Tips for cooking when you're super-busy and broke.

[eyesroll]

I will be going to law school full-time next year (yay!) while living with my SO, who is back in school as well as a returning undergraduate, and part-time, his pre-schooler. Needless to say, we're not going to be awash in cash or time. We're not going to be subsisting on ramen, either, thankfully. But things should get...interesting.

I will be under considerable stress next year, as any law student will be. Cooking is my stress reliever. But I won't necessarily have time to cook a lot (see = will be a law student). And the weird cycle continues.

Depending on where we end up living, I'd like to have a garden (or containers), which will need tending (mostly during the summer, and not at all during exams, at least). But that'll save money and, eventually, grocery time. Maybe I'll learn to can this summer, and make a bunch of pasta and pizza sauce from the ugly-and-cheap tomatoes by the bushel at the farmers' market.

We may or may not have the ability to get an extra freezer. This will again depend on what we end up renting. If we can get a freezer, then I'll be in a better position to do the cook-in-bulk-and-freeze routine. Regardless, I should be able to freeze servings of lasagna, stock, pizza crust, etc.

Baking is a BIG stress buster for me, but it's unfortunately not quick. I'm thinking, though, I could bake a loaf of bread or two (and kiddo will eat homemade bread -- she hasn't fallen prey to the "white and fluffy and tasteless or bust" mentality yet), or a batch of pizza crust, every now and again. Kneading clears my brain. It helped me recover from the LSAT. As for sweets -- Simple cookies are quicker than pies (and I suck at cakes so we won't go there), and they make good bribes/peace offerings, and I can bake a hundred snickerdoodles for the cost of one bag of store-brand vanilla wafers.

I've discovered some quick/cheap meals recently -- Thai noodle and curry dishes, for instance. I can easily feed four for under $10; what that means is that my SO and I can eat dinner, and then carry in lunch the next day. I got a rice cooker for Hanukkah this year and it's strangely a real time saver -- it's not like rice is labor intensive at all, but I don't even need to think about the rice cooker once it's loaded. I made masaman curry last night, 30 minutes start to finish, except the rice took longer but it was all hands-off. Unfortunately, the Asian grocery stores are a bit of a drive -- no biggie when you have free time, but out of your way if you don't.

I also make bucketsful of granola, in 30 minutes, that's healthier and way cheaper than storebought cereals. Lasts a couple of weeks in an airtight container.

I know many students would just say to hell with it and stick to convenience food.

Anyone have other tips? Time-saving appliances to buy while I still have a good income?

[lavenderdiva]

1. Yummy! I love massaman curry!

do you put slices of avocado in it with peanuts? One of the Thai restaurants we enjoy here, does that, and so I started putting it in mine. Now, we don't even go out to eat there, because I can make at home, what we used to pay for!

Do you like soup? Its a good way to streeeeetch the $. Especially if you like baking like it sounds like you do. A bowl of soup and fresh bread- what could be more wonderful? Potato soup, vegetable soup, meatball soup, chicken noodle. It sounds like you have a pretty varied palate. Do you enjoy Tom Ka Gai (Thai chicken soup) or Canh Chua Gai (Vietnamese chicken soup with okra, tomatoes, and pineapple)? Those are pretty easy to make, and are utterly delicious.

Also, chicken enchiladas can really stretch your budget, and when you are making it, you should make 2, and freeze one for later. That way, when you are in a time crunch, you can just heat it up.

Gumbos are really yummy and easy to make. Red Beans and Rice, with sausage are super cheap to make and delicious! Lasagna is another dish that freezes well. I've been able to find 8oz Mozzarella cheese at the 99cent store! who'd a thunk it? You can find some great stuff in unusual places...

[eyesroll]

3. I've never done the avocado/peanut thing -- mine's just got

beef, potato, onion and green pepper, plus coconut milk and curry paste (and standard Thai condiments for seasoning).

I've done tom ka gai before, but not the canh chua gai. I'll need to look into that. I save my chicken scraps and and make stock from them. Chicken noodle soup, and vegetable alphabet, are common; I've also done borscht a couple of times, but my recipe is VERY time-consuming -- not a lot of active labor but I do have to be home to babysit it.

