Due to an increase in local cases of COVID-19, most students were required to move out of all the University of New Mexico dorms, leaving many without easy access to the dining hall or other easy meals on campus.
With plenty of time stuck in the house, here are some affordable, and easily made meals that a Lobo can cook at home.
Breakfast Burrito
All that is needed to make a breakfast burrito is a stove (or microwave), tortilla, eggs and cheese. This quick breakfast will take no more than 10 minutes to prepare. First, cook the eggs to a scramble, then mix in any sides — vegetables, meat, rice, beans, etc.
After cooking the eggs to a scramble in a frying pan, I put them into a tortilla with some cheese. This breakfast dish will range from 300-400 calories, all depending on what is added to the dish. This meal will usually cost about $8 to $10 at your local Walmart.
Some problems that you may run into going forward with this dish is the lack of taste that it might have. The best way to overcome this is by adding seasonings. If adding meat, my go to is ham which is easy to cook or heat up, or sausage, which is a signature breakfast meat. Chicken or hamburger will make the dish taste strange due to the way the meat picks up flavor.
Although this may sound like an only breakfast food, I could eat this for any of my three meals. A good New Mexican way to spice this dish up is by adding green or red chile.
Taco Baked Chicken
For lunch, a slightly more time-consuming meal is Taco Baked Chicken, courtesy of carriesexperimentalkitchen.com.
First, marinate your chicken in taco seasoning and oil. Let it sit in the fridge for 2 hours, then bake it in the oven for an hour at 350 degrees. While the chicken is baking, I used instant 5-minute rice as one of my side dishes. Another side dish would be beans. I used a can of black beans and cooked them at a medium heat until the juice wasn't thick anymore. This dish will have a calorie count of about 390, and will cost around $13-15.
A problem that you may run into when marinating the chicken before putting it in the fridge, is making sure that the seasoning is evenly covered. Grab the bag of chicken and shake it up to spread the marinade entirely over the chicken pieces. Don’t forget to set a timer for your chicken when it is in the oven, otherwise you will either dry it out or burn it.
An easy way to make this a family dish instead of a single dish is by cooking an entire chicken instead of a few pieces. You could also substitute the beans and/or rice for potatoes and peppers.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Five minute chorizo tacos
Five-minute chorizo tacos from acouplecooks.com cooks into a delicious and easy dinner.
Whisk together four eggs, then add chili powder, garlic powder and cumin (all seasonings will measure ½ a tablespoon). Heat a frying pan with oil, then cook the eggs into large scrambles. If desired, add meat — recommended options would be pork and chicken. Sausage is better for the breakfast dish that is provided above compared to this one due to flavoring and taste, but it is very much up to the person making the meal. Cut up the desired vegetables (onions, bell peppers, etc) and put into the tortilla and enjoy.
This meal will be about 200 to 400 calories and will cost around $13-15
Something to note whenever making this dish is how to make your eggs. Similar to making an omelet, you fold over the egg to make a half. In this chorizo dish, you will fold the egg over and over, but avoid crushing the eggs up like you would when making scrambled eggs. Doing this will help the eggs carry more flavor, and will also help the eggs thicken and better hold in the tortilla.
Whenever making this dish, I first cook the meat then proceeded to cook the eggs in the same pan as my meat of choice. This leaves enough oil and seasoning remnants in the pan to properly season the chicken.
My number one rule is if you make extra, you will have leftovers for the next day. All of these meals will feed more than one hungry Lobo and will cost about $35 in total.
Ellie Aikman is a Freelance Reporter for the Daily Lobo and can be contacted at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @eaikman1230
