College Living Made Simple

This Week's Postings

2012-09-09T11:12:00.002-07:00

Fortunately, as well as unfortunately - this week I won't be posting at all :( I have staff training for my job that starts the next week.

I'll post sometime next week - and probably include a few recipes :)

See you all next week!

2 Affordable Recipes using Fresh Garlic

2012-09-07T09:31:00.003-07:00

For today's post, I'm going to share two quick, easy and affordable recipes that use fresh garlic.

The First Recipe:

Vegetable Chow Mein

Growing up, my mom made a lot of stir-fry - which I loved as a child, and still to this day. However, Brian isn't as fond of stir-fry as I am (unless it has massive amounts of meat in it). With this in mind, I looked in our fridge and thought "seriously....what am I going to make for dinner tonight." I looked over at Brian and said "hunny, how can we not have anything in the fridge already?" and his response "I don't know". Typical man, but I love him. :)

Okay, so onto the actual recipe.

Ingredients

4 cups cooked angel hair pasta or spaghetti pasta noodles (this works best if they are left overs with no seasoning or sauce already on them)
1/2 cup soy sauce (personally, Kikkoman is my favorite, but use what ever brand you prefer).
1 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp olive oil (or a little more depending on how big your pan/wok is)
1 clove fresh garlic, minced
3 eggs
2 chopped bell peppers (I used one green and one red, and of course, other vegetables can be used as well)

How to do it

Heat oil and minced garlic over medium heat
Let the garlic and oil do a little dance until the garlic scent really comes through
Add 1/4 cup of the soy sauce
Let the soy sauce marinate with the garlic and oil
Add bell peppers (and/or other vegetables)
Cook vegetables for 10-15 minutes, or until they are soft and yield to the stab with a wooden cooking spoon

Add noodles and the other 1/4 of soy sauce

Push everything in the pan/wok onto the top side, leaving room on the bottom side
Crack 3 eggs onto the bottom side of the pan and whisk them together

Allow the eggs to scramble until they are almost all cooked (you want them wet, not dry)

Combine with noodles and vegetables
Turn onto low heat, stirring every so often
Serve with some other awesome food and you've got an affordable and quick meal

The Second Recipe:

Homemade Garlic Noodles

This is a pretty simple recipe - using only 5 ingredients.

Ingredients

Noodles (any type to be honest, I used angel hair pasta since that's what we had) (make as much or as little as you want - I made about 4-5 cups of cooked pasta)
1 tbsp Butter
1/2 tbsp Olive Oil
1-2 cloves Fresh Garlic - chopped (not minced) (1-2 depending on how garlic-y you want them)
1/2 tbsp Salt (I used Hawaiian Red Sea Salt because I like the complexity of the flavor, but use whatever you have)

How to do it

Boil noodles as if you were cooking noodles normally, strain and return noodles to the pot
Combine the butter, oil, salt and chopped garlic with the cooked noodles
Stir until everything is blended together well
Serve

Reasoning Behind Using Garlic

Honestly, the only reason that I started using garlic recently was because it was something I had sitting on my kitchen counter and I didn't want it to go bad.

I'm not a huge fan of unwrapping garlic because it always feels sticky to me, and the skin always gets stuck to everything...yuck!

Anyways, these recipes are by no means perfect, and things can always be added to them to make them even better - this is just the way that I make them and have found to taste pretty good :)

My Recent Obsession

2012-09-05T16:11:00.000-07:00

For the last week or so, I've been cooking a lot more things from scratch. I love to cook, and I love seeing how happy it makes Brian when I make something especially for him in mind.

Recently, I've been obsessed with cooking with fresh garlic. I know what you're thinking "uhhhh she's a weirdo" and to some extent you're entirely right. But at the same time, I've realized that fresh garlic is AMAZING to cook with and really enhances the flavors within a dish.

Friday's food post is actually going to be a collection of recipes that I've made in the last few days. All of the recipes call for garlic, so I thought that it would be appropriate to post them all together.

