bye bye ramen hello kitchen

20 Hot Ideas For College Life Cooking

It’s a new year, the weather is colder than ever, and you need every excuse to stay inside this winter. There are so many off-campus apartments that offer beautiful fully equipped kitchens so this is the perfect time for you to put them to use!

Story written by Madison Baughman

Healthy and mouthwatering

Don’t let the word healthy scare you away from these delicious meals!

10 Tools You Need

Not sure what you need in your kitchen?

Here are the top 10 utensils for cooking.

•Saute pan/Frying pan

•Cooking pot

•Measuring cups

•Oven mitts

•Strainer

•Spatula

•Wooden spoon

•Sheet pan

•Cutting boards

•Blender

Lazy tricks you should know

Plan ahead. Find a day where you have time to make meals that you can stick in the fridge for you to grab on the go throughout the week. Do the same with snacks!

Know when to splurge.

You’re young, have some fun! Just know you don’t have to break the bank to do so. Go to $5 monday movie nights instead of movies on the weekends. Going to a theme party?

Go to Gabe’s or a thrift store. Have your friends over for dinner and make one of the meals to the left instead of going out to a restaurant!

Get a refillable water bottle. Instead of buying plastic water bottles over and over, save some money. Make your food last. Put your bread and bagels in the fridge so they don’t expire as fast. Cut up your fruits and vegetables as soon as you can so you will be more likely to eat them before they go bad.

Gourmet and delicious

These meals take a little extra time but they are so worth it and make you feel like a master chef!

Baked garlic chicken and potatoes: bit.ly/KWbakedchicken

One pot sausage and veggies: Basically throw all the good stuff into a pot. Easy and tastes amazing. bit.ly/KWonepot

Greek veggie burgers with cucumber feta sauce: Don’t knock veggie burgers till you try them! And cucumber feta sauce.. Oh my gosh, YUM! bit.ly/KWgreekburger

Honey Dijon chicken and veggie foil packs: One of the best parts about this recipe is that there isn’t a lot of clean up. Put all your ingredients on the foil and you can use it as a plate! bit.ly/KWfoilchicken

Oven-baked four cheese rigatoni rosa: Who needs Olive Garden when you can make this amazing dish in your own kitchen! bit.ly/KWrigatoni

Teriyaki steak stir-fry with peppers: The perfect excuse to splurge on steak. bit.ly/KWstirfry

Chicken and potatoes with garlic parmesan spinach cream sauce: Keep saying the name over and over and try to help your mouth from watering. bit.ly/KWchickenpotato

Grilled honey chili lime cilantro chicken: These skewers are perfect for bringing back that summer feeling. bit.ly/KWgrillchicken

Make a list and put it on your fridge. It is a lot easier to grocery shop when you know exactly what you need. When you run out of something just write it down on the list and keep it on your fridge so you won’t lose it!

Buy the off brand. You’ll be able to save a few bucks and if you close your eyes, you won’t be able to tell the difference!

Spray butter is easy. Toast is a good, quick meal for you to make in the morning and spray butter is great because you don’t have to dirty any utensils!