I do meatballs a lot (the kid likes to help me form them) -- Italian, Turkish, Spanish -- but those take awhile.

Thanks!

[Dora]

2. crock pot

Plug it in before you leave and dinner will be ready by the end of the day. I've made batches of chili or beans or stews and had plenty left over for freezing. My stepdad used to make a big beef roast in our crockpot, then use the leftovers for stew and burritos.

I also fill my crockpot with chicken leg quarters, then set it on low all day. I use the meat for casseroles and chicken salads, etc. The crockpot also does a great job of cooking out a rich, protein-filled stock that I use for soups and sauces. I also save the rendered chicken fat after I peel it off the cooled stock. I've found it good for cooking collards and other greens in.

I used to wrestle with an 8-qt crockpot, but then I downsized to a 4-qt barebones model, and I've used it much more. I think it cost $11 at Target on sale last year.

[eyesroll]

4. Ah, yes, the SO has a 5-quart slow cooker.

He makes pork shoulder with BBQ sauce, sweet/sour chicken, and beef stew. We also tried making pasta sauce in it, which was interesting but I'd need to play with it some more.

I've never tried it for greens or stock, though -- I'll need to give it a try.

I like to roast enormous chickens (cut up first -- I do know how to cut up a chicken so that saves some $, if not time) over root vegetables, potatoes and/or squash and dole it out as follows:

• Dinner that night with the dark meat, the veggies and perhaps rice or couscous if no potatoes
• Use half the white meat for chicken salad (curry, with grapes is good) -- one breast half will make two sandwiches' worth of salad if it has fruit and nuts in it
• Use the other half for inclusion in a chopped salad or pot pie (I have a good one with cornbread topping)
• Save the backs and wings and necks (as well as scraps) for stock.

So, really -- four meals from one chicken.

Thanks!

[NMDemDist2]

8. i second the crockpot suggestion

I also make meatloaves and freeze em, then I can just stick em in the oven with the oven timer and they're ready when I get home (you can do the same thing with large roasts) just make sure they are frozen when you start and that you cook them to at least 160 degrees internal temps

[lakemonster11]

32. Crock-pot pasta sauce

There's an excellent crock-pot pasta sauce recipe in "Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow-Cooker." It's even a bulk recipe meant to be frozen in serving-sized containers.

That book is great all-around. I fed myself out of it my whole senior year of college---I would get up and go to my first class, then come home, do the (minimal) prep work and load the slow-cooker, then go to my next class or to the gym. When I got home from my last afternoon class, I would have time to eat a lovely meal before running off to Jazz Band.

[hvn_nbr_2]

23. Crock pot is your friend

Not only for soups and stews. It does roasts, casseroles, all sorts of variations of beans, even some kinds of baking. Plus you can use cheap cuts of meat and still get them really tender and juicy. It's also good for a busy schedule--start it and forget it; if you stay an extra hour at the library, so what? The meat will just be a little more tender.

Get a bunch of those semi-disposable plastic containers to freeze stuff in. They're cheap, reusable many times, and if you break one (They shatter if you drop a frozen one), so what, they're cheap.

[Stinky The Clown]

5. Depending on how pasta-tolerant you and SO are ........

There's a whole bunch of ways to make macaroni that are as fast as it takes to boil the water and cook the macaroni. And that is **inclusive** of the time it takes to cut or otherwise prep whatever it is you're going to make the sauce from.

They all start with this basic concoction:

Heat olive oil in a skillet
Add garlic and sweat until just transparent
Add any condimenti you wish
Add herbs
Add water, wine, clam juice, whatever-liquid-ya-wanna
Pour over cooked macaroni
Mix
Add some uncooked herbs (same ones used to cook)
Eat

You can use this to make a nearly endless number of different 'sauces'. The only limits are your tastes and pocketbook.

You can eat it just like I described it. Use white wine.

Use oil packed tuna and some white wine or clam juice

Use lots of veggies, all chopped up (may need a bit more cooking time for certain veggies).

Use roasted red peppers (canned or jarred) and water or white wine.

Use mushrooms and white wine or even sherry.

Use chicken and white wine or chicken stock

Clams and clam juice.

Shrimp and white wine or pernod (anisette) or clam juice.

Use your imagination. You can vary the herbds, too. I use basil, oregano and parsley for the basics, but you can use damned near anything.

You can also vary the oil. I always use extra vrigin olive oil, but you could also use any of the infused oils, too.

You could use sesame oil mixed with a mild oil and add asian seasonings and ingredients and get a mock-asian noodle dish.

For us, twice a week for this is about right, although some weeks it is three or four times and some weeks we don't do it at all. But, in general, its a staple for us.

[wryter2000]

6. Growing containers

www.earthbox.com

Once you put the plants in these, there's nothing to do but water them and pick the produce. No weeding or fertilizing.

I have 10 of them. The only thing I'd caution is the company overestimates how many plants you can put in. Two tomatoes is correct. For peppers, I put in four plants. For squashes, I put in two plants. But the plants have to be at about the same maturity. If one plant has grown large, it'll shadow the other plant and stunt it's growth.

[calico1]

10. Wow, those sound interesting!

I am a total beginner and was planning to start my first veggie garden this year. Is it really that easy? Also, when you ordered them did you get the whole kit or just the containers? I don't know whether to get the whole kit because I really want to plant organic. Any advice you can offer would be appreciated but these containers sure would make it a whole lot easier for a beginner like me!:)

[wryter2000]

12. I wouldn't buy the whole kit

Why pay for shipping on all that potting soil? Get the container from them and buy the fertilizer, soil, and lime (if you're growing tomaotes) at your local nursery.


Also, for tomatoes you need support (you do for peppers, too). My favorite tomato supports are tomato cages from www.parkseed.com. http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10101&langId=-1&mainPage=prod2working&ItemId=6883&PrevMainPage=advsearchresults&scChannel=Supplies%20Gifts%20AS&SearchText=p16.v222;p10.v82&OfferCode=S1H

[wryter2000]

15. Organic

I'm not sure what it takes to be organic. You'd need to buy organic fertilizer, for sure. I don't use pesticides on my tomatoes. They don't need it.

[calico1]

16. Thank you! n/t

[wryter2000]

7. Are you starting law school in the fall?

If so, make lots of pesto in the spring and freeze it in serving sized amounts. I just finished the pesto I made last spring, and it was great. Pull out a container in the morning. At night boil some pasta, make a salad, and bingo.

Baked chicken or game hen is fast to put in the oven. Then, go back to studying until it's done.

[SoCalDem]

9. HP cookbooks (you can find them cheap on ebay)

especially the ones from the 70's. They are full of easy to do."make-a-mix" recipes.. you can save a ton of money and time.. I used them a BUNCH raising 3 boys :)

also if you are beef eaters, london broil, bought on sale is the best cut to buy.. you can roast it thick, grill it and slice diagonally w/bbq auce, slice semi-frozen,pound it and use for chicken fried steak..slice in thin strips for stirfry..
when it's cheap here I buy lots and freeze them.. get the butched to grind a few for you..instant ground round for half the price of the packaged ground round..

spend one day a weekend, cooking.. lasagne in the morning, roast in the afternoon, chili at night.. freeze in mealsized containers, and for the rest of the week you are just re-heating..

[NMDemDist2]

11. HP? Hewlett Packard? I didn't know they made cookbooks...

seriously

HP? I'm confused....

[SoCalDem]

13. way before hewlett Packard

we're talking late 60's early 70's..


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[Warpy]

14. Irish soda bread

can be a quick bread, so quick some people even manage to do it for breakfast. Recipes abound online, so I won't give one here. It can be plain or fancy, depending on what you put into it. Start to finish, it's about an hour and 15 minutes (5 mixing, 10 resting, 1 hour baking). It's not for the sodium restricted, though. Also consider other quick breads like cornbread with baked beans, add salad or cooked greens of your choice for a complete meal. Yes, you can cheat and use tinned beans, just add a little extra molasses and mustard to make them taste like your own.