Currently, there are only two recipes that I'll be posting: Homemade Chow Mein (Brian says it's better then any other chow mein that he's ever had!), and Homemade Garlic Noodles using fresh garlic.

Check back here on Friday afternoon to read my post!

Loco Moco's - A Classic Hawaiian Dish

2012-08-30T17:31:00.000-07:00

Imagine an empty white plate - with nothing on it. Now imagine that you were sitting on the beach in Hawaii with that same white plate, but this time it is filled with food. What food items do you imagine on the plate? Fruit? Something sweet and taste like an island? What about rice, eggs, gravy, and a hamburger patty? Well - today I'm going to show you how to make the perfect loco moco.

Loco Moco's are something that many locals eat - it can be eaten as a breakfast, lunch, or dinner and it is very quick and simple to make.

Ingredients

Rice (preferably white, but brown works too)
Hamburger patty (we used a turkey burger)
2 eggs per person
Mango
Brown Gravy (we used teriyaki sauce cause we didn't have any gravy)

Cook Time

Preparation: 5 minutes at most
Cooking: 15-20 minutes depending on your method of cooking the rice

Directions

Cook Rice in either a rice cooker or on the stove.

You're going to want about 1-2 cups of cooked rice per person depending on how hungry the person is (1 cup uncooked rice yields about 2-3 cups cooked rice)

Cook hamburger or turkey burger according to package, or if you're making it from scratch heat on the stove.
Make 2 sunnyside up eggs PER PERSON. You want the yolks to be runny.
Slice up 1/2 mango for each person. Don't know how to cut a mango? Watch this video to learn how!
Heat brown gravy (if using)
Place burger onto a plate
Put rice onto plate, covering part of the burger
Carefully place the two sunnyside up eggs on top of the rice and burger. It's okay if the yolks start to run into the rice and burger (this is a good thing).
Pour on desired amount of brown gravy or teriyaki sauce.
Place mango onto the side of the plate.
Pour your self a glass of mango, guava, or any other sort of islandy juice.
Enjoy!

The total cost of this meal was pretty cheap - I buy rice and eggs in bulk and the turkey burgers were $5.70 for 12 burgers (Brian and I only used a total of 2). The gravy or teriyaki sauce were already in my pantry, so I didn't have to buy that and the mango was around $0.67.

Have you ever had a loco moco? If so, what did you think about it? If not, would you try it now? Let me know in the comments below!

Organizing School Supplies in a Small Space

2012-08-30T13:20:00.000-07:00

Brian and I's third year at OSU starts on the 24th of September (I can't believe we're starting our THIRD year, feels like just yesterday I was a freshman!). I felt that it was finally time that I organized all of the school supplies that we have piled up in our hall closet to help us prepare for the upcoming term, and year.

For today's post, I'm going to explain how I organized school (or college in my case) supplies in a small space such as a closet with built in shelves.

Here is what the finish closet looks like:

One of the first things that I did was to sort through the two boxes of writing utensils that Brian and I had piled up. Before we had our apartment, we both lived on campus where we each had our own room - so we had all of our own supplies in our own rooms. This was nice in the beginning but it became problematic because we would leave certain things in each other's room and then not be able to find it.

When we moved into our apartment, we put everything in the same boxes, and never sorted through it (since it didn't really matter at this point).

I organized the two boxes into 7 piles:

Pens
Pencils
High-Lighters
Sharpies
Office Supplies
Rare Office Supplies
Miscellaneous

I then went through each and every pen, high-lighter, and sharpie and threw out ones that were broken, or didn't work.

You'll notice that there are two drawers for pens - this is because we have a ton of pens. We've found a really cheap and effective way of getting good quality pens without paying a single penny. Career Fairs on Campus! Seriously - if you're campus offers any sort of career fair, GO TO IT! There is always employers giving away pens, pencils, note pads, high-lighters, sharpies, and pretty much anything you can imagine. We've even gotten chapstick, hand sanitizer, screen cleaners, keyboard cleaners, flash lights, and book lights. I don't even remember the last time that we bought a box of pens, because we get dozens at the career fairs.

It's interesting that we have so many pencils - since neither of us actually WRITE with pencils in class. We both use pens to take notes. However, we do need pencils for midterms and finals when we have a scantron (fill in the bubble) exams. Luckily for me, I'm a history major (yay!!!!!) so the majority of my exams are written essays and questions, so I get to use pens.

Alright....Here's the cool part about some of the high-lighters: some are eraser-able. They use friction to get erased - which is really nice for high-lighting notes or in a textbook.

Ohhhhh sharpies...Where to start with the reasoning behind so many sharpies? Okay - so to be honest, we rarely use sharpies, unless we are doing a project that we need to add color to. Other then that, we don't use them very often - however, it's nice to have when studying because I can color-code my sections of notes.

In our "Office Supplies" drawer, it's a mix-match of supplies that we use often. This drawer includes: staplers (yes, plural...we have about 4 staplers in here, plus one big one that is on the shelf, and one by the mail station), erasers, staples, white out, glue sticks, sticky notes, 0.5 mm lead, 0.7 mm lead, and super glue.

I needed a place to put the really rare office supplies such as rulers, hole punchers, staple remover, and rubber bands. I took a shoe box and put them all inside, but made it accessible so that when we do need them, they are right in front.

Okay, the notebook situation. We have a bunch of notebooks and a few composition books (Brian seems to like composition books more then notebooks...I have no idea why). I placed all notebooks and composition books in order of height with the shortest being closest to the drawers. I held the writing books up with a book end to keep them in place and not falling down. It really seems to help!

Both Brian and I use binders - I prefer 1/2" or 1" and Brian prefers 1-1/2" or 2". Since I didn't have enough room to fit all of the binders by themselves, I placed one inside of another. I placed similar sized binders within each other in order to create a perfect square (instead of is getting inverted) as well as to use the space better. You can see in the picture above how I did this. For example, there is a green binder in the front, but inside of it is a red binder of the same size.

Now, we can see exactly what we have and what we don't have in a simple way. Also, we are able to get the things that we need much easier. :)

What do you do to prepare for a new academic year? What has been your experience when moving in with your significant other and combining supplies? Let me know in the comments!

This Week's Posts

2012-08-30T12:13:00.001-07:00

I've been a little behind on my posts for this week, but I'm going to fix it today! :)

Today I will actually be posting twice - one for yesterday, and one for tomorrow. I'm posting tomorrow's early because Brian and I have a guest coming to stay with us for a few days, and I want to get my post done before she gets here.

Yesterday's post is on organizing school/college supplies in a small space. Tomorrow's post is on making one of Brian and I's favorite dishes - Loco Moco's, which is a Hawaiian dish.

Sunday Afternoon Bike Ride

2012-08-26T20:12:00.001-07:00

Brian and I live in a college town - and its in the top 5 most bike friendly cities in the nation (pretty awesome huh?!)

This entire summer, we haven't been biking around town as much as when we were living on campus. One because it's so hot outside, and two because Brian works the entire week, and then just wants to relax on the weekends.

However, today - Sunday the 26th of August, we decided to meet up with our friend Meera and go for a bike ride out to Bald Hill.

Bald Hill is this really pretty hillish mountain type thingy. There are bike paths from the base to the top, walking and running paths, as well as horse paths (which is much needed here in Corvallis. Other then campus, Corvallis is a country place with tons of farms).

The ride out to Bald Hill from campus is absolutely beautiful - you pass cows, alpaca, the fairgrounds, and tons of open fields (which are dead right now, but are usually bright and filled with lush green grass). Not to mention you cross over what we here in Corvallis call the "Covered Bridge" because guess what it is? A covered bridge!!! Who woulda thunk that? :)

Aside from the poetic(?) talk about getting out to Bald Hill, it's simply a nice easy ride from campus to nature and then back to campus. Our entire ride was a total of 13.1 miles - which is the farthest we've EVER gone. Below is a break down of the miles from point to point:

Home ---> Campus: 2.8 miles
Campus ---> Bald Hill: 2.9 miles
Bald Hill ---> Campus: 4.6 miles
Campus ---> Home: 2.8 miles

I have to admit that I am already sore from riding (my legs mostly) but a warm shower definitely helped unsore (is that a word?) them :)

As for now, Brian and I are just working on our blogs and listening to YouTube, current song playing: "Sunday Morning" by Maroon 5

Have you ever gone on a long bike ride? What was your experience and how far did you go? Let me know in the comments!

