Memorize these easy recipes to impress — whether you’re a college student or busy parent

A version of this article originally was published on bakingandmath.com, News & Observer intern Yen Duong’s personal blog from graduate school.

As many students head to college, they might want to memorize a few easy recipes for impressing their parents, roommates and dates. All of the following recipes take at most five ingredients and less than 20 minutes of active time. I cook them for my family, my in-laws and friends all the time.

Breakfast

▪ French Toast Souffle: Preheat oven to 425 degrees, put a stick of butter in a casserole dish and put that in the oven while it preheats and you gather the rest of the ingredients. Whisk 3 eggs, 1 1/2 cups of milk, 3/4 cup of flour, 6 tablespoons of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Pour the mixture onto the bubbling butter. Bake for 30 minutes. Blog post here.

▪ Biscuits and gravy: Make biscuits from a can or a family recipe (let’s be real, you’re using a can). Cook 1 pound of breakfast sausage. Toss in 2 tablespoons of flour and mix well. Add 3 cups of milk, stir until it turns into gravy. Add lots of black pepper. Blog post here.

▪ Banana cinnamon rolls: Preheat oven to 350 degrees, put 2 tablespoons of butter in a casserole dish and put that in the oven while it preheats. Smush a tube of crescent roll dough into a rectangle, spread it with 2 tablespoons of softened butter, a cut or mashed-up banana and 2 tablespoons of white sugar mixed with some cinnamon. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of brown sugar on the bubbling butter. Roll up the rectangle of dough along the long side, cut into 8 rolls, place them spiral-side up on the brown sugar butter, and bake 10-15 minutes. Blog post here.

Lunch

▪ BLT: After cooking the bacon, toast thick slices of bread in the bacon fat. Add slices of the best tomatoes you can find, mayonnaise, lots of crunchy lettuce and avocado if you’re feeling fancy.

▪ Grilled cheese: Spread mayonnaise on both sides of both pieces of bread before cooking them in a buttered pan with cheese in between.

▪ Kale or collard greens: Saute one or two cloves of garlic in a little olive oil on medium heat until they smell good. Add torn kale and toss it around in the garlicky oil. Add 1/4 cup of water and cover. Let cook for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, sprinkle in plenty of balsamic or apple cider vinegar. Salt to taste. Blog post here for rau muong.

Dinner

▪ Bacon clam sauce: Cook bacon (2-6 strips, chopped), add garlic (2-6 cloves) and stir. Add a can of tomatoes and the juice from a can of clams, simmer. After 20 or 30 minutes, add the clams. I make huge batches of this and freeze them in individual portions in bags. Serve on spaghetti. Stir in parsley if desired.

▪ Shakshouka: Cook a chopped onion, a few cloves of garlic and one or two chopped jalapenos. Add a can of tomatoes, lots of cumin and simmer for 20-30 minutes. (Five or 10 minutes is okay, too.) Use a spoon to make room for eggs, crack them in and poach 2 or 3 per person in the sauce. Serve with pita and hummus.

▪ Pork with mushroom sauce: This is from the Campbell’s soup label. Salt pork chops, brown them in oil. Take out the browned chops, then cook half a chopped onion, a few cloves of garlic and some sliced mushrooms. Add a can of cream of mushroom soup, half a can of milk and put the pork chops back. Simmer until done (depends on thickness of the chops). Serve with rice.

▪ Salsa chicken: Pour a jar of salsa on chicken pieces (frozen is okay) in a slow cooker. Cook on low for 6 hours. Serve on rice, in tacos, in quesadillas, etc.

▪ Root vegetable soup: Saute a chopped onion, a few stalks of celery or carrot if you have them and some garlic and ginger, if desired, in oil. Add your diced root vegetable (butternut squash is great, carrots are also great) and enough stock (chicken, veggie or water) to just cover. Simmer for 20 minutes or until cooked. Puree with a blender or immersion blender.

Add to taste: curry, ginger, pepper, cardamom or any other spices. Serve with yogurt or sour cream. This will become your go-to potluck recipe and everyone will love you for it once you figure out your spice blend.

▪ Ga kho: Saute some onion, garlic, and ginger in oil. Add in cut up chicken pieces. Liberally sprinkle with fish sauce, then add a container of coconut water or soda. Braise for 20 minutes or so. Blog post here.

Dessert

▪ Three-ingredient peanut butter cookies: Mix 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup sugar and 1 egg. Roll into cookies, flatten with a fork, and bake at 350 or 375 degrees, or any temperature until done, 8 minutes or so. Blog post here.

▪ Strawberries, sour cream, brown sugar. Dip fresh strawberries in sour cream, then in brown sugar.

This story was originally published August 15, 2018 at 11:54 AM with the headline "Memorize these easy recipes to impress — whether you’re a college student or busy parent."