Nothing saves time like good knives, a sharpener to keep them razor sharp, and a cutting board next to the stove. Meats cut into small pieces can be stir fried with or without veggies, and you can't get much faster than that. (I reinvented stir frying when I was in college and the only cooking appliance we were allowed was the old fashioned electric popcorn popper. I used to stir fry the most amazing things in that sucker)

Ramen isn't bad if you're really strapped for time and out of money. Clean out the fridge of veggies to chop and put into it at the same time the noodles are cooking, maybe add leftover meat or fish, and you've got a fairly nutritious supper.

Then there's pizza, always a big hit with kids, and making the crust from scratch will help satisfy that baking itch.

You don't have to live on spaghetti and that boxed macaroni and cheese, in any case

[OldLeftieLawyer]

17. Your ambitions are admirable

But, my guess is that you're not being realistic.

The first year of law school - where you'll discover that you're competing with your classmates for that 0.001 of a point on your exam scores - is unlike anything you've ever experienced. One classmate of mine, a Marine who'd just come back from Vietnam, said it would have just been easier to go back to Vietnam.

Relax and accept the reality that you'll eat as simply as you can for this most-important year - it defines the rest of your legal career, believe me, because your first-year performance will determine what kind of job you get the summer after that year, and that will be of paramount importance to everything to come.

A lot of marriages broke up during that year, so be prepared. A friend of mine said, "If only my wife had understood that all I wanted to do on Friday night was sit down, drink beer until I passed out, and pass out." Then we'd all meet again early Saturday morning in the library to study. Same on Sunday.

It's grueling, it's exhausting, it is all you will be able to do for the year, and, when you're not going over your notes or working with your study group, you'll be sleeping. This is how it has to be, because the study of the law is resetting everything in your brain you once thought you knew. It's a complete change in your perspective, and, you know, it's an improvement. You're about to learn how to think in ways you never even imagined.

I never for one second regretted any of it, and - I might add - when I went to law school (I'm female), women were not welcome. Not at all. But that's just a whole other story, not relevant here.

You're about to embark on a brilliant, exciting voyage, and I wish you the best of everything. Just make sure you get enough protein in you at lunch - tuna salad and egg salad sandwiches were my choice - and don't ever make the mistake of going down to the Lower Library to smoke dope while huddling behind the ancient volumes of the Queen's Reporter and think you'll make it through two periods of Civil Procedure without standing up to recite and deciding, after you've been talking for ten minutes, that you are the one who has discovered the true definition of "scintilla" (there is none).

Knock them dead. And good luck.

[eyesroll]

18. Thanks for your honesty---but you have to remember that your friend's

"drink beer" is my "knead bread." Seriously. I've never used alcohol for stress relief. But 10 minutes with bread dough really can reset my brain. Quicker than getting drunk.

This is also why I'm trying to figure out what I can make ahead and freeze or otherwise keep. It takes no more time to reheat a frozen serving of homemade lasagna than it does to heat a can of Spaghettios (eew) or make a tuna-salad sandwich (which I suppose as a woman of childbearing age, I'm now supposed to limit because of mercury).

I've spoken with several students (socially -- not at school events where they're getting paid or pressured to gloss it over) at the school I'm going to attend -- yes, it's competitive (and no, I'm not expecting to do much other than reheat stuff from my freezer from, say, November until exams are over, and ditto from April to May) but the No.1 piece of advice I've gotten from these students (one of whom just finished her first semester) is: Don't let law school become your life. There is time, even in your first year, for the occasional movie or non-school-related social outing. (This could just be an institutional difference between my intended school and the one you attended. Mine's not exactly a top-tier school.)

My school offers a support group for partners of students, and my SO is planning to join. I figure if law school breaks us up, we were never designed to make it work in the first place.

Yeah, I'm trying to be overly ambitious here, and I know it won't always (won't usually?) work, and I'll find myself at the drive-through a lot more than I want to be...but I'd figure I'd collect some tips. Can't hurt.

My mom asked me if I could live in a dorm and get on the meal plan. (The answers to both are "hell no" -- there's minimal student housing and NO law/grad/nontrad-only housing to speak of. I'm 30 and too old to live in a dorm that closes for Christmas.)

I also read 900 words a minute, with comprehension. (Yes, it's been tested.) I know it won't be nearly that fast with dense legal texts, but it'll still be faster than average. I know that'll help a lot.

