When you think of college food, the first thing that will come to your mind is instant ramen. If you are already in college, you shouldn’t really just settle for eating unhealthy instant noodles that you can easily buy in grocery stores. In order for you to study well, you must eat healthy food that will provide you proper nutrition for good physical and mental health to handles stress and tons of schoolwork.
That’s where cooking becomes important. There are plenty of ways for you to start preparing meals in your dorm, but before following some of the steps below, make sure that the dorm allows you to cook food using the tools mentioned in the steps. Here are the most interesting methods for you to make amazing meals in a dorm.
Get a Microwave
While many chefs wouldn’t recommend using a microwave for cooking, there are actually only a few options left for you to cook a proper meal without getting a trusty microwave. There are so many things that you can do to cook in a microwave; you can boil water to get a cup of coffee, or you can cook pasta using a bowl and water. You can get the smallest microwave in the appliance store if your dorm room isn’t big enough, or you may borrow the microwave at home to save money if your parents aren’t using it. Besides cooking food, you will also be able to reheat leftovers from lunch or dinner so you won’t have to buy food again, thus preventing you from spending too much money on food.
Buy a Portable Stove
If your dorm allows it, you may want to buy a portable stove if ever you want fried food or any dishes that the microwave won’t be able to cook. These portable stoves are abundant in appliance stores, so you wouldn’t really have a difficult time buying one. However, the hard part of purchasing a portable stove is to know if it is good or not. You may want to consult YouTube reviews or product review articles on the internet before making a purchase.
Pick Up a Rice Cooker
Believe it or not, the rice cooker does not only cook rice, as it can also be utilized in a variety of cooking methods, such as steaming or even baking. If you like vegetables, you can steam them inside the rice cooker using boiling water and a straining accessory that attaches to the appliance, and they would look amazing despite not using a proper steamer. You can also get a can of mushroom or cream of corn soup them heat them in the rice cooker, or you may opt to cook your own soup using fresh ingredients. Baking a cake is also relatively easy when using the appliance, but just make sure that you are following the right recipe that is suitable for rice cooker baking.
Plan Your Meals in Advance
Planning your meals is really advantageous, as you can prevent yourself from impulse buying food every day. You can start planning your meals during the weekend and see if which dishes are perfect for each day. After deciding on the dishes to eat for the week, it is time to do some grocery shopping. Be sure that all the food and ingredients that you buy will fit within your weekly budget so that you won’t overspend. Planning is important for dorm life and you can get help in a lot of different ways to plan and reduce stress. For instance, Writix as essay writing company can provide assistance when you need help with your assignments. As for food, you can ask a friend to cook or even just getting good old food delivery might help.
Have a Mini-Fridge
Of course, if you are going to stock up on ingredients for your meals, then you may want to get a mini-fridge to prevent them from spoiling or turning bad. Most dorms nowadays would provide students with mini-fridges per room, but if ever your dorm doesn’t have one, you need to ask your parents if they can buy one, or you can save enough money to buy even the smallest fridge. By buying a fridge, you will spend a lot of money in one go, but it will be able to save you a lot of money because you will keep your cooking ingredients fresh and you won’t have to buy expensive food outside.
Never Be Afraid in Shortcutting
If you are in college, there are so many school stuff that you need to worry about more than cooking in your dorm. You won’t have enough time to cook beautifully prepared meals, as you would have to get to school as fast as possible during the mornings after cooking your breakfast and lunch. As long as your meal tastes great, you don’t have to think about its appearance since you will probably eat it in five to ten minutes during lunch break. Don’t be afraid of shortcutting the preparation of meals, but be sure that your meal is properly cooked or else you will end up with raw food that may upset your stomach.