Beyond the dining hall: transitioning into your first kitchen

An unlimited meal plan was forced onto me last year just like every other UVA First Year. After eating Newcomb and O’Hill meal after meal, day after day, week after week, I longed for Second Year. Living in an apartment, having a kitchen and cooking for myself would be just like home, I thought. This was not quite the case. Now, after about a month of college cooking, I see so many small tips and tricks that can make cooking in college much more efficient. They definitely would have been helpful to know at the start of the year.

Get good appliances and utensils

Nonstick pans are especially useful. If you’re planning on cooking all your meals, spend the extra cash to invest in better tools so you don’t have to stress about how to scrub away whatever got stuck to your pan or why your blender is already broken.

A good skillet makes you a chef, even if you are burning your grilled cheese at 9 am and setting the smoke detector off

Plan your meals

Do this at the beginning of the week. Make a grocery list to avoid forgetting items so you won’t have to make additional trips to the grocery store later in the week.

Anything homemade tastes better

Never grocery shop on an empty stomach.

You’ll be willing to spend an excessive amount of money on food that looks appealing at the time if you grocery shop hungry – this is less likely to happen if you shop after a meal. This is especially important if you’re on a tight budget, as many college students including myself are.

“Meal prepping is important!”

Second Year Maddie Donely swears by this. She cooks many meals at the beginning of the week and stores them in tupperware for easy no-stress lunch and dinner later in the week.

Take advantage of the amazing farmers market

Charlottesville has one of the best. It’s right next to the downtown mall, which is only a five minute drive or 15 minute trolley ride from the Corner. There is a ton of produce that’s fresher, tastier and sometimes cheaper than Harris Teeter.

Always have Amy’s and Trader Joe’s frozen food on hand.

There are going to be nights when you just can’t muster up the energy to cook, especially when you are pressed for time with classes and activities. If you don’t have a meal plan, you can’t run to Newcomb for a to-go box anymore though! (Not that you’d really want to). What you can do is heat up some surprisingly delicious frozen food in the microwave. The hardest part is waiting the five or so minutes.

“Produce goes bad faster than you’d think” 

Second Year Allexa Bartholomew experiences this and suggests to “eat it sooner rather than later. If you have fruit that is starting to look overripe, throw it into a smoothie.” Second year Kelly Hillgren also recommends making banana bread with overripe bananas (easy with a just-add-bananas mix you can get from Whole Foods).

Use the Internet.

Most people don’t need telling, but the Internet almost always has a solution to your cooking problem or question  From new meal ideas and how to combine the three random ingredients you have to ingredient replacements and healthy alternatives, there are tons of websites and blogs that make cooking on your own less “on your own.”

Cooking all your meals is not an easy task. As time goes by, you’ll appreciate all the meals that have been cooked for you so much more, whether that be at home or in dining halls. Fending for yourself though can be pretty fun and hopefully now a bit easier, too.