(Someone please PM me this thread around Thanksgiving and let me laugh at how naive I was. :D)

Thanks again!

[Lars39]

19. If you don't have the freezer space for fully made casseroles,

consider at least pre-cooking meat. A pound of hamburger=2 cups. Frozen flat in a quart-size bag,
it doesn't take up much space.
Same with chopped chicken, except add chicken broth to keep it moist.

I once cooked 6 weeks of meals when I knew I was going to have surgery.
I froze Baked Ziti, whole BBQ chickens, roasts, Ham and Potato casserole, meatballs...lots of stuff. Look up Once a Month Cooking. Debra *Somebody* wrote "Frozen Assets".
I loosely used some of her ideas and recommendations on what would freeze well and what wouldn't.
I also created for my own use, "Mom's Diner" when I was going thru a time period where I was absolutely burnt out on cooking.
I took about 14-20 menues and repeated them.
It made grocery shopping fast and easy because I had master lists made out down to the last box of crackers.
I stuck everything in plastic sleeves in a 3-ring binder and posted the lists of meals on the refrigerator. If I was late getting home, someone else could easily see what needed to be done.

I also used some of the "Make a Mix" recipes and concepts, too.

lol. Reading what I just typed, it sounds pretty OCD, but it worked. :D

[noamnety]

20. Bread machine

Even if you love kneading dough, it's worth getting a bread machine because you won't always have time. You can pick one up at Salvation Army for 5 or 10 bucks. I used to make my own bread from scratch - and I mean really from scratch, grinding the wheat by hand. But with my work hours now, I wouldn't make bread at all without the machine to do the mixing.

[eyesroll]

21. My bread-machine history's been blah.

I used to have one. No matter whether I used a mix or a scratch recipe, the bread always came out overly sweet. No matter what kind of bread it was supposed to be. And the mixing (whatever you call it -- hook? paddle?) left a hole in the loaf which rendered it difficult at best for sandwiches.

I do have a Kitchenaid with dough hook I can use in a pinch. I usually do pizza dough and cinnamon rolls in that.

And there's always store bread. The bakery section of the supermarket has a good selection, for around $2 a sandwich loaf, and while it's not as good as homemade, and not as cheap as the generic "wheat bread" on the shelves, it's a pretty reasonable thing in and of itself.

[hvn_nbr_2]

24. A couple suggestions

Mixing paddle hole: Don't let the machine do the baking. Take the dough out and put it in a regular loaf pan and bake it in the oven. It still saved you a lot of time and energy. Also you could get your kneading fix by letting the machine mix it all, do the first knead, and the first rise. Then you do the second knead by hand and rise, and bake it in the oven.

Too sweet: Hmmm, I never had that happen unless it was supposed to be a sweet bread. I'm tempted to say use less sweetener but that's too obvious. I would guess any store-bought mix is likely to be too sweet because food companies load everything up with sugar, salt, and fat. I've never used one in my bread machine. They seem to be almost as expensive as store bread.

You can make "interesting" and somewhat exotic breads much cheaper than store-bought. And you can get a nutrition boost (protein and/or fiber, mostly) by using some soy flour, nuts, oat bran, an egg, milk, and such. Some of those may require adding some gluten to get it to rise right.

[eyesroll]

29. My favorite bread to make is thirded bread (1/3rd each cornmeal, wheat,

and rye), but that can't be done in a machine (at least not easily) -- you need to pre-cook cornmeal, milk and molasses, then add the other ingredients and knead. I can do that for next to nothing per loaf.

I'm not sure if the 5 minutes of labor saved (bread machine vs. kitchenaid, if you're going to bake it in the oven anyway) is worth it, but I will look into it.

[mike_c]

22. hmmm, I wasn't going to contribute anything to this thread...

...because my grad school experience was NOT good for my relationships or those of most of my friends, but I DID become a much better cook. I didn't go to law school-- I got a research Ph.D.-- but labs at research universities are pressure cookers, too (and for five years!). Still, I found time to cook at least one real meal most days-- or maybe just many days-- by simply reserving an hour or so for dinner in the evening whenever I could. If it's a big enough priority, I suspect you can do it. I also agree with the advice you got from a current student-- it's too damned easy to let the intensity of the experience make you one dimensional. What's the point of joining an intellectual community if you never have time to sample the broader experience? I know-- that's easier said than done, but the first person who said it to me was the chairwoman of my department, on the first day of our first semester(the faculty then proceeded to do everything in their power to prevent us from coming up for air for as many years as possible, but that's another matter).

