The kitchen of a college student is a far different beast than a regular kitchen. Built for convenience rather than gourmet meals, there are a few things a college student’s kitchen would not be complete without. Here are three things to always have in your kitchen for when you don’t have the time (or desire) to put together an actual meal.

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Photo by Inness Cheng

Easy Mac:

Let’s start with the obvious choice first. Everyone loves mac and cheese and everyone loves not having to work for things. That’s the idea behind Easy Mac. In most cases, all it takes to make this wonderfully simple, delicious meal is to add water and microwave. That’s it. Essentially macaroni and cheese with training wheels (possibly even multiple pairs of training wheels), Easy Mac is something all college students should have on hand.

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Photo by Inness Cheng

At least a full-sized freezer:

Take a close look at the above image. That’s what happens when you don’t have a big enough freezer in your college home. While in school, you’ll probably spend way too much time in the freezer section when grocery shopping. Frozen food is cheap and usually delicious–you can’t ask for much more than that. So, for the sake of you and all your roommates, it’s an extremely smart idea to invest in a full-sized freezer. Otherwise you’re going to end up playing Tetris with your boxes every time you try to put frozen groceries away.

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Photo by Inness Cheng

Rapid Ramen Cooker:

Top Ramen is the stereotypical go-to food for college students. It’s delicious and easily the cheapest food on the market. What more could a broke college student ask for? The only down side here is that Top Ramen can be somewhat of a pain to make. And by pain I mean it’s not something you just unwrap and throw in the microwave. Well, thanks to some amazing advancements in the Top Ramen field we now have an item which does the impossible and makes Top Ramen fully microwaveable: The Rapid Ramen Cooker. Yeah, modern technology is pretty incredible. This piece of Tupperware truly revolutionizes the way you eat Top Ramen. Simply put in the noodles, fill with water to the marked line, microwave for four minutes then stir in the seasoning. It’s truly a kitchen essential for the college student who has spent all his or her financial aid money and is on a strict Top Ramen diet for the remainder of the term.