Rice Dressing

Buy 2 small containers of rice dressing mix. Ex.: Savoie's, Richard's
1-2 onions, chopped
Minced garlic
2 heaping tablespoons of roux
About 6 cups of rice, cooked
Little water
Salt, Tony's

Add dressing mix, onions, garlic, roux, seasoning and a little water to a pot. Mix well and simmer for about an hour or so.  Just before you are ready to eat, mix in rice a scoop at a time  until it has right look. Add additional seasoning as needed.

Chicken Alfredo

2 chicken boneless breast, cut in bite size pieces
1/2 cup butter
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 cups milk
6 ounces grated Parmesan cheese
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Pan fry chicken pieces in a skillet with a little oil.
Melt butter in a medium, non-stick saucepan over medium heat. Add cream cheese and garlic powder, stirring with wire whisk until smooth. Add milk, a little at a time, whisking to smooth out lumps. Stir in Parmesan and pepper and add chicken.  Remove from heat when sauce reaches desired consistency. Sauce will thicken rapidly, thin with milk if cooked too long. Toss with hot pasta to serve.

College Days Menu

Week 1
Breakfast:
Oatmeal
Fruit & yogurt
Scrambled eggs
Fried egg on toast or English muffin

Meals:
1-Sandwich- there's a variety of ways to fix them: with meat or without using avocados or hummus.  Try different types of breads (wheat, pita,french,etc.) and olive salad spreads. Boscoli is great if you like olives. Also try fresh spinach instead of lettuce, tomatoes, thinly sliced red onions, etc.
2-Red Beans & Rice- Put red beans, onion, Tony's, salt and sliced smoked sausage in a slow cooker in the morning and let cook all day on low.  Serve over rice. (Instant brown rice is good if you are in a hurry.) When you are tired of that, mash and use for burritos.
3-Burritos: put whatever you like in it, beans, meat, chicken, cheese, lettuce, salsa, etc.
4-Chicken: buy about 4 chicken breast. Cut 2 lengthwise (you will have 4 thin chicken breast from these two). Season with Tony's, salt, or whatever you like. With 2 chicken breast.( or 4 after they are cut) pan fry in a little oil. About 5 min before done, put a bunch of fresh spinach on top and sprinkle 5 Italian cheese or mozzarella, cover and let finish cooking. The spinach should wilt and cheese melt. You can use that for 2- 4 meals or make a sandwich with some.
5-Fajitas- With the 2 other chicken breast, cut in bite size pieces and pan fry for fajitas. When done, heat tortilla, add chicken and whatever else you like: spinach, cheese, tomatoes, sour cream, salsa, etc. this should be enough for a few meals. You can also add chicken to salads or use chips and
make nachos.
6-Meat, rice & gravy- if you like this, you can almost season any meat and put in slow cooker in the morning on low and let cook all day. They sell little packs of powder gravy mix you can add or
you can buy a can of gravy and add close to end of cooking time or add cream of mushroom soup.
Instant brown rice cooks in 5-10 mins and it's good.
7-Spaghetti-super easy. Again use slow cooker:add a bag of rosita frozen meat balls and 2-3 cans of
spaghetti and seasonings and let cook all day. If you prefer loose meat, you just brown a pack of ground meat and throw it in instead of meatballs. If you don't have a slow cooker, just cook in a pot for a couple of hours.

Sides- you can add: green beans, broccoli, salad, fruit, fruit salad, beets, edamame (bought in frozen section,just microwave), or whatever vege you like. You should really eat at least 2-3 servings of fruits and veges each day. A lot of carbs makes you feel tired and sluggish anyway!

This should last a week or more. If you get tired of something before you are done, just freeze it and you will have a meal for later.  Being prepared keeps you from eating super unhealthy, it saves you money from eating out all the time and it saves you time from having to think of what to eat and constantly going to the store.

Spinach Lasagna

2 boxes frozen chopped spinach, thawed and water squeezed out
24 oz. cottage cheese,  blended up to look like ricotta
1 egg, beaten into cottage cheese
4 oz cream cheese, softened
8 oz. Italian cheese
Parmesan cheese
1 can spaghetti sauce
Seasonings
3 zucchini s, sliced thin long ways to use as noodles or lasagna noodles, cooked
Sautéed onion, 2 bell peppers and garlic (mushrooms are optional) in a little oil (or whatever veges you like)

1. In a skillet over medium-high heat, cook mushrooms,bell peppers, onions, and garlic in olive oil until onions are tender. Drain excess liquid and cool.  Squeeze excess liquid out of spinach. 
2. Combine cottage cheese, cream cheese, spinach, salt, oregano, basil, pepper, and egg in a bowl. Add cooled vegetable mixture. Mix well. Lay 5 lasagna noodles or zucchini in bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Spread one third of the cheese/spinach mixture over noodles. Sprinkle 1/3  Italian  cheese and 1/3  Parmesan cheese on top. Spread 1 cup pasta sauce over cheese. Repeat layering 2 times. ( I wait and put last layer of Italian cheese after the lasagna has cooked for 45 min to an hr. I uncover, add cheese and bake about 10 more mins.)
3. Cover dish with aluminum foil and bake in a preheated oven for 1 hour. Uncover, add last layer of  Italian cheese, bake 10 mins. then remove from over. Cool 15 minutes before serving.   (If you use zucchini, the lasagna will be juicy. There are no noodles to absorb the juice.)

Pan-cooked Cauliflower

Chopped cauliflower and put in food processor and grate. If you don't have a processor, you can grate it like you would cheese.
Put a like oil in skillet.  Add grated cauliflower and seasoning and cook and stir until it turns brownish.
You can use it in place of rice or eat it as a side dish.
Another way is to cut up the cauliflower, sprinkle with olive oil and salt then bake for about 30 min. in a 350 degree oven.
Also, you can steam the chopped cauliflower then season and put in oven or broiler.

Spicy Carrot Cake from Talk About Good Cookbook

2 cups sugar
2 cups flour (sifted twice)
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. Wesson oil
3 cups grated carrots ( I use a food processor. First is grate them, then I chop them.)
4 eggs

Combine dry ingredients and mix well. Add eggs and oil and mix well. Now add carrots and beat on medium speed with electric mixer about 2 minutes. Grease and flour  three  9-inch round cake pans. Preheat oven for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Pour into the three cake pans and bake 20-30 minutes, depending on your oven.

Icing/Filling:
1 (8oz.) pkg. Philadelphia Cream Cheese (room temp.)
1 stick butter (room temp.)
1 box confectioners sugar, sifted
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans (book says optional, but my family would disagree. It's not optional)

Cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Add sugar gradually. Add vanilla and pecans. Put between layers and on top. Do not ice sides.

Carrot cupcakes - you can double the cake recipe and use a single recipe of icing.

Fish Almondine (Liz Lemaire's recipe)

Season fish fillets with Tony's.
In a bowl, add  pancake mix and seasoning
Put wet fish in pancake mix and flip so fish is covered.
Pan fry in butter.
When done remove fish (optional: add slivered almonds and brown, then add 1/3 c. Lemon jc and 1/2 c. Water. Stir and cook a few minutes. This makes a sauce you can put over fish or dip fish into. Taste before you pour over your fish in case it's too lemony for you)

Meatballs for a Party

1 bag frozen meatballs
1 jar grape jelly
1-2 bottles Heinz chili sauce or BBQ sauce
Little seasoning

Put all ingredients in slow cooker and cook for a couple of hours. Some recipes call for about same ounces of jelly and chili sauce. My friends use a 32 oz. jar of jelly with a 12 oz. jar of chili sauce.
I'm not usually a fan of party meatballs, but hers were good.