Tortellini and White Bean Soup

21 Mar

Are you feeling lazy but want a really hearty meal? This recipe is perfect for you.

Ingredients:

  1. 1 can condensed tomato soup
  2. 12 oz. meat or cheese tortellini
  3. 1 can small white beans
  4. chopped fresh basil
  5. 1 cup fresh diced tomato

Supplies:

  1. one or two saucepans
  2. knife
  3. cutting board
  4. strainer

Time: 15-30 minutes, depending on how may saucepans or burners you have.

Serves: 2-3

Drink Pairing: This is meant to be simple and filling, so really any beer will do.

Directions:

If you have just one saucepan or burner, cook the tortellini first, strain it, and put it aside for a minute. If you have two burners, you can cook the tortellini while you start the soup. Mix the condensed soup with 1 can of water, Stir over medium heat until thoroughly mixed.

Add the white beans, fresh tomatoes, and basil. When the soup comes to a simmer add the tortellini, reduce the heat to low, and let it cook for five more minutes. Serve topped with more chopped basil.

Nutella stuffed pancakes!!

28 Feb

It seems like every hostel kitchen comes complete with a jar of nutella that some other traveler left behind. Here’s a way to put it to good use.

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups pancake mix
  • 1 cup water
  • nutella
  • butter, cooking oil, or cooking spray

Supplies:

  • frying
  • bowl
  • fork
  • spatula

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Serves: 2-3

Drink Pairing: I’m a fan of nutella and milk… have a white russian.

Prepare pancake batter in the bowl. If you can’t find pancake mix where you are you can make your own using this recipe.

Heat and grease the frying pan. Pour one pancake’s worth of batter in. Place a spoonful of nutella in the middle of the pancake  and cover it with more batter. Flip the pancake, cooking until both sides are golden brown.

Tags: , ,

Microwave Couscous

23 Feb

Maybe you’ve had this happen to you at some point.  You check in at a hostel that claimed to have a kitchen, but it turns out that their ‘kitchen’ is just microwave and a mini-fridge. While it’s completely misleading to market that as a kitchen, you can work with it. This recipe is for a real hot meal, no stove required.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup diced tomato
  • 3 oz. diced gruyere cheese (you can also substitute manchego)
  • 1 cup Water
  • 1 1/2 cup small grain couscous
  • 2 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 3/4 cup canned chickpeas
  • 2 tbsp. capers
  • salt & pepper to taste

Supplies:

  • knife
  • cutting board
  • microwave safe bowl

Cook Time: 10 Min

Serves: 2-3

Drink pairing: This is cheap microwave dinner, you kind of have to drink boxed wine with it.

Add couscous, chickpeas, 1/2 cup of diced tomatoes, water, oil, salt & pepper to bowl. Stir well. Microwave on high for 3 1/2 minutes. Remove bowl from microwave, cover and let sit for 5 minutes.

Fluff with a fork, stir in capers and remaining tomatoes. Serve topped with diced cheese.

Tags: , ,

Finding food in Cuzco, Peru

21 Feb

As the gateway to the Inca Trail, Cuzco is one of the busiest tourist towns in South America. It’s full of fake markets that exist solely for tourists. But El Mercado is the real thing.

This place has all sorts of meat and vegetable stalls, as well as food stands where you can get a quick meal or a fresh juice. You can even find a limited selection of local crafts here at a much better price than in the tourist shops.

via: cc Ivan Mlinaric

Tags: , , ,

Don’t know what to make??

15 Feb

We’ve all been there. Sometimes your standing in a weird grocery store in a foreign country and you can’t figure out to save your life how the random products they have on offer are supposed to add up to a meal.

Supercook.com will save you from starvation in a situation like this. You just tell it what ingredients you have available, and it will generate recipes! It’s meant to help housewives make meals with whatever leftovers they have in the fridge, but I say it’s equally useful for backpackers!!

Tags: , , , , ,

One night in Bangkok… and you’ll pay for it in the morning.

18 Jan

When it comes to partying, there are few places on earth that do it as well as Thailand. If you pass anywhere through this country, chances are you’ll have some wild nights followed by rough mornings.

Luckily, Thailand is home to one of the greatest hangover-treating foods ever created: banana pancakes.

Via: flickr, kwankwan

These are rotis stuffed with bananas and covered in sweetened condensed milk or chocolate sauce. They combine two of the best things to eat when you’re hung over:

1.) They’ve got the comfort of a greasy and starchy snack.

2.) They have bananas which are rich in potassium, one of the key nutrients you need to to replenish in order to feel better.

So if you wake up in Thailand feeling like death, force yourself to get out of bed and go find the nearest pancake cart.

Tags: , , ,

No-Bake Lasagna

11 Jan

Ingredients:

  • 6-8 Lasagna noodles
  • 1 cup ricotta cheese
  • 1 cup mozzarella
  • 2 cups tomato sauce
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 cup ground beef or vegetarian equivalent
  • 1/4 cup olive oil

Supplies:

  • Large pot
  • Frying pan

Cook Time: 45 Minutes

Serves: 2-3

Drink Pairing: Red wine (obviously)

Lasagna usually requires an oven, but this recipe you can do entirely on the stove top. It’s best if you have two burners, but if not you can manage with just one.

First, put the lasagna noodles on to cook. This will take about 10 minutes in boiling water, make sure to add a bit of oil to the water to keep the noodles from getting stuck to each other. When the noodles are done strain them and rinse them in cool water, then lay them flat on a plate. Next cook the ground beef, if you have two burners you can cook the noodles and the beef at once. Put ground beef, garlic, and one tablespoon of olive oil in the frying pan and cook over high heat.

Once the beef is brown (or the veggie beef is crispy at the edges), remove it from the stove and put it in a bowl.Clean the sauce pan any put it back on the burner, this time with the rest of the olive oil and 1 1/2 cups tomato sauce in it, set heat to low.

Assemble the lasagna: Lay one noodle flat. cover in ricotta, mozzarella, tomato sauce, and beef.

Roll the noodle up, an place it in the frying pan, top with additional sauce and mozzarella.

Repeat this until you are out of ingredients or room in the sauce pan. Cook the roll ups over medium heat for 10 minutes. Cover the pan if possible, your hostel probably won’t have a lid for the frying pan, but you may be able to improvise one with a plate. When the cheese on top of the lasagna is melted scoop the rolls out of the pan and serve.

Tags: , ,

← Older Entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 276 other followers