For many college students, living off-campus or in apartment-style housing offers them their first taste of having to feed themselves. For those who did not grow up cooking full meals, this responsibility is scary at first. Meal prepping, grocery shopping, and not burning yourself on the stove are all daunting tasks.
However, college is actually the perfect time to learn how to cook. You are surrounded by other students who are learning just like you. Additionally, there is no expectation to execute a perfect dish your first time around, and you have your campus dining halls to fall back on when your cooking endeavors don’t go as planned. And in the age of TikTok, there are so many simple and easily accessible recipes around that the inspiration to start cooking is never out of reach.
But if you’re like me and were super scared to begin cooking for yourself as a college student, here are some tips that I have found to make cooking in college calmer, cooler, and cuter.
1. Cook consistently
For me, Friday is food day. Every Friday afternoon, my roommate and I go grocery shopping, then spend the evening cooking. Setting out one day per week to cook gives me time to mentally prepare for the chaos that can come with cooking. However, it also gives me something to look forward to at the end of a long week: a fresh, home-cooked meal. Cooking once a week gives me the repetition needed to improve my skills, but saves me from having to worry about making something every single night. Between Fridays, I rely on leftovers, my campus dining plan, and some good old frozen meals from Kroger.
2. Plan, plan, plan
Always plan out what you are going to cook BEFORE you head to the grocery store. Don’t trust that inspiration for the ideal dish will come to you as you walk through the aisles. Before shopping, think about what you might like to eat, what recipes you have come across recently, and what foods are on sale at your local grocery store. Choose a recipe, then write down the needed ingredients and portions in advance. This will help you with not over-buying and in making sure your local store actually has the ingredients you need. Remember that everything you buy, you need to take home with you; if you don’t have a car, this means lugging heavy shopping bags on a long walk or a public bus ride. Additionally, planning in advance will allow you to schedule some variety into your diet. Even though it’s a college student staple, you don’t want to be making pasta every week or relying on ground beef as your only protein.
3. Cook what YOU love
For me, the best way to get excited about cooking is by making my favorite recipes from home. I’m constantly calling up my parents and asking them to send me recipes for their staple dishes. Growing up eating these dishes, I know what they are supposed to taste and look like, making the cooking process easier. Cooking family recipes allows me to stay in touch with my heritage, as I can now make the Middle Eastern and Italian dishes that are hard to find on a college meal plan. Basically, instead of just making the most recent viral TikTok dish, choose recipes that you know you will enjoy eating and that will get you excited about having the opportunity to cook.
4. Be realistic with times
If you come across a recipe that says “15-minute prep time,” know that this is the prep time for a professional chef working in a professional kitchen. As a new chef, your meal will not come together this quickly. So, if you know you will be hungry for dinner at 7 p.m., don’t start cooking at 6:45. Your first few times cooking may more than likely be multi-hour endeavors. If you plan to eat before 10 p.m., start cooking early.
5. Make cooking into a social thing
One way to make cooking more fun is to invite your friends along for the ride. Have a couple of people over, blast some music, and get a cooking party going. Speed up the process by making your friends chop vegetables and stir pots. Just be mindful of how many people can fit in your probably very small college apartment kitchen at a time. For me, sharing the food I make with my friends is one of the most rewarding things about cooking. I love inviting everyone over after the dish is done and feeding them dinner. Your friends get a free meal out of it, and you get a chance to improve your cooking skills and a future invite to try your friends’ next homemade meal.
6. Document your skills
A great way to track your progress over time is to photograph what you make and post it online, or even just make a collection for yourself to look at. Every week, I take pictures of my dishes and post them to my Instagram story in a series I call “Masterchef Diaries.” I share not only final product photos, but also some candid shots of my friends mid-cooking chaos, and some funny comments about what the cooking process was like. This gives me a chance to brag about my improving cooking skills online and prove to my parents that I am, in fact, feeding myself.