Starting My Saturday The Right Way

2012-08-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted since....Monday? Yep, I think the last time I posted was on Monday. I apologize for that - Wednesday was Brian's 21st birthday, and we've just been relaxing since then.

Here's how I'm starting my Saturday.

Kauai Coffee (Caramel Macadamia), and some Blogging.

Just some information about Kauai Coffee:

1) It's amazing...literally - all of their flavors taste AMAZING!

2) You know exactly where the beans are grown, and cooked.

3) They have free tastings at their one and only location on Kauai, HI

4) They aren't your "standard" flavors...They are very tropical

5) One bag of coffee grounds isn't too terribly expensive (I live on a college budget, and I can afford it)

6) You can buy directly from their website and have it shipped to your house (this is a wonderful tool...If you don't live in Hawaii, it's really hard to find in grocery stores, so it's nice being able to buy it online - never have to worry about running out)

7) You can taste every flavor that they put into each bag. For example, I'm having Caramel Macadamia this morning, and I can taste both flavors. Neither is overpowering the other, nor is either of them overpowering the taste of the actual coffee its self.

8) Here's the link to their website: www.kauaicoffee.com

What is your Saturday routine after a long week? What's your favorite brand and flavor of coffee? Let me know in the comments!

Monday: Brian's 21st Birthday

2012-08-20T22:10:00.001-07:00

21st Birthday Urban Dictionary Definition (classy, I know): The individual whose birthday it is, gets completely and totally intoxicated with the help of friends/family that eventually leads to uncontrollable actions and the loss of self-respect and any dignity the individual has.

Brian's 21st birthday is this coming up Wednesday - and since I'm not 21, I obviously couldn't buy him a bottle of wine or a bottle of champagne to help him celebrate...So instead, I bought him different types of glasses that he can use for drinks.

We already have one wine glass (originally we had two, but one broke when we moved into our apartment, so now we just have one) - so I bought him a matching wine glass. I also bought two 20 oz wine glasses....These things are HUGE, and I mean that literally. "Normal" wine glasses are 10.5 oz - so the bigger glass is almost twice the size. Additionally, I bought him two martini glasses, they are pretty standard at 6 oz each. Also, I bought two champagne flutes (I can't remember the ounces, but they are small-ish).

Brian absolutely loved his present - and I loved the expressions on his face. Here are a few of my favorite expressions when he was unwrapping everything:

Now, you have to realize that Brian's been talking about getting glasses for the last few days. I'm not even kidding you - easily once a day he would say "I really gotta think about when I'm going to get glasses so that I have them before my birthday". Little did he know that I was already planning on getting him glasses :)

Here's a picture of all of the glasses as well as the happy birthday man:

(If you're curious, his shirt says "Participation. Empowerment. Change. We are the SSI")

What's been your favorite gift to give someone on their 21st birthday? What has been the worst gift you've given, or have received? Let me know in the comments!

Foodie Friday: Cream O' Mushroom Soup Rice

2012-08-18T10:08:00.001-07:00

I meant to post this yesterday (Friday), but I kept forgetting to upload the pictures from my iPod to my laptop.

For the last week or so, Brian has been sick with a cold of some sort, so he's been eating what in our house "sick people food" (chicken noodle soup, rice, fruits, etc). Because of this, I haven't been eating the same thing as him which makes meals a little harder since I'm not used to have to make two different meals for us.

Last night, I looked in our fridge, freezer, and cupboards and I couldn't find two different things for us, so I found something that we could both eat, and something that was tasty.

