Cooking in Hotels

So I'm in FABULOUS Bloomington, Illinois until At least Thanksgiving, and now it's looking like I won't be home until Christmas now due to the scope of the project that I'm working on. As most folks know, I am a foodie and LOVE to cook on a regular basis. Traditional hotel rooms do not lend themselves well to this behavior, so I have been going out for lunch and dinner over the past several weeks, unhappily eating over-salted, over-processed foods in order to nourish my body.

Today I took a trip to Meijer in the hopes that I would have some type of epiphany - perhaps some microwavable food items, frozen dinners... SOMETHING. Lo and behold, I found a tiny little piece of salvation in the form of an electric quesadilla maker, and it was even on sale! I brought my prize back to my hotel room and carefully read the instruction book, learning that not only can I make a quesadilla on this puppy, I can make pancakes, omelets, hamburgers, grilled chicken... the possibilities are virtually endless according to the small appliance whizzes at Oster! :)

I fail to mention that I bought a crock pot late last week and tried a recipe for chicken fajitas. They tasted REALLY good, but my room smelled like a Mexican restaurant after I got them done, so I think the crock-pot will be relegated to potatoes and ham duty - nothing with peppers, onions or garlic, lest all of my sweaters start smelling like burritos. There's only so much that Febreeze can do, you know?

So I broke out the leftover chicken fajitas and some shredded cheddar cheese, plugged in the quesadilla maker, let it pre-heat, built my quesadilla on it, and let it rip! The results were nothing short of fantastic, and I am a (semi) happy chef once again!

Now if only I could get my paws on an induction cooktop hotplate so I can boil water for pasta...