I’m a wannabe foodie. I like to cook food, smell food, look at pictures of food, read about food, and, of course, eat it.

But because I am on my post-grad budget and cannot always be privileged with a three course meal everyday, I’ve decided to take on two different DIY food projects.

1) YOLO cooking (this needs a better name). The concept is creating dishes around the foods that I have in the fridge, mostly from what my mom has generously donated to me after her trips from Costco and that I lug on the PATH train from New Jersey.

2) Eating Good in the Hood (this also needs a better name). An idea originating after the Color Run on Sunday and watching Julie & Julia. I plan on re-creating one new recipe a week, based on some recipes that I find all over the internet, primarily from Pinterest.

Today, after deciding that the Coconut Walnut Shrimp take-out was too expensive for dinner this evening (decent for a family sized portion, but my roommate is back home in California, and this just wouldn’t taste that great as a leftover), decided to see what I had in the fridge and create my own twist on a patty melt.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pounds ground beef (or however much meat you want to eat)
• 2 slices of bread (whatever your preference is)
• 1 tablesoon of butter, melted
• 1 tablesoon mayo
• 2 mushrooms, sliced
• Pepper jack cheese (or whatever cheese you like & how much you like of it)
• 1 egg
• Salt, pepper, garlic salt, whatever spices you have lying around

1. Spread butter on toast and pan fry or pop into toaster. I personally like man pan fried, but poping them in the toaster made the bread crispier.
2. Season the meat to your liking and pop onto non-stick skillet. Cook to how you usually order your burgers at a restaurant – I enjoy mine medium well: cooked, but still juicy. Set aside
3. Add mushrooms to the same pan so they get coated in the drippings goodness. Or you can just switch to another pan and be a tad healthier. Set aside when cookied
4. Cook egg to your liking. I like mine over easy or sunny side up on a burger. Whatever your preference is!
5. Put burger back on the skillet and add cheese on top – to melt the cheese more, you can sprinkle a bit of water on the sides of the skillet so that the water evaporates and creates a steam around the burger causing the cheese to melt.
6. Arrange sandwich in order how you like to taste the ingredients in your mouth I personally prefer:

BREAD

EGG

CHEESE

BURGER

MUSHROOMS

MAYO

BREAD

Yum!