I made one of my mom's "go-to" dinners and removed one ingredient and it was DELICIOUS! My mom usually makes "Cream of Mushroom soup Chicken" - but since we didn't have any chicken, I just made Cream O' Mushroom Soup Rice. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

1 Family sized can of Cream of Mushroom Soup
2 Cups dry brown rice (yields about 6 cups cooked, use what ever type of rice you prefer)
2-3 Cups frozen corn (depending on how much you want)
Salt and Pepper to taste

How to do it

1. Cook soup according to can, but instead of adding 1 can of water, simply use 1 cup of water
2. Cook rice on the stove or in a rice cooker
3. Cook corn
4. Combine soup, rice and corn
5. Serve immediately
6. Salt and Pepper to taste

(Blame my Ipod touch for the bad camera quality!)

(It was seriously delicious though!)

Cost

We had all of the ingredients needed to make the dish, but if we were to buy everything - it would be under $10 for the entire dish. With Both Brian and I eating the meal, we have made it last for dinner last night and lunch today.

This is something that you can almost make in a dorm room (just need a stove) and keeps pretty well. Not much preparation is needed and you don't need to be an awesome cook in order to make it.

Happy cooking and post in the comments any variations that you've made!

Work Day Wednesday: Living Room & Kitchen Make Over

2012-08-15T16:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, August 14th, Brian and I drove from Corvallis to Portland. Brian's 21st birthday is next Wednesday, so we went up to visit both of our moms and my younger brother. We also picked up alot - and I mean ALOT of stuff from my room at home. I had about 30 books at home, and I've been wanting them all summer - so of course that is something that we picked up. Along with a headboard for our bed, some food from my mom, a bookcase, among other various little things.

Now, Brian and I's apartment is pretty big for a one bedroom - at least I think it's big :) We already had two futon couches (one with 3 seats and one with 2 seats - both pull out into futons) a coffee table, and an entertainment stand. This morning when I woke up, I looked in the living room and wanted to arrange it in a way that would have a nice flow and would look nice as well as function for us. Below are the pictures before moving things around (I forgot to take a picture before I put the bookcase up and filled it with books, as I was so excited to actually have a bookcase to put books on!)

(We put my animal tank [we have two Japanese algae Shrimp, one African Dwarf Frog, one Black Inca Snail, and two Rosy Red Minnows] in the kitchen originally because it was the only solid surface we could find)

(We had the two couches in an "L" shape with the coffee table in the middle [that's Brian working away as I take pictures] )

(The bookcase is up and being used, and the brown entertainment stand was up against the back wall. We only kept speakers, newspaper, dictionaries, and electronic cords in there)

Andddddd here's what we changed

(We moved the entertainment stand from the back wall to the front wall in order to free up space back here, as well as to put the animal tank ontop of to create a focal point in the living room)

(Now the entertainment stand is on the front wall with the animal tank ontop)

(We also pulled the 3 seat couch back so that the living room didn't feel cramped)

(The entire view of the new arrangement)

(We now have all of this free space which is where the animal tank used to be)

(Finally, the animal's tank - they are so happy over there now, being out in the open - things to look at)

It took me about 2 hours to get everything the way that I wanted it, and I still have about 1-2 hours of organizing to do, but at least for now all of the furniture is in its new home and isn't going anywhere for a while.

What would you have done differently? Where would you have moved things? Let me know in the comments!

Mission Monday: Keeping Your Sanity

2012-08-13T14:18:00.002-07:00

Since today is Monday - OBVIOUSLY - I've decided that I'm going to try and write a "helpful" post every Monday. I'm still trying to think of something that is related to "helpful" but that starts with an "M"....If you have any ideas, comment and let me know!

A few tips on how to keep your sanity when in college.

Arts & Crafts - yes I know that this sounds childish, however it really is a way to go BACK to your childhood and have some peace and quiet.

