Terrible cooking facilities, ISO tasty easy to cook recipes

[Squash]

Hey all, first time poster, terrible cook. I'm in the last year of my phd, living in a single person dorm room in Australia. The cooking facilities are awful, absolutely disgusting, I'd like to spend as little time in them as possible, so far I've been living on canned soup, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and take-out chinese food. Seriously.

Please help me, recommend some tasty easy to cook recipes, you guys seem like the best group to ask!

-Josh

 

[luvs]

i'd recommend a small foreman grill. you can cook burgers, small cuts of meat, portabellas,grilled cheeses.....

 

[fizzlebottom]

I agree about the Foreman grill. My brothers would starve without them. I've also seen these little griddle things that can be placed over burners. Maybe that would be a way to use the facilities without your things actually touching the nastiness. Hope this helps!

 

[Uncle Bob]

Omelets ---- Lots of options!


Have Fun & Enjoy!

 

[Katie H]

Hey all, first time poster, terrible cook. I'm in the last year of my phd, living in a single person dorm room in Australia. The cooking facilities are awful, absolutely disgusting, I'd like to spend as little time in them as possible, so far I've been living on canned soup, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and take-out chinese food. Seriously.

Please help me, recommend some tasty easy to cook recipes, you guys seem like the best group to ask!

-Josh

Hi, Josh. First, welcome to DC. Sorry about your cooking arrangements. The small contact grill that luvs mentioned is a good idea. I'd also look into getting a small crock-pot. That way something could be cooking and getting yummy while you are in class, then you could have leftovers to reheat in the microwave.

Hang in there. More answers are sure to come.

 

[Scotch]

A small microwave might be a good investment. They're incredibly cheap these days.

 

[msmofet]

how about:
a small toaster oven (meatloaf, toast, biscuits ect)
one of the small electric "pocket" sandwich maker
waffle maker w/ reversible grill plate (you can make waffles, grilled cheese ect)

or this little winner (if you like eggs and toast) eggs benny !!

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[tanya]

Hey im also a student living in dorms with a disgusting kitchen..

I bought myself a mini fridge to live out of and I tend to make a lot of pb&j sandwiches too lol

You can buy precooked meats and add them to prebagged salads and throw some chopped up veggies and some salad dressing on there which is always good and easy.

Any sort of sandwich is easy really if you have fillers.

I have a sortve odd way to cook tortellini/ravioli in my room which is cooking it in the sink with the hot tap lol :S not directly in the sink because thats sortve bumping up the gross factor but in a bowl in the sink tilted a bit so the excess hot water can drain out whilst the hot water from the tap goes in.

It cooks through pretty well but it does leave a bit to be desired and i doubt you can cook normal pasta that way.

I have a george foreman as well but I found it smokes too much and would set off the firealarms...

 

[msmofet]

Hey im also a student living in dorms with a disgusting kitchen..

I bought myself a mini fridge to live out of and I tend to make a lot of pb&j sandwiches too lol

You can buy precooked meats and add them to prebagged salads and throw some chopped up veggies and some salad dressing on there which is always good and easy.

Any sort of sandwich is easy really if you have fillers.

I have a sortve odd way to cook tortellini/ravioli in my room which is cooking it in the sink with the hot tap lol :S not directly in the sink because thats sortve bumping up the gross factor but in a bowl in the sink tilted a bit so the excess hot water can drain out whilst the hot water from the tap goes in.

It cooks through pretty well but it does leave a bit to be desired and i doubt you can cook normal pasta that way.

I have a george foreman as well but I found it smokes too much and would set off the firealarms...

how about cooking the pasta in an electric kettle?

 

[tanya]

That would also work but alas I have no kettle

 

[msmofet]

That would also work but alas I have no kettle

dear santa claus?

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

An under-rated cooking pot that does a host of things well is an inexpensive pressure cooker. It will make anything a slow cooker will make, but in 45 minutes or less. It will let you make a complete, multi-course meal in 30 minutes, if you have one that has multiple cooking levels. All you need is heat and water, and a bit of know-how. And these things all come with a recipe book. In a pinch, if you leave the top off, you can even use it as a deep fryer, or a pan-fryer, soup pot, pasta cooker, steamer, etc. And it will take a very tough piece of meat and make it fall-apart tender in 30 to 45 minutes, something that normaly takes 4 to 5 hours in a slow cooker, or the same time in a roasting pot in a slow oven.

For a prep suface, use good plastic or wood cutting boards that can be cleaned up with hot soapy water or in the electric dishwasher.

Of course there are a host of other cooking vessels and applieances out there that can give you great results. But for versatility and cooking speed, it's hard to beat a pressure cooker, especially at 25 to 40 bucks apiece.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[Andy M.]

I recommend an electric frying pan.

It can cook hot and fast for steaks, burgers, chicken breasts, fish. You can deep fry chicken and other items. You can slow cook stews, chili, pot roasts and soups. You can make bacon, fry eggs and cook pancakes in it. You could probably manage baking a cornbread in it.

If yo don't actually want to cook, I'd go with a microwave and a toaster oven.

 

[jet]

I feel your pain. I once spent 15 months in a Ramada Inn. I had a tiny refrigerator and a small microwave, but the local fire marshal forbade any other cooking appliances. I ate a lot of lunch meat, hot dogs and frozen foods (not to mention a lot of take-out).

 

[Cooksie]

Please help me, recommend some tasty easy to cook recipes, you guys seem like the best group to ask!

-Josh

I'm assuming that you have some way to heat things up--a microwave or a hot plate. If you have a hot plate and a skillet, saute some shrimp with some spices, heat up some flour tortillas, and add some bagged slaw mix....voila, shrimp tacos. You can do the same with fish and have fish tacos--easy, pretty healthy, and tasty.

Andy's suggestion of an electric skillet is great--very versatile little appliance. When you have to, you can get very creative--skillet toast, skillet burgers, poached chicken for chicken salad, etc.

 

[Jay16]

Get a griddle. You can take care of breakfast lunch and dinner with just one thing.

Depending on the type that you get the only thing to worry about will be the cleaning. You can get a 12 by 12 detachable plate griddle for about 40 dollars. it would help cook anything anytime and be easy to clean.

Hope this helps,

 

[CasperImproved]

Hey all, first time poster, terrible cook. I'm in the last year of my phd, living in a single person dorm room in Australia. The cooking facilities are awful, absolutely disgusting, I'd like to spend as little time in them as possible, so far I've been living on canned soup, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and take-out chinese food. Seriously.

Please help me, recommend some tasty easy to cook recipes, you guys seem like the best group to ask!

-Josh

Josh - Two items that saw me through different times of not having decent cooking facilities but allowed me to eat well are a microwave oven (and you can get a pretty small ones to cook for one these days), and an electric skillet. With those two items, you can eat well with lots of variations. Anything from baked potatoes, fried bacon, casseroles, fried chicken, pork chops, etc.

Research is your friend.

Bob

 

[Loprraine]

I recommend an electric frying pan

That was going to be my suggestion.

 

[chefkathleen]

I agree on this. You can get them on the small cheap side or larger and more $$. Very versatile and easy to clean.