Cooking as a College Student

Finding time to cook for yourself as a student is something that can be really challenging. Especially if you’re off a meal plan or living in an apartment for the first time, it may seem overwhelming to even know where to start. While I am fortunate enough to have been raised by parents who cooked a lot and taught me how to as well, not everyone has that experience, and it can be an additional barrier to figuring out how to feed yourself. So, in this post, I want to go through some tips and tricks for getting started when you’re in charge of your food for the first time.

Category 1: Just Making it Happen

It’s okay if what you eat isn’t fancy or difficult to make. Finding a few meals that you can put together in less than 30 minutes with not that many ingredients can be really helpful to making sure you get food in your body. Even if it’s just pasta, boxed mac and cheese, or rice, it’s better than nothing! Pre-made frozen meals can also be super helpful, if they are in your budget.

Ultimately, when it comes to food, the two most important things are that you have enough food and enough nutrition - just eating plain pasta all the time isn’t going to cut it. Having an easy to prepare combination of carbs, fats, and protein - along with a fruit or vegetable for fiber and vitamins - can make your life a lot easier. A common one that I see is fried rice - all you need is rice, a protein of your choice (egg, tofu, chicken, etc), some vegetables (frozen is fine!) and seasoning.

Category 2: Getting All 3 Meals

Another struggle many students face when first starting to cook for themselves is figuring out how to do 3 meals a day. While some may skip breakfast or lunch, you’ll often feel and function a lot better when you eat regularly. For me, having a breakfast where I don’t have to do a lot is really helpful. This can take the form of making a bunch of one thing at the start of the week to eat throughout (muffins, waffles, etc), or having something that’s grab and go (a granola bar and a banana, for example).

For lunch, many of us may be in a time crunch between classes and extracurriculars. I find that having something I can make really quickly is very helpful in making sure that lunch happens. This could be something like a canned soup that you can heat up in a few minutes on the stove, or leftovers from dinner that you can pop in the microwave.

Category 3: Planning

It can sometimes be hard to figure out what to eat for dinner after a long day of classes, especially if you’re low on groceries and don’t have time to shop during the week. I’ve found that taking the time over the weekend to plan out my meals and get to the store is incredibly helpful. Even though I don’t prepare everything before the week starts, just knowing what I’ll make and that I have the ingredients to make it can take a lot of stress away. This plan doesn’t have to be set in stone - there’s at least one day every week where I scratch my original idea because I run out of time or simply want something else - but it is a useful starting point.

Even with all of this in mind, figuring out how to feed yourself for the first time can still be a challenge, especially if you’re dealing with issues such as food insecurity. Be kind to yourself, know that you’re doing your best, and have fun when you can!