Anyway, back to cooking. I don't have any specific advice other than to urge you to do it if that's your preferred stress relief. But in your situation, don't let your family come to take it for granted-- your needs are often going to have to come before theirs. Usually. That's just the nature of the thing, and why I gently suggest that my own grad students think twice about family committments while in school. As I said, my own experience in that regard was not good, and is still a source of pain many years later.

on edit-- to their credit, they almost never listen to me when I try to meddle in their personal affairs, no matter how gently.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

30. Very solid advice

I completed a Ph.D. program before I went to law school, and I thought I had it all figured out.

Man, the loop I was thrown for still astounds me, all these years later. My old classmates and I still laugh at our naivete. Law school was as close to taking religious vows as we'll ever come - the first year, most notably.

Law school isn't really an intellectual community in the same way that a regular graduate program is. It's like medical school - you give yourself over to it, and, for that time, you really don't have any other life. See, it's not that the work is so hard - it's not, really - it's just that you're suddenly living on a planet where you literally don't speak the language. That's why you have to buy a damn dictionary (what's a Black's going for these days, I wonder?) to understand what's going on.

I was lucky in that money wasn't an issue for us, so we ate a lot of takeout and restaurant dinners. But, most of my meals were taken while I was sitting at a desk, briefing cases, studying my notes, preparing for my study group. Even when we crashed on Friday nights and went to the corner bar to start drinking all we did was talk about what we were studying. It never stopped.

My culinary advice for this upcoming year? Lots of roasted chicken, frozen vegetables, rice, potatoes, salads, anything you can throw in the crockpot, and oatmeal every which way. Seriously. If making bread is relaxing for this incipient law student, do it. But, you might find out that getting sleep is better than making bread, and you might even discover that kneading bread dough while reclining on the couch is hard work.

I cannot stress to you the importance of sleep during this year. If you get enough sleep, you have a really good head start on not getting sick. Because, if you get sick, you fall behind in a way that's almost impossible to make up. Don't forget - the law keeps changing, daily, while you're in that classroom, and you're duty-bound to keep up.

The advice from the first year law student who spoke of the importance of outside interests reminds me of the old lawyers' chestnut that "you never know as much about the law as you do when you're in your first year of law school." Oh, we knew so much, because we studied so hard.

We knew nothing.

The difference between so many professional schools and grad schools is that the professional schools are entwined with the outside world with outside work mandated and graded. It's so intensely competitive - no matter if your school is second- or third-tier - that you'll find out too late that, while you were relaxing at a movie, your classmate who's in the library until midnight is going to be far better prepared to snag that clerkship with the Federal judge than you are.

I'm going 'way off the food thing here, but, honestly, food will not matter to you during this first year - if you're doing it right. It's only one year - it eases up for you in the second year because you're now familiar with the terrain - but it is, as I've noted, the foundation for the rest of your professional life. Law firms look for the best and sharpest and hardest-working students with the highest grades at the end of the first year, and that's when you start making the connections that will serve you well for the rest of your life.

In the end, of course, this is like me explaining how the wheel works to my kids. No matter what we tell them, they really do have to go out and discover fire for themselves. The wheel, too. But, I really need to stress to this lawyer-in-the-making that you'll have a lot of time to go to movies and museums and just hang out doing nothing after you've made your academic and professional mark. As I said, watch the students who aren't hanging out, and understand that you're looking at the people who are going to wipe up the legal world with you because they understood from the beginning that it's a grind, it's hard, it's sometimes deadly dull, but it's more than an education - it's also a rite of passage, and, like your query about food and cooking and what you'll eat during this coming year, it's all about details and preparation. It's total immersion, sort of like how Berlitz works.

Thirty years after I finished law school, when I'm interviewing law clerks for the firm, I pay the most attention to the ones who put their heads down and dedicated themselves to studying. They are the ones I can talk with and the ones I hire.

