College Cooking with Celia

Cajun Sausage and Rice Skillet

Anyone who knows me knows I love Budget Bytes. Beth shares easy, tasty, and extremely affordable recipes and her site is my fave to scroll through when I need dinner inspiration. I’ve shared some of her recipes before, and today I’m back with this super delicious skillet dinner.

I made this the other day for my housemates and I and it was a hit. A few adjustments: I doubled it and it made enough for 2 dinners AND a lunch for all three of us. Easiest meal prep ever. I also couldn’t find any smoked pork sausage at Aldi, so I used hot Italian sausage instead. Definitely not quite the same, but it still ended up so delicious. The rice makes it super warm and cozy and filling, the spices mix together so well, and the sausage is the perfect bite. And if you get a bit bored of the leftovers, I think this would be great with an over easy egg on top!

10/10 recommend trying out this recipe, and 10/10 recommend checking out Budget Bytes if you haven’t yet!

Our kitchen lighting is horrible so here you have a picture of me holding the pan in my roommate’s room haha

Cajun Sausage and Rice Skillet

Cook time: 45 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients

14 oz Andouille sausage (or any smoked pork sausage)
1 tbsp cooking oil
1 bell pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 15 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes (or just regular diced tomatoes)
1 cup long grain white rice
1.5 cups chicken broth

Instructions

Slice the sausage into 1/4-1/2 inch thick slices. Add the sausage and cooking oil to a deep skillet or dutch oven. Sauté over medium heat until browned.
While the sausage is cooking, dice the bell pepper. Add to the skillet and sauté for about a minute.
Add the spices to the skillet and sauté one more minute to toast the spices.
Add the tomatoes (with juices), rice, and the chicken brother to the skillet. Stir to combine and dissolve browned bits off the bottom of the pan.
Place a lid on the skillet, turn the heat to medium-high, and bring the skillet to a boil. Once it’s boiling, turn the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, take the pan off the heat and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Weekly Gratitude #38

Hey y’all, happy Sunday! No new recipe posts this week because we kinda just ate things we’d cooked before (including this honey mustard chicken!). But my roomies and I grocery shopped yesterday, so we’ve got some exciting plans: a sausage and rice skillet, caldo de pollo, and chicken chili with baked potatoes. Stay tuned!

As for this week, it was honestly pretty solid. Definitely busy, we’re gearing up for some midterms, but still decent 🙂 Hope you’re all having a good weekend! All the love, Celia

This week I’m thankful for:

Pretty sunsets
Grilled cheese with tomato soup
A very sweet anniversary with my boy ❤
Thai food! I love a curry
Pumpkin cream cold brew
Homework on the porch
Breakfast tacos
Cool weather! Jackets! Cozy clothes!
A roommate who’s pre-PT and can help you work out your back pain ❤
Blanket forts
Grocery shopping
Target
Super Monster-Rame Drive In Movie fest
Warm blankets
Pumpkin bagels and hazelnut coffee

Weekly Gratitude #37

Back at it with Weekly Gratitude posts, sharing a bit about my week and listing the things I’m grateful for this week. This week felt like the longest, most exhausting week. But I was able to decompress and relax this weekend, and the weather forecast is cooling down this week which makes me SO happy.

So here’s a short list of what I’m thankful for this week! Hope y’all have the best Sunday ❤ Cecelia

Sunday morning hikes
Black bean burgers on the porch with Carissa
Making breakfast tacos with my boyo Joshua
Setting my samples up to look like a sunset (lol)
Creamy pesto pasta with sausage
Insomnia cookies from Ang ❤
Kind words from my people
Taking Friday off of work
Bagel with cream cheese and a delicious smoothie for breakfast!
(Finally) finishing Umbrella Academy with Josh
Facetimes with Shelb
Watching a Pitt win! Albeit from the couch instead of the band section
My first med school interview invite!
Homemade nachos
Milkshake factory
Starting Haunting of Hill House
Overalls (I now have 3 pairs lol)
Sleeping in
Cool air
Making homemade bread
Sunday productivity

Black Bean Burgers

Big shoutout to my friend Ellen for this recipe. This past July, the lease on my apartment ended a week before my new lease started, so I crashed at my friends Kenny and Ellen’s place. While couch sleeping isn’t necessarily the most comfy, we had the best time cooking yummy things and watching movies together. Ellen is a vegetarian, so one of the recipes we made was homemade black bean burgers. And they were SO good and also way easier than I was expecting??

