Slow cooker: A college student's best friend

A slow cooker is the perfect answer for a college student short on time and money, but big on appetite.

|
The Holmes Group
This Crock-Pot 'Rival' can be programmed so that dinner is ready when you are. For a college student on a tight budget, a Crock-Pot almost replaces Mom's homecooked meals – almost.

The college that I went to had a cafeteria and a meal plan. It was located about an hour away from the next major city (and just about everything else). My room and board were included in my tuition because I lived on campus. I never had to cook. The cleaning ladies even attacked our bathrooms every day for us with lemon-scented substances and heavy-duty rubber gloves.

Now I live in an apartment in a big city with no cleaning ladies or meal plans in sight. It was very exciting to move all my stuff into my room and get it set up just the way I wanted it. And then I stepped into the kitchen.

It was empty, and I didn’t know how to fill it. At home, the fridge was always full of things to eat, and my parents are like Rumplestiltskins of the kitchen – spinning beautiful meals from whatever there was lying around. (Mostly dog hair, if I remember correctly.)

Now, I’m not a bad cook. My parents have taught me a thing or two, and I know to tie on an apron. But cooking takes time – time to prepare ingredients, time to mix them all together, and time to wait for it all to cook. And food is expensive, too! Who knew? I’m spending all my (parent’s) money on rent and food.

But then my mom sent this recipe for Buffalo Chicken. And I got a slow cooker. (Cue the chorus of angels.)

All told, you will only need to spend $10 on groceries, it’s easy to make (just throw some ingredients in there!), you'll have a week's worth of dinners, and it’s unbelievably tasty. I can’t recommend this recipe enough.

Slow cookers are easy to find, too. I have a friend who was riding his bike and found one on the side of the road. He took it back to his apartment, washed it out, turned it on, and “threw some potatoes and stuff in there.” We’ve had entire conversations about the benefits of slow cookers.

Crock-Pot Buffalo Chicken

3 lbs. boneless chicken breast

1 12-ounce bottle of Frank’s Buffalo Wings Sauce

1 packet of Ranch Dip Mix

2 tablespoons butter

Some bread, rolls preferably

1. Put frozen chicken, wing sauce, and ranch dip mix into the slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-7 hours.

2. Using two forks, shred chicken, then return to the slow cooker (you can shred it while it's still in the pot too, as long as you don't plunge your hands into the hot lava). Add butter. Cook on low for an additional hour.

3. Serve on toasted deli rolls with pepper jack cheese or bleu cheese dressing (if desired).

4. Eat and enjoy.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Slow cooker: A college student's best friend
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Food/Stir-It-Up/2013/0428/Slow-cooker-A-college-student-s-best-friend
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe