Life right now is complicated - so mealtime shouldn’t be. When I crave sustenance yet have no money for Taco Bell, I need something fast, healthy, and (most importantly) tasty to provide nutrition to sustain me through the endless cascade of zoom lectures. So I am going to share with you four recipes that help get me through the day.
Breakfast:
Don’t eat breakfast. It’s a waste of time and intermittent fasting has a wide range of health benefits. “Now Timothy,” you ask, “you said you would share four recipes to get you through ALL the meals of the day, you can’t just skip breakfast, you have to eat something!” Au contraire mon amie, I never said skip breakfast… I said don’t eat breakfast… Instead, drink breakfast in the form of coffee. “But Timothy, I don’t have the money to get coffee at a coffee shop, and/or good coffee is too complicated to make.” Two words my friend, two words: French press.
Ingredients:
4-8 tablespoons of ground coffee (more if you want heart palpitations)
1-2 cups of water
Directions:
In a French Press add coffee and water.
Wait 2-5 min and pour.
Add Half-and-Half (fat = flavor) or whatever else your heart desires.
How simple is that? A French press makes really good coffee, especially when considering how ludicrously simple and inexpensive it is to make. A French press costs roughly $20-$30 and will last you for decades (my dad’s been using the same one since I was born). A 24 oz bag of coffee costs roughly $10-$15 at HEB and can easily last me 2 weeks. Half-and-Half costs $1 per quart and is good for a week or so (more half and half = more fat = more flavor). So the price per cup is roughly $1.15 daily, which is significantly cheaper than any coffee shop. I cannot praise French press coffee enough, but you don’t want to read an entire essay about the French press (trust me you don’t) so I will move on
Lunch:
This is a quick Mediterranean salad that my mom taught me to make. It's a very simple "throw the stuff together and figure it out" (hence the title of the essay) type of recipe, which makes it all the more appealing to me. “But Timothy I’m a med student. I love numbers and analytics and precise measurements accurate to 6 degrees and…” yeah yeah yeah, don’t worry. My last recipe was very precise, so you can practice your chemistry then. For now, just enjoy the chaos.
Ingredients:
1 cucumber, diced
1 28oz can of black beans, drained
~6-8 oz full-fat feta cheese, crumbled
~4 green onions, chopped
~10 oz cherry tomatoes, halved
~ 2-4 tbsp lemon juice, to taste
Greek and Italian Oregano, to taste (preferably picked fresh from Mom's garden)
Olive oil, to taste
Salt and pepper, to taste
Directions:
Mix in a bowl!
If you don't have a mom with an herb garden you can use store bought oregano, or you can forget to add it entirely (because FOM II melts your brain) and it will still taste good. Also I recommend using full fat feta cheese… because again, fat = flavor. The hardest part of this recipe is cutting the tomatoes and cucumber, but if you see it as a therapeutic study break then that is a win-win.
Dinner:
As I alluded to in my introduction, I love Mexican/TexMex food (of all quality and flavor). I will inhale Taco Bell, Chipotle is my vice, Mad Taco drives me mad with hunger, and cravings for Torchy’s lights a fire in my soul. But when I’m lounging at home craving TexMex but too lazy to cook something fancy or too broke to DoorDash Torchy’s, I whip out my tried and trusted recipe for inexpensive, easy, and tasty nachos.
Ingredients:
Ground Beef
Paprika
Cumin
Chipotle powder
Black Beans, whole or refried
Tortilla Chips (I like the HEB fresh made ones)
Shredded Cheese (I use the generic ‘Mexican blend’ because I am way too busy to actually research what the optimal cheese type)
Pico de Gallo (I find some fresh made at HEB)
Salsa
Sour Cream
Cholula or other hot sauce
Instructions:
In a frying pan cook ground beef with paprika, cumin, and Chipotle powder (note about this step, if you fry a pound of ground beef, you can get 3-4 nacho meals out of it).
Microwave black beans (or use saucepan, but that takes too much time).
Dump cheese on chips, microwave for 30 seconds.
Add beef (hot from cooking, or microwave leftovers)
Add sour cream (my secret: fat = flavor)
Add salsa and pico (make sure to drain liquid so the chips aren’t soggy)
Add Cholula or other hot sauce
I’m of the philosophy that what is simple is best, and while I could muck around with folding tortillas, there’s something beautiful about the simple elegance of the “dump it on a plate and eat it with your hands” style of cuisine that nachos provide. And again, you can add or subtract things as you like. For example, if you don’t like sour cream (what is wrong with you?) just choose not to add it. This is one of my staple meals and at any given moment I always have nacho material on hand. It’s fast, simple, tasty, and most importantly… I like it better than Taco Bell.
Dessert:
Ah yes, the fourth and most important meal. “But Timothy, you said you wanted to be healthy. Sugar isn’t healthy.” Shhhhhhhhh… This recipe is mentally healthy… Calories don’t count if you’re stressed in med school, something about increased resting metabolic rate due to chronically elevated cortisol and excessive caffeine intake (refer to breakfast recipe). I’m not gonna lie, I found this recipe on the internet. I was craving coffee cake and stumbled across this very tasty snack.
Now, the original recipe calls for a 9x13 inch pan (which I have made on several occasions), but I modified the recipe to fit a 6x10 inch pan because 117 square inches of coffee cake is way too much for me to eat.
Below is the half recipe for a 6X10 inch pan:
Icing:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1-1.5 tablespoons milk
Crumb Topping:
3 tablespoons butter, melted (fat=flavor)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
3/4 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Cinnamon Filling:
3/8 cup of light brown sugar
3/8 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Cake:
½ cup butter, room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup light brown sugar
1.5 eggs (one really large egg or two small, the full recipe calls for 3)
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
3/8 cup sour cream (fat=flavor)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
5/8 cup milk
1 1/2 plus 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350F and coat a 6x10 inch dish with nonstick spray.
In a bowl, prepare cinnamon filling by mixing ingredients with a fork until combined.
In a separate bowl, prepare crumb topping by mixing ingredients until coarse crumb forms.
In a stand mixer combine butter, sugar, and brown sugar with the paddle attachment on medium speed for 2 min or until light and fluffy (whatever light and fluffy means).
Add eggs, vanilla, sour cream (fat=flavor), salt, and baking powder. Mix for 1 minute until combined.
With the mixer on low speed, slowly add a portion of flour then a portion of milk, alternating milk and flour, both beginning and ending on flour. Mix until combined, scraping sides as necessary.
Spread half of the cake batter into the pan, add cinnamon filling, then spread the rest of the cake batter on top of the filling and add crumb topping
Bake for 40-45 min or until a toothpick comes out clean (my oven is meh so it’s 47 min for me). Remove cake from the oven and place the pan on a rack to cool.
Add icing to top (note, original recipe says add when cool, but I like to add it when it’s warm so it gets all drizzly).
This one is - admittedly - not fast, not easy, and not *physically* healthy, but it is SUPER tasty. It’s definitely not “throw stuff together and figure it out,” but it’s actually super fun to make, and it can serve as a wonderful therapeutic study break if you enjoy cooking.
And there you have it, 4 recipes one for each meal of the day: coffee, lunch, dinner, and dessert (all other meals are superfluous). I hope you enjoy these recipes, and always remember, French press is best press, cortisol makes calories not count, steal herbs from your mom, and (of course) fat = flavor.
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