pepper	To taste	–	–
Feta Cheese (optional)	6 oz (~12 Tbsp)	5.88/12 oz (~24 Tbsp)	2.94
Roasted Chickpeas (optional)	1 serving (1.5 cups)	0.85/ 1 serving	0.88
Total Recipe Cost	–	–	7.82
Cost per serving (6)	–	–	1.30
Total Recipe cost (with optional ingredients)	–	–	11.64
Cost per serving (with optional ingredients) (6)	–	–	1.95

Cost of Eating Healthy/Sustainably

There are so many different ways to save money on food out there so for now I’m going to focus on ways to save for this recipe. Buy vegetables in-season really is a change saver. For this recipe, the two vegetables used are cucumbers and tomatoes. Both tend to be in season July-November. But this recipe can be used year-round with other vegetables. For example, broccoli and carrots are both in season when cucumbers and tomatoes are not and could be used for the two vegetables. Another way to save money is buying things in bulk and not buying name-brand products. For this recipe, the quinoa could be bought at a store like Winco which has a huge bulk foods section where you can get the exact amount of what you are looking for. You can also buy in bulk for the seasonings, salt, and pepper. When trying to reduce the cost of lemon juice and feta cheese the best option is to buy the cheapest brand. If you are making the option roasted chickpeas an easy way to reduce the price is to buy dry chickpeas in bulk instead of canned but this does require extra time and knowledge on how to cook dry chickpeas.

This meal is a healthy and sustainable option that is filling and not too expensive. Shown above is a cost breakdown of the main recipe and the optional addition of roasted chickpeas. The grain bowl costs only $1.95 per serving and might be less depending on what/when ingredients are bought.

References and Resources
Here is a link with some additional things that can be done to help sustainable
food systems. https://www.greenamerica.org/good-food-gone-local/9-ways-
support-sustainable-food None of these has to be done to 100% to be helpful if
you can only implement some of these things occasionally it is better than
nothing.

This link talks about sustainability and plant-based eating.
https://www.sustain.ucla.edu/food-systems/the-case-for-plant-based/ and
this link give some recipes for those living a college lifestyle to start plant-based
eating. https://theveganatlas.com/16-easy-vegan-meals-to-make-in-your-
college-dorm-kitchen/

This website has a chart to see what common vegetables are in season.
https://www.cooksmarts.com/articles/vegetables-month-infographic-
eatmoreveggies/

Here is a great resource for replacing rice with other grains.
https://longevitylive.com/anti-aging/grain-alternative/

This website has a resource where you can figure out your specific
recommendations for different food groups and has general tips for adding food
groups into your diet. https://www.myplate.gov/

https://www.preparedfoods.com/articles/123403-consumer-sustainable-
eating-considerations-continue-to-rise
https://www.eatsamazing.co.uk/family-friendly-recipes/snack-ideas-
recipes/easy-garlic-herb-roasted-chickpeas-recipe