Mix It Up

Recipe: Easy Spinach Puffs

Image of spinach puffs — Fresh from the oven!

Crescent roll dough is one of our favorite ingredients to have on hand! Like chickpeas, crescent rolls are super versatile and you can make a lot of different recipes with them. We like to fill the dough with different ingredients to make various side dishes or desserts, like spinach puffs and blueberry pastries. This recipe is one we originally made with puff pastry dough, but we recently tried it with crescent roll dough and liked the results even more!

Our goal for this recipe? To make spinach puffs that Kronk would approve of!

Crescent dough is a relatively cheap ingredient, but to maximize savings, pick up a few tubes whenever they’re on sale! It stays fresh for a long time, so don’t worry if you don’t have an immediate plan for it. If you are vegan, double check that the brand is safe. If you’re a college student, you can often find fresh spinach on campus salad bar lines – this is a great way to source a “free” ingredient. For non-college students or students without a meal plan, frozen spinach is always good too! It lasts for a long time in the freezer and is much cheaper than buying fresh spinach.

Easy Spinach Puffs (makes 8 puffs)

Ingredients:

Spinach (meal plan or $0.99/serving) *
Crescent rolls ($2.19/package) OR puff pastry ($4.99/package)
Olive Oil ($0.20/serving)
Garlic and Herb Seasoning ($0.08/serving)

Supplies:

Sheet pan ($5.00)

Open the crescent rolls and separate the triangles of dough. Spread them out on a sheet pan, brush with olive oil, and sprinkle with seasoning blend. Carefully place spinach on top and fold the dough to close, pinching the seams and making sure there aren’t any openings (the puffs will expand in the oven, so you don’t want openings or the spinach might escape!). Brush olive oil over the top of the puffs, and if desired, push a spinach leaf into the top. Bake according to the directions on the crescent roll packaging – pull the puffs out of the oven when they’re golden brown, about 12-14 minutes.

* We’ve found it helpful to steam the spinach in a microwave before filling the puffs! Steaming it first will start cooking it down and means you can fit more in each puff. Place most of your spinach in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for about 1 minute, or until soft – save a few leaves to place on top of your puffs if you want!

** If you want to make this recipe with puff pastry instead, cut the pastry dough into squares and fill the same way as the crescent roll dough. Fold into triangles, brush with olive oil, and bake according to puff pastry directions.

Tips and Tricks: Chickpeas

Photo by dimitri.photography on Unsplash

With a basic food like chickpeas, it’s easy to fall into a rut of cooking the same thing over and over again. The options truly are endless though! Whether you follow a totally vegan diet, eat more plant based, or you’re just appreciative of these little beans, we guarantee there are more ways to prepare chickpeas than you can imagine. Here are some of our favorite tips and tricks for delightful garbanzo beans:

As college students we know how tough it is to stretch a tight budget, but that doesn’t mean ramen has to be the only food available to you. Most college cafeterias have a salad bar, which is a great resource for healthy vegetables. These salad bars often have garbanzo beans, so pick some up when you grab lunch and have a protein packed dinner!
Use roasted chickpeas as a salad topping! It has the crunchy texture of croutons without the empty carbs, and it adds protein to your salad.
In addition to roasting chickpeas, you can add them to soups, toss them with pasta, eat them in sandwiches, blend them into hummus, cook them on the stove with veggies…. the list goes on and on!
Some people feel like they should rinse beans before cooking with them, but there’s no need! The liquid has nutrients that you don’t want to lose. Instead, drain the liquid into a container and save it to use later.
You’re probably wondering what to do with this liquid… It’s usually called aquafaba (bean water) in recipes and it’s super versatile. Aquafaba acts like egg whites, so whip it up! It can be used in:
- Meringues
- Some cake recipes
- Mousse
- Vegan mayo
- And more!
Remember, aquafaba is a free ingredient when you buy a can of chickpeas so make sure to save it and make the most of it!

❤ Juliana and Sarah

Recipe: Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti squash is a delicious, low-carb alternative to traditional pasta which lends itself to a variety of flavor palettes. You can usually find it at grocery stores or local markets, and while it can be on the pricier side, it’s definitely worth picking one up if you can find a good deal! When we make spaghetti squash in our dorm kitchen, we like roasting it with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and topping it with sauteed veggies to make a filling main dish, but you can play around with it and come up with your own take on this versatile dish!

For this meal, we roasted the spaghetti squash like we usually do and topped it with leftover tomato sauce, spinach, and kale. Living on a small college campus makes it tricky to find fresh, inexpensive vegetables to cook with, so we usually pick up veggies from the campus dining hall and walk to a grocery store every weekend to shop for things we can’t get on campus. When it came time to find ingredients for this meal, we picked up the spinach from the dining hall salad bar and the squash from a grocery store; the kale and tomato sauce actually came from a local farmer’s market!

Topped with tomato sauce, kale, and spinach

Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Tomato Sauce (makes 2-4 servings)

Ingredients:

Spaghetti squash ($4.00)
Olive oil ($0.20/serving)
Salt and Pepper (packet drawer)
Tomato sauce ($2.19/jar)
Spinach (meal plan or $0.99/serving)
Kale ($0.99/serving)
Desired seasoning to taste

Supplies:

Sheet pan ($5.00)
Knife ($3.99)
Cutting board ($4.00)
Saucepan* ($8.00)

Cut off the top and bottom of the spaghetti squash and cut in half lengthwise. Scrape the seeds out (like carving a pumpkin!), drizzle the squash with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook squash at 400°F for 45-50 minutes. While the squash is cooking, heat the tomato sauce in a saucepan (or a microwave safe dish if you don’t have a saucepan). Wash the spinach and kale and add to the sauce, stirring to mix everything together. When the squash is done, use a fork to scrape the “noodles” into a bowl or plate and top with the tomato sauce.

Recipe: Roasted Chickpeas

Roasted chickpeas are one of our favorite, most adaptable foods to make! Also called garbanzo beans, chickpeas are an incredibly versatile source of protein and take on the flavor of whatever you cook them with, making them super easy to add to any meal. Roasting them with potatoes and vegetables is one of our favorite ways to cook chickpeas, but they’re also great cold on top of salads, in soups as an alternative source of protein, or blended into a dip. This recipe shows a basic method of roasting chickpeas on their own, but it can be adapted to utilize different spice blends, a variety of vegetables, or whatever else you have on hand.

Roasted Chickpeas (makes 2-3 servings)

Ingredients:

1 can chickpeas ($0.59)
Olive oil ($0.20)
Salt and pepper (packet drawer*)
Desired seasoning blend

Supplies:

Sheet pan ($5.00)
Mixing bowl ($6.99) OR Ziploc bag ($0.10)
Spatula ($0.99)
Strainer ($2.99)
Olive oil cooking spray ($1.39)

Preheat oven to 425-450°F. Drain chickpeas and dump into either mixing bowl or ziploc bag. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning blend, salt, and pepper to taste and mix until evenly coated. Spray pan with cooking spray and spread chickpeas evenly over it; roast for 30-40 minutes, checking and stirring occasionally.

* Always save condiment packets to use later!

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog! We’re two college students learning how to make delicious meals on a university meal plan and a tight personal budget. It’s challenging, but we’ve learned some great tips and tricks that we’re looking forward to sharing! Here you’ll find recipes, meal plan tips, and ways to make the most out of a tiny dorm kitchen. Most of the recipes we make are vegan or vegetarian, but can easily be adapted to fit a wide range of eating preferences. Feel free to contact us with any questions, suggestions, or recipes you’d like to see!

❤ Juliana and Sarah