The Secret to ALWAYS Making a Great Dinner

As a college student, I know that making cost-efficient savory food is a struggle. However, my roommate and I have found the essentials to create the perfect dish each time. Its all about the seasonings and condiments. The beginning entailed a rocky start of constant experimentation, but we persevered and found the perfect combination (warning: no measurements are used in the making of our recipes).

Here’s an amateur’s list of what to buy: 

• Onion powder
• Garlic powder
• Lawry’s seasoned salt
• Parsley flakes
• Pepper
• French’s Crispy Fried Onions (for a little crunch)
• Coconut Oil (especially good for shrimp!!)
• Sriracha (adds a little kick to any dish)

These college kitchen essentials will make any dish 100% better, trust me. These few ingredients will make your cooking pop and taste good on just about anything. (We always use a little sprinkle of Ken’s Steak House Zesty Italian salad dressing on just about anything too, this will add a little extra flavor to your dish, and it’s delicious for salad, of course.)

When planning on what to cook, think quantity. While it may be a little more expensive to buy the bigger things, it’s cheaper to buy in bulk. Our two favorite things to cook are frozen tilapia or frozen jumbo shrimp (from Sam’s Club) because they tend to last us a long time. For vegetables, you can check out FSU’s Fresh Market for good deals from our local farmers!

How to prepare our (soon to be famous) Lemon Pepper Tilapia

Ingredients:

Instructions:

1. Thaw your fish.
2.  Prepare Rice as instructed on box.
3.  Preheat your oven to 350.
4. Once finished thawing, coat both sides of the fish with lemon pepper seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder, Lawry’s seasoned salt, parsley flakes, and pepper.
5. Place fish in baking pan.
6.  Cut peppers into thin strips and season with olive oil, Lawry’s seasoned salt, and pepper. Arrange around fish on baking pan.
7.  Bake for 10 to 15 minutes.
8.  Plate rice first, then place fish on top with the peppers as a garnish. As a side, plate salad of choice and drizzle with dressing.
9.  Cut lemon into wedges and squeeze if desired.

Our newest recipe: Blackened Shrimp

• Frozen shrimp (thawed, 7 per person or more if desired)
• White Rice
• Bell peppers (we got a small bag of mini sweet peppers from Wal-mart)
• Red onion
• Salad
• Ken’s Steak House Zesty Italian salad dressing
• Onion powder
• Garlic powder
• Lawry’s seasoned salt
• Parsley flakes
• Pepper 
• Paprika
• Olive oil
• Coconut oil

Instructions:

1.Thaw shrimp, then peel the tails off.

2.Cook rice- (two cups of water for every one cup of rice) season with Lawry’s seasoned salt and parsley. Bring water to a boil and add rice and stir. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low and let simmer for around 20 minutes. (Add French’s crispy fried onions to taste)

3.Coat the shrimp with paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, Lawry’s seasoned salt, parsley flakes, and pepper.

4.Scoop around a tablespoon of coconut oil into a sauté pan on medium high. Allow this to melt, then add shrimp (add a drizzle of sriracha for a little spice). Cook until one side is blackened, then flip to allow the other side to blacken as well.

5.Plate rice first, then rice, and finally the vegetable topping (instructions below). Serve with salad or just by itself.

To prepare the sautéed veggie topping (optional):

1. Dice red onions and peppers.
2. Coat with olive oil, Lawry’s seasoned salt, pepper, parsley and lemon juice.
3. Sauté in a small saucepan to heat up

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