Today was very exciting for us. Dorm Room Delights was featured in  this article in The Amherst Student, our student run newspaper here at Amherst! To celebrate, we've done some serious planning and have thought up some great new recipes for you.
We also took a look through our past recipes,  and realized that there are quite a few variations of a simple concept: pasta with vegetables. Believe it or not , there is a very logical reason for this repetition. Noodles and vegetables can be combined in many versatile ways to create filling and healthy meals that don't require meat (which we cannot feasibly cook using our kettle.) 
To demonstrate the potential of these pasta dishes, we made satisfying noodle stir fry with a light lemon sauce. After experimenting with many different types of noodles (macaroni, pasta, and ramen), we decided to use ramen noodels as the best base for this recipe. The noodles perfectly soaked up the lemon sauce, while freshly steamed veggies (which we foraged from our salad bar) provided a great textural contrast. All in all, this dish is a winner, and is a prime example of a wonderful meal that can be made in your dorm. 
Ingredients:
For lemon sauce:
1 chicken bullion cube*
2/3 cup boiling water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
For stir fry:
1 package ramen noodles
1/2 cup raw broccoli (f)
1/4 cup sliced carrots (f)
1/4 cup snow peas (f)

Directions:
1. Boil a large amount of water in kettle. Use some of the water to cook ramen noodles using our ramen method, and save some water for sauce. 
While ramen is cooking:
1. Dissolve bullion in 2/3 cup boiling water
2. When cube is dissolved, pour off half of chicken broth
3. Add lemon juice, sugar, and soy sauce to the broth. Stir over double boiler to heat sauce.
4. Remove sauce from heat, and mix with drained ramen noodles (they should be done cooking by this point)
5. Steam veggies and add to noodles


*We have many bullion cubes because they are a great base for chicken soup. If you don't want to buy a box of bullion, you can use the chicken flavor packet that comes with chicken ramen noodles. 
 
Here on Dorm Room Delights, we have a passion for using common dorm ingredients in different, delicious ways. This recipe takes ramen noodles (cooked using the ramen method) and peanut butter to create a fantastic Thai-style noodle dish. 
When you add some cooked green beans, left over from your chicken soup,  this can make a full dinner for those nights when it is just too cold to walk to the dining hall. 
Picture
Ingredients:
  • 1/4 C Peanut Butter (f)
  • 2/3 Tablespoons of sugar
  • 2/3 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce (f)
  • 1/4 C Hot Water
Instructions:

Picture
  1. Combine the peanut butter, sugar, and soy sauce and mix.
  2. Pour in the water slowly while stirring until it reaches the appropriate consistency.
  3. Mix with plain, cooked Ramen Noodles and enjoy!

(This dish works well with green beans that are cooked using our frozen vegetables method.)

 
This is more of set of instructions than a recipe as it is not from scratch:
There are many brands of microwavable macaroni and cheese, available at every corner grocery store or supermarket. A microwave is not, however, needed to cook these mac'n'cheese products. 
Today we will show you how to cook mac'n'cheese (the kind that comes with the dry, separated, noodles and cheese) using the hot water from your electric kettle. We will also class it up with the addition of peas, cooked with (you guessed it) boiling water from your kettle. Add some freshly ground pepper and you have a fantastic dinner from your dorm room!
Ingredients: 
  • One pack of macaroni and cheese (we used Annie's White Cheddar)
  • 2/3 cup frozen peas
  • Butter (optional) (f)
  • Small thermos
  • Colander (optional)
    
Instructions:
  1. Put the peas in the thermos and cover with boiling water (try to fill the thermos as close to an inch from the top)
Picture
2. Cover with lid and let sit for 4 minutes.

3. Pour the peas into the colander (or just tip the thermos, draining the water while avoiding spilling the peas) and let sit. Add pat of butter if you want.

4. Add plain noodles, from the package, to thermos. Pour boiling water over the noodles untill it reaches a level at least 2 inches above macaroni. Cover with lid.

5. Stir with a spoon after 1 min to prevent noodles from sticking together and replace the lid. Swirl thermos occasionally for remaining 3 mins. (boiling water can spurt out of the closed thermos when it is sloshed around so be careful)

Picture

6. Pour out as much water as possible from top of noodles (it is OK if some water remains) and leave noodles in thermos.

7. Add the dried cheese and stir into noodles. More warm water from the kettle may be added to reach desired consistency. 

8. Stir peas into mac'n'cheese.

Add fresh pepper and munch away!