So, as a starving college student, I often find myself hungry at night. Calling for pizza delivery is out of the question, since it’s far too expensive, and as a result, I’ve been taken to toasting a piece of bread and slathering on the nutella. Not exactly the healthiest thing ever
So. Peanut gallery! In all of your wisdom… what would you make to sooth a growling stomach at the midnight hour…? I’m fairly handy around the kitchen, so throw what you got!
Relative healthiness is debateable… midnight snacks don’t have to be healthy
Tortizza. Put some tomato paste on a large flour tortilla, add mozzarella and pepperoni, toss it in the oven until it’s done.
Split an English muffin and toast it. Butter each half. Spread some Vegemite over the butter (or margarine). Put a slice of cheddar (sharp or medium-sharp) on each half and toast in the oven until it’s done.
Keep a supply of frozen burritos on hand. They come in bags of ten and are pretty cheap. Be sure to have some hot sauce and maybe some cheese so that they’ll taste like something.
Boil up some water, stir in some couscous, when it has fluffed up, mix in some curry or Moroccan pepper sauce.
Slather refried beans onto a tortilla, top with some shredded cheese, nuke for 30 - 40 seconds, roll up with torn lettuce and a bit of salsa or even taco sauce.
French bread with pizza sauce and cheese.
Eggs, fixed in divers ways.
As a college student, why are you not buying Ramen Noodles by the case?
Scramble some eggs, nuke a tortilla so its warm, add eggs to tortilla(s) and top with shredded cheese and some kind of salsa. Roll it up and presto! Breakfast taco for pennies! The mix of hot eggs, warm tortilla and cold salsa and cheese is amazing at 2am when you are studying and REALLY need a break.
Open a can of beans. I consider half a can to be a worthy meal. I usually use garbanzos or blackeye peas, but any sort of beans in a plain broth will do. Add some chicken base/bullion, some shredded cheese, and possibly some ham or bacon bits. The precooked bacon bits that are sold in little jars will do. Nuke for about 3.5 minutes on high, or until the cheese is completely melted. Stir well. If you have corn chips or corn tortillas or tortilla chips, then all the better. This dish has complex carbs, which will fill you up and keep you filled, and protein.
Eggs are pretty cheap around Easter, usually. I like them scrambled, and I put omelet filling stuff in them. For example, I will panfry some onion, bell pepper, and ham, and then pour scrambled egg mixture over this, and keep scrambling. Then I will add some shredded cheese when it’s all done. You might wonder why I don’t just make an omelet. It’s because I can’t make a decent omelet to save my life, and because I like my eggs more done than a proper omelet will have them.
Don’t overlook the possibilities of cooked hot cereal. These can be pretty cheap if you don’t get the single serving packs.
Make a salad, adding good veggies to it. You can also add hardboiled eggs and leftover meat to it, making it a sort of chef’s salad.
Other than that, yeah, ramen is your friend. You can eat it plain, or add stuff to it. You can add, for instance, shredded cooked chicken to chicken ramen. I’ve added shredded pork to pork ramen. Ramen can help give new life to leftovers. You get the picture.
We used to do something very similar when we were starving grad students:
Spread refried beans on a tortilla, top with sliced jalapenos (we favored the canned ones at 2am!) and a liberal sprinkling of cheddar, monterey jack or another suitable cheese. Toss in oven or pizza oven 'til cheese is melty.
You can get “fancy” with chopped tomatoes, chopped scallions, and salsa.
Which in turn reminds me of sinchronizadas. I used to love them as a kid. There was a restaurant at the airport where my mom worked that made them. Spread refried beans on a large flour tortilla. Top with thin-sliced ham and shredded cheddar cheese. Top with another tortilla and bake in the oven until the cheese is melted and it’s hot all the way through. Slice into wedges (like a pizza). Top with a mound each of sour cream and guacamole, and garnish with diced tomato and shredded cheese. I used to like to smear the toppings all over the top so that it was a fairly uniform shade of light green and eat it that way. FWIW, the restaurant called this ‘La Cucuracha’. Probably not the best name for a food, but easier for us Anglos to remember than ‘sincronizada’.
That might be a little too involved for a midnight snack, but it’s easy and doesn’t take too long.
I make something like Johnny describes for my kids all the time; they’re essentially quesadillas; they call them Yummies.
• Spread tortilla with refried beans (try refried black beans if you haven’t; they’re delish!)
• Top with cheese, leftover meats of any kind [I often chop up leftover chicken breasts or pork chops in the food processor, adding a little broth. You could just as easily dice them finely]. Sprinkle with Tony Chachere’s or other hot spicy seasoning. Top with second tortilla.
• Put a little olive oil in the pan and fry until golden, carefully turning halfway through.
• Cut into wedges (I use kitchen shears.)
Top with jarred salsa, sour cream (or plain yogurt), guacamole, etc.
