Midterm Week Cooking

By Tessa van Hoorn
Staff Writer

Those dreaded weeks of the semester are coming up again, and faster than you think. That’s right; midterm week is just around the corner. As I was looking in my diary, I realized how soon midterm was coming up, and I was thinking about all the presentations, papers, and exams everyone is going to have to do, while already having such busy lives. There is always one thing in those weeks that strike me: the food that people eat. It ranges from microwave meals, to ordered Chinese or pizza.

Of course these kinds of dinners are amazing, but in moderation. Even though you might not realise it, or maybe think it is rubbish, the food you eat is very important for energy, concentration and even quality of sleep. So because of better eating habits those three hours of studying -or sleeping- will finally pay off! The only problem is: “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”

Well, yes you do. For my benefit and yours, I have tried to find recipes that are quick, easy, freezable and requires as little dishes and different ingredients as possible.

Some tips, tricks and things to keep in mind:

1. Make an arrangement with a group of friends that everyone cooks once. It is a lot cheaper, and you will have a lot of dinners while only having to cook once. Do not make this group too big, cooking for a lot of people can definitely add stress. Because everyone is busy, you also do not have to feel obliged to stay long for socialising.
2. If you re-heat a frozen meal, just eat it out of the box. Plates are so overrated!
3. When you boil potatoes, boil more than you initially need. You can always use them in a salad or bake them as a side dish, and you can keep them in the fridge for quite some time.
4. If you make a pasta sauce/chili con/sin carne etc. make more so that you can put it in the freezer as an emergency meal.
5. When you want to eat pasta the next day, put your dry pasta in some water to let it soak overnight. It will be cooked in a minute!
6. When you boil pasta/potatoes/rice in a pan, just rinse the pan with water, you can use it like that again (at least when it’s mid-term!)

For the actual recipes and more, look online!

Online:

The first recipe is one where the variations are unlimited! You can use couscous, but bulgur or quinoa also works fine (I prefer bulgur because the granules are a bit bigger). You get either of the three and prepare them according to the packet (which will take you approximately between 5-12 minutes). When that is boiling nicely in the pan, you prepare the other ingredients for the salad.

Here are some combinations (of course you can leave out the things that you do not like!):

1. Cherry tomatoes (in halves), honey goat’s cheese (in little bits), bacon strips ((=spekjes) backed), black olives (chopped in rings), some pine nuts (backed, light brown. Be careful here, those seem to take forever, and then all of a sudden they are black!), chopped basil
2. Grilled red bell peppers from a can (cut into little pieces, 1cm), cucumber (in little pieces, 1cm), one little red onion (finely chopped), feta (little cubes), some parsley (chopped)

Adjust the amount of ingredients according to the amount of people and appetite. Usually a whole packet of couscous/bulgur/quinoa is for 4 people.

After the couscous/bulgur/quinoa is done, sprinkle some olive oil, pepper, salt and a squeeze of lemon juice. Add the other ingredients; mix it through, and bon appetit! If you want to, you can put some foil over the dish and put in in your fridge for lunch or dinner the next day.

Another one that always works well in chili con/sin carne:

The amounts of this recipe should be enough for 4 people, so either share or save it!

•  500 g of minced meat (whichever you prefer, you can also change the meat into vegetarian stuffs)
• 1 to 2 bell peppers (if you really like them, use two. It also depends on how big they are, so keep that in mind when doing groceries)
• 1 can of sweet corn (the medium one)
• 1 can of kidney beans (you can also use chili beans or brown beans, I prefer the kidney beans because they get less mushy)
• 1 can of tomato “cubes” in tomato sauce
• 1 sachet of seasoning mix for chili con carne (you can find it near the Mexican foodies in the Albert Heijn)
• 1 package of grated cheese (of course you can also grate the cheese yourself)
• 1 big onion
• 1 clove of garlic

Put some oil in a big pan. Chop the onions and garlic finely and put in the pan. Put in the minced meat (bake so that it gets into tiny pieces). Chop the bell peppers, clean the kidney beans (just put them under some water). Add the seasoning mix to the meat, when the meat is all baked you can put in the bell peppers. Put the tomato stuff in there, then the beans and sweet corn. Let this simmer a little, while stirring occasionally. Do taste it sometimes, add salt/pepper/other spices to taste. When it is all perfect, it’s dinner time! I always like to eat it with some French bread and grated cheese, but you can also eat it without anything, or put it in tacos.

Pasta recipe

If you have some bacon strips (=spekjes) left after the couscous, you can make a delicious pasta sauce with it!

What you will need:

•  Bacon strips (one package will suffice, you always buy them in two anyways)
• Onion
• Garlic
• Mushrooms (I usually get baby mushrooms, maybe because of the cuteness, maybe because I prefer smaller pieces of mushroom)
• Courgette
• 1 tall package of cream (the kind of cream you can make whipped-cream with)
• A tiny little bit of flours (gluten-free flour also works!)
• Pasta (any kind)

Put on a pan with water for the pasta, cook according to package (when not soaked) or about 1 min (if soaked). Chop the onion and garlic finely and bake them in a pan that can be used for sauces (so a “deep” frying pan can also work), until soft and glassy. Put the bacon in the pan with onion. Chop the mushrooms and courgettes as finely as you like, put them in the pan. Bake this for a little, then add the cream. To thicken the sauce, put no more than one tablespoon of flour into the pan (less is also fine). Add pepper and salt to taste. When your mouth starts to water and the sauce and pasta are done, it’s time to enjoy!

Fish recipe, plus the potatoes

An amazing British friend of mine told me about this way of preparing fish when I was complaining I wanted to eat more fish, but I just felt it was more of a hassle to cook. The website is absolutely perfect!

The combination I made when I tried it out was a fillet of cod, some courgette, some cherry tomatoes, basil and black olives. Never forget a squeeze of lemon, knob of butter, pepper and salt!

I ate this together with some cooked potatoes in a mayonnaise-mustard-honey sauce with some chives. Very delicious and very easy! Unfortunately this is not a dish you can keep long in the fridge after you’ve prepared it, but it is very healthy, filling, quick and easy none the less!

Tessa van Hoorn, class of 2015, is a Social Science major from Haaften, The Netherlands.