(And, here's a secret for you: you'll learn all the law you need to know for the bar exam when you take the best bar review course available. I always thought I should have taken it before I entered law school. You'll learn the practical application of the law in your summer jobs, part-time clerkships in your second and third years. The classroom is just the beginning.)

[eyesroll]

31. Wow, thanks!

(BTW: I'm attending school in Wisconsin, and staying here -- we've got diploma privilege! No bar exam!)

I still have the remnants of "teacher immune system" -- I can put off getting sick until it's at least a little more convenient than it would be otherwise. That's why I'm *always* sick on vacation...:eyes: But I do know, if I eat too much crap, I end up sick. And if I don't prepare, I eat too much crap. And the cycle continues. I'm trying to head that off, too, with as much preparation as possible. (That's why I'm hoping for a place with room for a freezer -- I'll have some time between when I quit my job and when I start classes to make and freeze a bunch of ready-to-heat meals.)

I do know that law school will be both a lot harder and a lot easier than I expect, and what's hard vs. easy will surprise me. (Watch, I'll end up bored to death by 1st amendment stuff, and fascinated by tax law.)

I am lucky in that I won't have debt when I graduate (assuming I do live modestly during the next three years), and that does take some of the stress of :grr: I MUST BE THE BEST BECAUSE I WILL NEED THAT BIGLAW JOB TO PAY MY CRUSHING DEBT :grr: away. I tend to ignore my peers when on a curve, in any case -- I can't predict or change how they'll do. I can just prepare my damndest and hope I do better than they do.

[hvn_nbr_2]

25. Granola in 30 minutes? How do you do that?

It always seems to take forever to get it to bake/roast/brown/whatever through. Bake 10-15 minutes, stir it up, repeat, repeat, repeat, and after an hour or two, either it's nicely done or I give up and say it's done enough.

[eyesroll]

27. Here:

4 cups quick-cooking rolled multi grain cereal (Trader Joe's sells it for $2 for a giant canister) or else 1 cup each rolled oats, barley, rye and wheat (health food store time)
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 c honey
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Mix together the liquids, toss over the solids, stir until coated.
Bake in a 9X13 parchment-lined pan at 325, stirring every 5 minutes or so, for 30 minutes.
Let cool. You can toss in raisins, dried cranberries or currants if you want. Then store in an airtight container.

Yield: A lot of granola.

[wildeyed]

26. Freeze as many meals as you can before the semester starts.

If freezer space is an issue, do sauces frozen flat in a freezer bag. They stack nicely, and the bulk of the meal, say rice or pasta, can be made easily day of while you defrost the sauce. That is what I did before my second baby was born, and it worked out great. I had 30 meals (in a chest freezer, but you could do 10 or so) pre-made. We ate well even though my son never slept more than two contiguous hours for the first six months of his life and my daughter was only two and still in diapers.

Slow cooker is an excellent suggestion, too. It is great for those days when your brain is completely fried, provided your remember to load it up early enough in the day.

Beans are a great bargain, nutritious and easy to make. Great in soups, with pasta, whatever. You can make a big pot of dried, then freeze what you don't use. They taste better and are cheaper that canned. Although canned are fine, still relatively inexpensive and I use them all the time.

Finally, the dreaded skillet meal. 1/3 leftover protein, 1/3 leftover veggie, 1/3 starch. Add sauce, it can be a scratch white sauce, canned condensed soup, salsa, whatever, to the protein and veg, pour over starch. Sounds vile, but it uses leftovers, is easy, and the kids eat it up.

Good luck! Sounds like you will have a busy year.

on edit: I love my rice cooker, too. It is a real time saver. It just clicks to warm when the rice is done, so I don't worry about timing the rice anymore.

[eyesroll]

28. That's my intent -- do what I can before I'm super-busy

I also should add -- I will have an SO who, while a busy student himself, will be an undergrad and will have more time. (At 30, he's not going to be doing keggers or joining a fraternity; his extracurriculars will likely be low-key.)