I really have enjoyed making terrariums over the summer because it gives my mind something to focus on while I'm not taking classes or working. Making a terrarium can take 5 minutes, or it can take 5 hours - and any and everywhere in between. They can be as pretty, ugly, wet, dry, humid, colorful, etc as you want them to be. Not only that, but terrariums are a nice green touch to any dorm room/apartment.
Decorating/Rearranging - okayyyyy so I'm a sucker for redecorating my room. Ever since I was a child, every few weeks I would get bored with how my room was arranged and where things were, so I would rearrange them and move everything around. When I got to college, I lived with an international student in a fairly large room with a bathroom shared with the next room over (all females). Fall term I rearranged my room the way that I wanted it, put up pictures and decorations. Then after winter break, I came back to my dorm room and decided that I didn't like the way that my room was set up - so I rearranged it. I redecorated the walls, put curtains up (there had only been ugly blinds previously), and I even bought myself two little rosy red minnows and a little corner desk tank for them to hang out in. After spring break, guess what happened? Yep! I rearranged and redecorated AGAIN! However, this time I wanted more privacy - as I felt it was weird that I still had to change in my own bathroom just to get dressed in the mornings and at night. When I came back in the fall to start my sophomore year, it was a little bit better because my boyfriend at the time (now fiancee) hated moving my furniture around when it was perfectly fine where it was.

Reading - not reading a text assigned for the class, but pleasure reading.

I'm a huge reader....as in one year for Christmas, all that I had put on my Christmas list were books (not even kidding). My mom told me that I wasn't allowed to just ask for books, and that I had to add non book related things as well (she's a huge reader too, which is why I was surprised when she told me this). My freshman year at Oregon State University (from here on out, it will be referred to as OSU) I didn't have any motivation to read anything that wasn't assigned for the class. Nor did I read that summer...Or my sophomore year at OSU. However, I changed that this summer - Brian (my fiancee) and I moved into our very first apartment!! (I'm actually screaming on the inside with excitement) While we still have yet to get my bookcase from home, I've actually began to read for pleasure again. It was hard at first since I wasn't used to reading for pleasure, but within a few hours I was well adjusted. When I finished my first book of the summer overnight I remembered the sense of accomplishment that comes with reading a book for pleasure. I then realized what had been missing from my first two years of college - reading for pleasure. So, with that, please take the time to read for pleasure when you are in college - even if it is a book related to your area of study - it's still worth the exercise for your mind as well as just some down time to read for pleasure.

Keeping in contact with family - not just the "hey mom/dad I need money because I've spent it all" type of phone calls. The "hey mom/dad I was just calling to see how you were doing. Any thing new happening?" type of phone calls.

Facebook, Skype, FaceTime, Google Chat, etc they are all great for some face-to-face conversations with your family. Facebook is especially handy in keeping up on your own time. I have both my mom and my younger brother on Facebook, just so that I can see what's going on at home, even without having to call. Also - grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins are good people to stay in touch with. That may just be calling on their birthdays to say "happy birthday" or it may be just to say hi. I've even used my grandma for assignments for classes! Family is important in any stage of your life, and college is the time that you're most likely to drift away (in my opinion at least), and it's nice to know what is going on OUTSIDE of your college town. Corvallis (where I am currently residing) is a SMALL town of about 54,000. Coming from a metropolitan area - Portland, OR - Corvallis is small, with nothing to do. It's a college town, only really busy from September - mid June. Keeping in contact just seemed to help when I was down, or needed someone to talk to.

That's a pretty good list for now - at least for my first blog post. PLEASE, please, please let me know if there is anything that I need to improve on, or change to make my blog posts better!

Leaving wordpress, and starting a blogspot

2012-08-11T18:40:00.002-07:00

Finally created a blogspot...after weeks of not wanting one. I previously had a wordpress - as I felt that there was much more customization that could happen, but once I saw what other people did with their blogspot (for free), I realized that a blogspot might be more of what I was looking for.

Become a follower and keep up to date on what I'm posting. I plan on making my blog into something that college students can use for DIY projects when living on a budget. Also, recipes of things that I've found amazingly quick and easy to make.

I'll post again soon!

-Shaele