I had mixed feelings about being totally dependent on cooking for myself due to having a full-service kitchen in my on-campus apartment. As much as I hate the dining hall food and love to cook, this type of self-sufficiency is new to me. However, I've loved my experience these past few weeks. My roommates and I are always trying new recipes that we know from our past or found on Pinterest. I thought I'd help out other students in my situation. Admittedly, these recipes are definitely the type of food I prefer. So, prepare for a lot of spinach and feta.  Here's a list of easy, delicious and healthy recipes to prepare if you're a student!

1. Low Calorie Crock Pot Chicken Chili

2. Low Carb Easy Mediterranean Chicken Bake

3. Chicken Pesto Greek Style Pizza

4. Crock Pot Chicken Caesar Wraps

5. Curried Chickpeas with Spinach 

6. Spinach Feta Grilled Cheese

7. Ramen Vegetable Stir Fry

8. Sweet Potato Black Bean Burritos

9. Ali's Thai Chicken Curry 

This lent, I went vegan. I've gone pescetarian before for a month, however this was on ANOTHER level. I plan on doing a whole post about my experience later. I'll admit it, I definitely had my cheat times. I would sneak in a piece of cheese on my sandwiches, or I'd dip my roasted potatoes in ranch (what, no one else does that?). After having rice and beans in some way, shape, or form for two meals a day, I was yearning for something new. Being at school has made it hard to experiment, however this weekend, while I was home, I experiment and made vegan pizza on my last day of lent.

For my consumer health class, we have to write a review of a health and fitness app. We had to rate the app on multiple criteria: entertainment, education, easy to use, reviews, and reliability. I decided to use the app "Substitutions" to make a recipe vegan. I chose to make vegan BBQ Chicken pizza. I learned a lot of different things using this app - for example I didn't know they made lactose free/vegan cheese and sold it at the store. This app not only substitutes for dietary restrictions, however it suggests similar products if you are out of something in your cabinet.

This recipe didn't come out totally vegan because I added feta cheese, and didn't particularly check the BBQ sauce or whole grain crust to see if it was vegan. You could make your own vegan BBQ sauce and pizza dough if you really wanted to veganize this recipe, however.

An obvious swap that Substitutions gave me for chicken was tofu. However, they also told me to add smoked paprika for it to taste like ham. I've never heard of that before, but it made sense. Instead of using the smoked paprika, I just cooked my tofu in a reduction of BBQ sauce and diced tomatoes, because I knew that the tofu would take on any flavor it was surrounded by.

My tofu, BBQ sauce, and diced tomatoes. It was nice to combine my sauce and protein all together.

These are the lactose cheese sliced I mentioned before. Each slice only has 40 calories, no trans fat, no saturated fat, and no cholesterol. Sprinkle cheese would be prime for this, however I opted for sprinkle cheese.

Here, I drizzled on some cilantro paste, feta, and BBQ sauce right before putting it in the oven.

Here's the finished product!

It was the perfect lunch!

BBQ Chicken Tofu Pizza

Ingredients:

Directions:

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So, I figured why not play pretend that I'm a professional chef or foodie. If I had a spot on the "Best Thing I Ever Ate" panel, this is what I would say about my favorite pasta dish: the Tuscan Kitchen Cappellacci Salad.

My mother and I split the cappellacci salad for an appetizer.

I got a roasted rosemary half chicken with butternut squash, and spinach with walnuts and pancetta.

My mother got cod over a risotto and a walnut misto.

My dad went hard, not home. He a pizza with beef meatballs, roasted chicken, ricotta cheese, and onions.

What's the best dish you've ever eaten?