Dinner Is Served: How to Ditch the Dining Hall and Get Comfy in the Kitchen

With a collegian’s hectic and irregular schedule, plus crummy dorm or apartment kitchen facilities, Suzy Student usually ends up making a meal of granola bars, having dinner delivered by a man on a bicycle, or forcing down bland dining hall food once again. When living more or less on your own for the first time, cooking is a pleasure disguised as a chore.

But with a handful of tools, a small portion of time, and a sprinkling of self-motivation, you’ll find that getting your hands a little dirty in the name of “yum!” is the healthier, cheaper, more satisfying way to go. Home-cooked meals are generally less costly than eating out. You can control what goes into your food and bypass the chemicals and grease that go into packaged, fast food, or restaurant item. Plus, you acquire cooking skills which can lead to greater self-sufficiency and healthy habits. And it’s not nearly as hard as you’d think!

So, you want the satisfaction and benefits of cooking for yourself, but somewhere between EasyMac and Iron Chef, you got a little lost. Remember Bridget Jones’s blue-soup debacle? Over-ambition in the kitchen can lead to some frustratingly foul results, so take baby steps.

Rolling Up Your Sleeves

• Start by preparing just one meal a day on your own, and don’t overwhelm yourself by making everything from scratch. Mixing and matching fresh foods with readymade ones is a great time saver. Stepfordian celeb homemaker Sandra Lee has made a career of teaching novice cooks to do just that: Check out www.semihomemade.com for inspiration.
• Be prepared with a set of basic tools like a skillet, medium saucepan, cutting board, spatula, serrated knife, wooden spoon, mixing bowl, potholder, and Tupperware for storing leftovers. To conserve cash, share cookware and seasonings with roommates, look for a set of kitchen essentials, or shop at markdown retailers like Ross or T.J.Maxx.
• Cooking for one can be challenging, since it’s hard to buy ingredients in single-serve portions. Find a buddy or two to share meals with—you can each provide a course, or take turns treating one another. Rachael Ray’s (www.rachaelray.com) signature “30-Minute Meals” are a great place to start. Alternatively, store up leftovers for a microwave-ready meal later in the week.

A Few Good Meals

Some great single-serve standbys:

Omelet. Omelets are super-easy to make, healthfully filling, and can be as simple or fancy-schmancy as you want. They’re great for making use of those few random ingredients you have lingering in the fridge—a stump of cheese here, half a tomato there, the last piece of sandwich meat in the bag, and voila! Breakfast/lunch/dinner is served. For a healthier option, start with calorie-free cooking spray instead of oil, use a 1:2 ratio of egg yolks to whites, and load your concoction with colorful veggies like bell peppers, spinach, and mushrooms.

Veggie Stir-Fry. A bag of frozen mixed vegetables + pre-made sauce + rice. Easy! Keep frozen veggies around so that you never have an excuse to choose chips and candy over real food. Heat the veggies and a bottled sauce of your choice (marinara, Chinese black bean, Thai peanut…) in the microwave or a frying pan. Prepare rice in a rice cooker, on the stove, or just get it ready-made at your local Asian takeout joint.

Crepes. True story: the fact that my university has a killer on-campus crepe café weighed heavily in my decision to choose this school. For those deprived of such luxury, there is an equally tantalizing option: homemade crepes! Water down standard pancake batter (it may take some trial and error to get your preferred thickness) and cook them large and flat on a greased frying pan. When done, fill with sweet or savory contents (try warmed-up frozen fruit with a drizzle of chocolate sauce), wrap up burrito-style, and dig in. Bon appétit!