They were so easy and delicious that I’ve already made them twice at my new place with my housemates Carissa and Sam (our house has 2 kitchens, so even though there are 6 of us, I share my kitchen with two other people). The first round of black bean burgers was definitely not as strong, but I got the hang of the proportions of ingredients and the second round was delicious. We baked some tater tots and sliced up a cucumber to round out our dinner and it was perfect.

Absolutely 10/10 recommend making your own black bean burgers! Perfect for meatless Monday, bean lovers everywhere, or just anyone looking for an easy and delicious dinner option.

Black Bean Burgers

Cook time: 35 minuts

Makes: 7 hamburger sized burgers

Ingredients

2 16 oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
Spices to taste (I used salt, cumin, paprika, and chili powder, about a teaspoon or so of each)
2 eggs
1/4-1/2 cup Italian breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Burger buns, lettuce, condiments for serving

Instructions

In a large bowl, lightly mash the black beans with a fork (leaving some beans wholes, some in chunks)
Add the red onion, garlic, and spices of choice (should smell fragrant and well seasoned)
Beat the 2 eggs and mix into bean mixture
Add the breadcrumbs and mix with your hands until the mixture comes together, and stays in a patty form without falling apart
Add oil to a large pan, and cook burgers over medium heat, about 10 minutes on each side. They should be brown and crispy on the edges, and cooked through the middle
Serve with your favorite toppings and condiments!

I’m Back!

Welp it has been probably almost a year since I last posted on here. Life got crazy, time got away from me. My bff roommate moved out, I started dating the sweetest guy ever, I started my own research project in my lab, I switched sections in band, and my classes got harder. Some things just had to be pushed to the back-burner. But then yesterday a guy I went to high school with reached out to me to say he’d made one of my recipes in his new apartment at college, and he thanked me for posting easy recipes and he couldn’t wait to try more. I realized I kind of missed sharing recipes, having documentation of my go-to easy options, and listing out what I’m thankful for every week. So here I am, back at it. I have no idea how often I’ll find the time to post, but I just don’t want to let this little place die.

So what have I been up to in the last year? Well, probably similar to everyone for the last six months, hanging out a whole lot at home. I’ve been doing lots of reading (I’ve read 38 books so far in 2020!), trying new recipes with my new housemates, doing yoga every day, hiking, and working in my lab. I also just applied to medical school, and started my senior year of college. Definitely an unconventional senior year, but I’m just happy to be living with some of my best friends, watching Disney Channel Original Movies, and sitting on my porch watching the rain.

I’m looking forward to being back in this space to document what my new roomies and I are doing in the kitchen, and hopefully having a little place to both vent, and focus on the small joys.

Happy to be back 🙂 Cecelia

Weekly Gratitude #36

Well life is very busy and clearly I haven’t posted anything since last Sunday… Maybe eventually this semester I’ll get back to posting recipes but for now we’re sticking to Weekly Gratitudes. Partly because the positivity is good for my mental health, and partly because I know my grandma and my parents read them to stay updated on my life (hi nonni and mom and dad!).

This week was a busy one. Classes this semester are for sure hard, but I really like the content (especially biochem and human physiology) so we’ll make it through. Plus lots of band this week, including an 11 AM kickoff yesterday which meant a 6:45 call time and thus a 5:30 alarm. So we are definitely tired. Gonna try for an early bedtime tonight but… we’ll see.

What are you all grateful for this week? Lemme know below 🙂

This week I’m thankful for:

Doctored up my leftover curry and it was the BEST

2/3 of the fam present and accounted for, just missing Dad and Jack 😦

Productive days off
Facetimes with Angela
Friends who send you pictures of their dog
Bass cuddle piles
Sitting outside to do homework
Really nice weather
First d group with Morgan and Liz
Leftover thai food
A week of good outfits
Training the new lab aide
Learning easy drill
Post band sunsets
Lab meetings with free bagels
Naps on the band room floor
My mom and the twins visiting!
Yummy Mediterranean food for dinner
A super fun game day
Catching up with Deena
Movie nights
Grocery runs
Nice weather
Baking a cake instead of doing homework

Weekly Gratitude #35

No class today because of Labor Day means acting like today is a Sunday. And thus Weekly Gratitude going up a week late. But this week has also been CRAZY so I’m telling myself it’s okay.

