Cooking in College: As Easy as ABC

You moved into your first apartment with new roommates. Gone are the regular trips to the college cafeteria, where you had your choice of meals; you did not do the cooking or the dishes. Mom is too far away to come over with a hot meal. What do you do? Where do you start?

I am here to help you, especially those  college students, not living in dorms, figure out easy recipes that taste almost as good as your  mom’s cooking. Cooking takes creativity and thought but with the right ideas and the right products it can be very easy. To begin you have to know how to find deals at the grocery store and find products that can be used in other dishes that you make. For example many dishes call for olive oil, therefore “splurging” on a bigger bottle of olive oil could turn out to be a better deal. Another example would be teriyaki, this Asian sauce adds flavor to many dishes that could be potentially bland. To be creative think of flavors in other food that sticks out to you and your senses; next time you are at a restaurant, or watching the food network, pay attention to all of the flavors and spices added to the meal.

The next time you cook you will be coming up with ideas that you remembered. It is good to be creative and try something different when cooking, you never know how a mixture of flavor will taste, don’t be afraid to make something that doesn’t taste great, it happens to everyone. Prepare for constructive criticism from your roommates and friends, it will help you not make bad dishes in the future.

Future ideas for this blog will be actual dishes that I will make during the week with my roommates. Cooking is tons of fun and a great way to involve all of your roommates, even if one of them is only in charge of playing the background music.

--Michelle Mattar