Hobo Meal in a Can

 
I thought I'd try to reflect the wretched experience of being a busy and poor student in the form of a meal.  This idea came to me while my fiance (!) was talking about his dinner while on call at the hospital.  He takes a can of Campbell's soup and eats that for dinner.  He likes to call it "Huddle Soup" because he "sits in the corner of the hospital and eats cold soup out of the can while all the cool kids point and jeer".  (Not really, he just says stuff like that to get me to feel bad for him while I'm eating awesome home-cooked things).

So then I thought, what's more pathetic than eating straight out of a can?

Wait.  Actually...

What is more fun than eating straight out of a can??  That's my question.  I mean, how often are we allowed to eat a meal straight out of a can?  Dude, what a great concept for a meal!  Let's try this!

Ingredients:
-1 cup cooked pasta
-1/4 cup peas (i used the sugar snap variety)
-1/4 cup onions
-1/4 cup pasta sauce
-italian seasoning
-a few blocks of cheese (i used colby jack)
-1 bay leaf

Supplies:
-1 empty 12 oz can, clean
-foil

So i found myself a nice clean can that used to hold beans at some point.  Now it makes a good hobo can.

So i got some of my ingredients together.  Here's the frozen sugar snap peas.

Gotta have my lil cheese cubes.

I also aggregated some pasta sauce, cooked pasta, onions, and some italian seasoning.

Throw all the veggies and pasta together into the can! 

It wouldn't be a hobo meal if this were organized, now would it?

(Are we loving the fact that the pictures are bigger these days?  Yay!)

Okay, so after you haphazardly threw the veggies and pasta in there, you also wanna slide the little bay leaf down in there somewhere.

You now wanna add a few spoonfuls of pasta sauce on top, and squish it down with your spoon.

There we go!

And sprinkle some italian seasoning up on top.

Cover with foil.

Let me show you, with my left hand, how to cover a can with foil.  It is very complex that i need to show you.  With my left hand.

Hehe.

You would have never gotten through this recipe had i not shown you that step in intricate detail.  With...my left hand.

Oh by the way, I just got engaged.  Yay! 

Okay, now shake the can a little so the sauce makes it say to the bottom. 

Bake for 30 minutes at 375F.

Tada!  You open your little package, and you have a little meal in a compact little can!

Mmm, look at this melted cheese!

I can't believe I didn't like melted cheese as a kid.  Yeah, weird, huh?

You hungry yet?  Cuz i'm hungry all over again.

I served it with a mitten so that you could hold the hot can with the mittened hand, and eat out of it with a fork in the other.   

Kids will love this!  Just make sure the can has come to an acceptable temperature before giving it to the lil ones, of course.  But they'll have tons of fun stuffing the cans with whatever vegetables you lay out for them.  You can get them to eat a lot more stuff if you let them make their own meal. 

Yum!  I totally felt like a hobo, and it was totally awesome.

The best part about this is, you can pretty much customize it for whatever you want!  You can put in spinach and feta to give it a Greek twist, or protein it up with some ground beef or chicken.  The possibilities CAN be endless!  (yay for modal puns)

On Monday, I'll show you how to make a Hobo Dessert: Apple Cobbler in a Can!

For a printable version of this recipe, please click here.