First week of classes this week was strong, first home game (as a bass!) on Saturday, and lots of catching up with my fave people 🙂

Definitely excited for a slightly shorter week followed by a visit from my mom and the twins this weekend. Not as much excited about the long to do list I still have to accomplish today. But we will get through!

Let me know what you’re grateful for this week!

This week I’m thankful for:

The first Pitt Tonight show of the year
Watching The Autopsy of Jane Doe
Overalls for the first day of class
Bass coffee date
Friends who support you when you’re anxious
Successful band rehearsals
A super packed first meeting for Habitat for Humanity
Insomnia cookies
Productive leadership meeting
Pulled pork pasta
My human physiology professor
Studying in Carnegie Library
Dinner date with Shelby at Piada
Sitting in the park
The guy carrying his GRINNING husky through the park
Chocolate ice cream with bananas
Phone call catch ups with Colton
Training the new lab aide Zach
Getting my research mentor! So I can start my own research!
A super fun bonfire/pep rally
FaceTimes with Angela
Naps on the band room floor
Deena
Hugs from Brandon
Phone calls home
Bass lunch
The BEST game day
Sleeping in
Girls day out
Noodlehead for lunch
Shopping adventures
Movie nights

Weekly Gratitude #34

Hello everyone! I am perfectly aware that my blog consistency has not been the greatest, but the start of marching band season makes everything complicated. Missed the last week and a half here on account of band camp, an enormous amount of laundry, finishing up work for the summer, catching up with friends, and getting ready for classes to start.

But we’re finally back with a Weekly Gratitude! Gonna share a bit from the last two weeks which have truly been the best. So exhausting but in the best way; band camp really takes it out of you (especially with a new 30 pound instrument) but man do the people make it worth it. Shoutout to my new bass fam, I love y’all ❤

Now onto my gratitude list. Let me know below what you’re thankful for this week!

This week (and last week) I’m thankful for:

Band camp starting and getting to see all my fave people again
Ice cream with the basses
Being elected Bass Mom and thus getting to carry the Bass Mom fannypack
Everyone in the bass section who helped me the whole week with marching and playing and fingerings and everything
Icyhot
Our sweet baby freshmen
Pirate night
Spaghetti
Sunsets
Getting all dressed up for the Bandie Dance
Dancing with my section with not a care in the world
The best lil squad
My strong capable shoulders that can hold a bass for 5 straight days
My fellow motion sick gang that held bags and played games at Kennywood
Time to read
Using my first aid skills
My last 2 days as a lab aide!
Cat cafe excursion
Tomato toast
The Italian deli on the corner
Dinner with my bff Angela and her fam
The best spot in the stands for football
Brunch with the homewreckers

Cucumber and Peach Salad

It has been SO hot in Pittsburgh the past few weeks. And my apartment doesn’t have air conditioning so I basically exist in a state of sweat haha. This situation slightly complicates cooking though– turning on the stove or oven is akin to turning on a heater in my already steamy apartment. So in order to avoid cooking I have accidentally become a vegetarian, subsisting off of pasta salads of all kinds. Which, to be fair, is a delicious existence.

Last week I made a salad (very) loosely based off this recipe from Bon Appetit, which I saw and IMMEDIATELY wanted to try. I didn’t quite have everything the recipe called for, so I winged it with what I had (the beauty of cooking!) and also added chickpeas for some protein 🙂

I ended up eating the entire bowl myself for dinner… but it could easily feed two or make an awesome side dish or lunch! And it’s so yummy and summery 🙂 So try out this Cucumber Peach Salad next time the last thing you want to do is turn on the stove!

Cucumber and Peach Salad

Cook time: 10 minutes

Serves: 1-4

Ingredients

1/2 cucumber
2 peaches
1/2 can chickpeas
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Basil
Asiago cheese

Instructions

Slice the cucumber in half lengthwise twice, and then chop into small pieces. Put in a medium bowl with about 1 tablespoon of olive oil and season with salt, pepper, and basil.
Dice the peaches and add to the cucumber.
Add the chickpeas and season more to taste.
Top with shaved or shredded asiago cheese, and serve!

Weekly Gratitude #32

This past week was my last full week of relaxation. These next two weeks are band camp and then classes start! I’m excited to have all my bffs moving back… slightly less excited about the stress of classes starting.

This week has been full of catching up with people, cleaning, and enjoying the slightly cooler weather. What have you all been up to this week? And let me know what you’re thankful for this week 🙂

This week I’m thankful for: