Sci’s been in grad school, not so long ago. She knows how HARD it was to make ends meet, and to eat even close to healthy on a budget. But over time, she learned that it wasn’t impossible. There are good foods out there, quick to prepare and tasty to eat! And as grad students, we are all in this together! So let’s share some recipes, get together, and show the world that grad students are BETTER than Ramen! (Well, ok, maybe SOME of the time we are better than Ramen).
So submit to Sci your recipes by October 30th!!! I require
1) Recipe: with ingredients and instructions
2) A basic price breakdown, can be VERY basic, but the idea is, if it costs $20 or more, it better feed more than 6.
That’s not so hard, is it?! Sci’s been posting her recipes for inspiration, and today I post one that is special. It is special because it’s the only recipe that I have ever really tweaked on my own to make it something that is all mine.
May I introduce…Sci’s very own Scicuriously Lazy Healthy Stuffed Cabbage.
OM NOM NOM
This makes cabbage delicious. And the secret of cabbage? Cabbage is CHEAP. Really cheap. I saw a 20lb dutch flat once at the farmer’s market. TWENTY POUNDS. And it was $10. That’s a LOT of cabbage. You won’t need that much.
You will need:
1 Medium Cabbage
1 egg
1 thingy of ground turkey
2 tomatoes
1 large onion
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp ground savory
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 jar marinara sauce
1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Thaw the turkey if it’s been frozen.
2) Take a large pot and bring a good bit of water to a boil (enough to cover your cabbage).
3) Cut off the base of your cabbage, and using a knife, take out the hard core center.
4) Dump the cabbage in the boiling water. Have two forks at the ready.
5) After a minute or two, the outer leaves of the cabbage will start to soften. Using the forks, carefully pry the leaves loose and set them aside on a cutting board or paper towels or something. As far as fork usage goes, the gestures you want parallel pretty closely to how you get thin cryostat slices onto slides. Only a lot bigger.
6) Keep doing this until all the large leaves are off. It won’t take long. Leaves the size of your hand or larger are what you want. Once they get smaller than that, take the rest of the cabbage out of the boiling water, and chop it up fine. You’ll want more than 12 usable cabbage leaves.
7) Set aside your 12 finest leaves. Use the rest to line the bottom of a large baking dish. I like Pyrex.
8) Now, take your ground turkey, and mix it in a bowl with your onion (chopped fine), your tomatoes (chopped), your egg (obviously cracked), the extra cabbage you chopped up, and your spices. I recommend using your hands and having fun getting all goopy with the kneading.
9) Once everything is mixed, take your 12 best leaves. Fill each leaf with a small handful of your meaty mixture. Fold your leaves so they look like nice little pockets, and nestle them against each other in the cabbage-lined baking dish.
10) Once all your mixture and leaves are gone, taking the jar of marinara sauce and pour it generously over the cabbage rolls. I usually use about half the jar.
11) Put the whole thing in the oven and bake for 1 hour.
12) OM NOM NOM. You’ll make 12. I find two to be good for dinner, and you can bring 1 per day for lunch as well. Really it’ll help feed you for about a week.
Now, this is Sci’s personal recipe. Usually these things involve rice, but at the time I had been eating a TON of rice (as poor grad students do), and was tired of it). So they are meaty, but the extra cabbage adds a little crunch that is nice. In addtion, I use turkey instead of beef (you can use beef), because I’m a health nut like that. The lazy part is because I don’t make my own tomato sauce. Nobody’s perfect.
Price Breakdown for the Hungry Grad Student:
Cabbage: usually less than $0.70/lb, I usually end up spending about $3-$4 on a cabbage
Tomatoes: $3
Onion: $0.50
Eggs: $2.00 a dozen or so
Spices: these are more expensive, but it’s GREAT to have them around. I use rosemary in everything. They will run you around $4 per.
Marinara: get the cheap kind $2
Total: $11.50 if you have all the spices, add another $10-20 if you need to buy more spices, but once you’ve got them, you’re good to go.
Cheap, and it makes 12! It’s a lovely warm thing to have in fall or winter.