He's learning to cook, too, and while he's not the hobbyist I am (I'm sure I spelled that wrong), he can do things in the slow-cooker, and do prep work. We could probably do a thai or japanese noodle dish with 15 minutes of my active time if he soaked the noodles and cut up the protein/veggies. I could season a chicken and put it in the oven; he could monitor it and make a side dish. If I don't have 15 minutes a day to devote to taking care of myself (even during exams), I'm not spending my time the right way.

Weekends might be a little interesting, with kiddo around. I know quite a few law students who don't study Saturdays at all, and I've been advised to find the other nontrad/parent students for study groups or childcare co-ops (i.e. go to a different member's place each week and that person is responsible for childcare, either via partner, neighbor, babysitter or whatever).

[japple]

33. Smoked or fresh turkey wings and drumsticks make great soup.

You can cook fresh wings/drumsticks and use the meat for stir fries or other dishes, then boil the bones and skin for soup stock. I LOVE black beans, red beans, or pintos cooked with smoked turkey wings, a bay leaf, garlic and onion. Good with cornbread and coleslaw. When I make corn muffins, I always freeze the leftovers for later. Coleslaw (I use a recipe without mayo) will keep for a week or so, is easy, nutritious, and can be made in big batches. Sometimes, when you're too tired/uninspired to make anything else, cheese quesadillas are easy and comforting, esp. when served with good salsa.

[NMDemDist2]

34. here's one..... make your own spice mixes

Quick and Healthy Mixes by Leanne Ely, C.N.C.

Taco Seasoning:

1 cup dried minced onion
1/3 cup chili powder
2 tablespoons cumin (I actually add an extra tablespoon—we love cumin)
4 teaspoons crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon oregano
4 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder

Combine all ingredients and store in a cool, dry place.

When you’re using for Mexican dishes, use about 1 tablespoon or so per 1
pound ground beef, or chicken or beans. More if you like the extra flavor.

Noodle Mix
1 cup instant nonfat dry milk
2 tablespoons grated romano cheese
1/4 cup dried minced onion
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon white pepper

Combine ingredients and store in a sealable container or zipper topped
plastic bag. This will keep for 2 months in the pantry, however, I would
personally store in the fridge because of the cheese; plus it will last
longer. Mark the date on the zipper topped bag with your Sharpie pen. This
recipe doubles and triples well.

To Use: combine 1/4 cup mix with 2 tablespoons melted butter and 1/4 cup
milk. Toss with 8 ounces pasta (cooked).

Homemade Shake and Bake

1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Combine ingredients and store in a sealable container or zipper topped
plastic bag. This will keep up to 4 months in the pantry, depending on the
humidity (you may just want to keep it in the freezer). This recipe will
also double or triple well.

To Use:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place one cup mix in a plastic bag.

In a bowl, mix an egg and 1/2 cup of milk. Dip chicken pieces one at a
time in the milk mixture, then shake one at a time in the plastic bag.

Place on a baking pan and bake for appropriate time (depending on the
chicken you’re using—as a little as 20 minutes or up to an hour for
bigger, bone-in pieces).

Homemade Flavored Rice Mixes

4 cups uncooked rice (I always use brown rice)
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Combine all ingredients together and store in a zipper topped plastic bag
or sealable container. This will keep up to 4 months if stored in a cool,
dark and dry place. With brown rice, you may want to keep it in the
freezer.

To Use: Mix 1 cup mix with 2 cups water. Bring to a boil, lower heat,
place lid on rice and simmer till liquid is completely absorbed, about 20
minutes or more. Check if you need to. (I would add an extra half cup
liquid for the brown rice)

Variations: to make Vegetable Rice Mix, substitute an envelope of
vegetable soup mix.
To make Spanish Rice Mix, substitute 1/2 cup Taco Seasoning (see recipe
above) for envelope of onion soup.

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[japple]

35. Stock your pantry before you start back to school. Olives, marinated

artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, vinegar, beans, rice, pasta, canned tomatoes, etc. If you haven't tried Muir Glen Fire Roasted tomatoes, they make good pasta sauces, chili, soups, and they come in much larger cans than regular canned tomatoes. Other possibilites: dried mushrooms, bulk grains, dried buttermilk powder (great for cornbread, adding interest to cream soup or making salad dressing), dried fruits, nuts (probably best kept in the freezer).