As a busy college student, Annie's Mac n Cheese is a godsend. There's something about toiling over research papers and planning programming for a student-run radio station and a public relations student group that makes me crave pasta. However, I want to stay as healthy as possible, of course. That's where Annie's comes in. It's organic, nutritious and delicious. 

However, part of healthy eating is variety. You can eat fruit your whole life, however you need some form of protein. You can eat PB&J your whole life, but you need vitamins and minerals. That's why I leverage the easy-to-make Annies and mix it with beans, tomatoes, fresh veggies, and protein to stretch one box into at least two meals.

Today I'll show you how I spice up the organic shells & real aged cheddar.

Chicken, spinach, and pasta are some of my favorite things to eat. The other day, I actually had spanakopita for breakfast, a broth bowl with spinach in it for lunch, and spinach and beans topped with scallops for dinner. I may actually turn into spinach.

I combined this pasta with spinach and ground chicken. In a pan, I sauteed the ground chicken with some Mrs. Dash until it browned. I simultaneously had water boiling. When the water came to a boil, I added the pasta. Once the chicken was browned, I added a handful of spinach in the pan and let it wilt. By that time, the pasta was cooked so I combined the cheese mix, milk, and butter as according to the package. After it sit and absorbed, I added the chicken and spinach. Voila!

This will make enough for two meals: one for now, one for later.

Here, I added tomatoes and pinto beans into the Organic Shells & White Cheddar mix.

One very important thing that they teach us in communications school is transparency and honesty. I'm going to be very honest with you guys: I did not come up with this recipe or cook this. For this whole series, Ali's Kitchen, I will not. That's why it's named after my roommate, Ali.

This is Ali. She's a bio major, but has a real passion for cooking. Upon move in day, once I saw all her cool cooking and baking equipment, I was instantly psyched. This girl brought more cooking equipment than clothes to school, and I love her for that. She brought matcha powder, a cake pop maker, a mini cake pan, saffron oil, curry paste, and way, way more. Want to know the way to heart? Let's bond over being foodies!

Ali's Kitchen Installment 1

Since moving in, she's already made strawberry rhubarb pie, and this delicious chicken curry. Who needs a boyfriend when you have a roommate that cooks for you?

Chicken Curry

Ingredients:

Ever want something to spice up your bbq? I recently did, and I did exactly that. However, I didn't quite SPICE it up, it was more of a sweet upgrade than anything. I love mixing different flavors to see how they react to each other in my cooking. I also love reducing flavors in heat and seeing how they react. These two tricks played out in this BBQ sauce upgrade between the cumin and the cinnamon.

Cumin is native to the Mediterranean near India. Coming from seeds originally, it has a robust flavor that can be described as bitter. It has a strong, warm aroma. Cinnamon, has an equally as strong aroma, however the word to use with cinnamon is obviously sweet. I expected these two to mellow each other out, and the steak rub to add that extra kick. I also love when sweet flavors carmelize out in cooking.

The olive oil made the mixture more fluid so it would be easier to spread, and it would melt into the chicken easier.

We put the BBQ sauce on the chicken for the last ten minutes of cooking time so that it doesn't burn off. We also drizzled some EVOO right before they went on the grill to help the cooking process.

SWEET AND SIMPLE BBQ SAUCE

INGREDIENTS: All ingredients can be your brand of choice. Recipe good for 4 breasts.