Dorm Food Ideas Recipe

I second everyone who has recommended a rice cooker. Get one with a "porridge" setting so you can make soups and oatmeal and stuff. A great and cheap breakfast is steel-cut oats (you can put them in the night before and they'll be ready on the "keep warm" setting when you wake up). I like mine with dried fruit, walnuts, and a bit of olive oil (nothing that needs to take up room in the tiny dorm fridge). And for an easy and affordable rice cooker lunch or dinner: make rice, put it in a bowl with spinach (the heat will wilt the spinach), add some soy sauce and toasted sesame oil, and stir it all together. For protein you can add some smoked tofu (not watery and no need for further cooking) or frozen edamame (you can thaw them in a microwave or toss them into the rice cooker a few minutes before the rice is done). Also, hummus and pita and carrots/cucumbers/peppers/any veg you like to eat raw makes a great meal or snack, as a sandwich or just dipping bread/veggies in the hummus. If you have a blender, hummus is incredibly easy to make with canned chickpeas. Dried chickpeas are even cheaper, and if you don't have access to a way to cook them, you can sprout them instead (soak for a day, drain, keep in glass or ceramic container that can breathe a bit, rinse them 2x/day for a few days until they have tails, then keep in fridge). Also, I saw that a lot of folks have already mentioned great salad ideas, so here's a simple dressing: zest and juice a lemon, mash a quarter of a garlic clove along with some salt into a paste with the side of your knife, put it all into a jar with a tight-fitting lid along with some olive oil and shake it up. Taste, adjust the amount of oil, and grind some pepper in there. Any herbs or spices could of course be added but that's the simplest one. And you can use as many lemons (or limes, or both) as you have and just make extra (I usually only zest one no matter how much juice is going in); it keeps well in the fridge (you just need to run the jar under hot water before using in order to melt the oil and shake it all together again). One last money-saving tip: find a store where you can buy spices (and grains, nuts, etc.) in bulk. You'll pay 32 cents for cumin instead of $4. More ideas in Cook Food: A Manualfesto for Easy, Healthy, Local Eating, http://bit.ly/4EKvzA and www.cook-food.org.

I second everyone who has recommended a rice cooker. Get one with a "porridge" setting so you can make soups and oatmeal and stuff. A great and cheap breakfast is steel-cut oats (you can put them in the night before and they'll be ready on the "keep warm" setting when you wake up). I like mine with dried fruit, walnuts, and a bit of olive oil (nothing that needs to take up room in the tiny dorm fridge). And for an easy and affordable rice cooker lunch or dinner: make rice, put it in a bowl with spinach (the heat will wilt the spinach), add some soy sauce and toasted sesame oil, and stir it all together. For protein you can add some smoked tofu (not watery and no need for further cooking) or frozen edamame (you can thaw them in a microwave or toss them into the rice cooker a few minutes before the rice is done). Also, hummus and pita and carrots/cucumbers/peppers/any veg you like to eat raw makes a great meal or snack, as a sandwich or just dipping bread/veggies in the hummus. If you have a blender, hummus is incredibly easy to make with canned chickpeas. Dried chickpeas are even cheaper, and if you don't have access to a way to cook them, you can sprout them instead (soak for a day, drain, keep in glass or ceramic container that can breathe a bit, rinse them 2x/day for a few days until they have tails, then keep in fridge). Also, I saw that a lot of folks have already mentioned great salad ideas, so here's a simple dressing: zest and juice a lemon, mash a quarter of a garlic clove along with some salt into a paste with the side of your knife, put it all into a jar with a tight-fitting lid along with some olive oil and shake it up. Taste, adjust the amount of oil, and grind some pepper in there. Any herbs or spices could of course be added but that's the simplest one. And you can use as many lemons (or limes, or both) as you have and just make extra (I usually only zest one no matter how much juice is going in); it keeps well in the fridge (you just need to run the jar under hot water before using in order to melt the oil and shake it all together again). One last money-saving tip: find a store where you can buy spices (and grains, nuts, etc.) in bulk. You'll pay 32 cents for cumin instead of $4.

Some of my favorites: "HOME-MADE SOUP" Pour Trader Joe's soup into a bowl. Add frozen veggies like corn, spinach, or green beans. Heat in microwave. If you are close to a store that sells rotisserie chicken, or dinner-ready chicken breasts, you could add that, too. (If you want the extra protein.) Tofu works well, too. Fresher & less processed than canned soup. BLACK BEANS & SALSA Open a can of black beans. Mix with salsa. Serve with tortilla chips to get a grain in. (To activate the protein in the beans.) Or if you go with the rice cooker, eat with rice. Option: melt cheese on top, or top with sour cream. Very filling, high energy, and can be very low fat. CROCK POT OR RICE COOKER CHICKEN Put raw chicken in the crock pot or rice cooker. Cover with salsa. (Pace is a good one.) Cook until done. Chicken may be cooked in either large or small pieces. Check it and stir it periodically. SNACKS Fill up on natural proteins to avoid processed foods. The following are often mistaken for being "bad for you" but they are nutritious, and they contain "good for you" essential fats. Plus, if you're full, you probably will be less tempted to eat junk food. -Avocado -Almonds -Dried apricots -Peanut butter & banana -Gorp: peanuts, raisins & M&Ms - easy to carry to class. -Hummos

A tub/jar of miso in the fridge will keep forever. You can whip up miso soup with various toppings in a flash, with the staple hot water heater. Dried seaweed and dried mushrooms also go a long way. Megan and Jill Carle have a college vegetarian cookbook, too. I haven't seen it yet, but I plan to!

I lived in the dorms as an RA. One of the benefits of being an RA is I got a free meal plan for the cafeteria. I really enjoyed this perk. Greasy food aside the cafeteria offered vegetarian dishes, and an amazing salad bar. I ate much healthier choices because it was all right there for the taking. All you could eat veggies is a good thing. Consider this as an option. I am glad I did. It helped me avoid the freshman 15.

Often dormitories will allow you to rent a small refrigerator. If so, make sure it is stocked with vegetables, fruits, cheese and dips for quick and interesting snacks and sandwiches. Also keep salt, pepper, dijon, mayonaise, crackers and bread on hand. Interesting sandwich combinations for 'foodie' cravings include: - granny smith apples, cheese and dijon - tomatoes, boccocini cheese, fresh basil and lettuce - avacado with an assortment of thinly sliced vegetables Crackers can also be transformed with interesting toppings * Remember that a little salt sprinkled on tomatoes brings out their freshest flavour all-year-round. Wishing you a successful year!

I go to college in Maine, so maybe the rules are different in NY, but we're not allowed to have anything with open coils in our dorm rooms. We have a common kitchen in the basement of my building, but I pretty much refuse to use it. It's grungy and old. It's probably fine, but I just can't make myself do it. Instead, I have an electric frying pan, an electric tea kettle, and a panini grill. When I want to cook I just set up a card table and go to town. It's a little cramped, but it works. If you can't fit all three of those things in your room for some reason, make sure you at least get a good sized electric skillet. That way you can do quick sautees or even relatively small amounts of soup. Just be careful not to plug too much in at one time. I've blown fuses before and finding someone to fix that can be tricky on a Saturday night! Have fun and be creative. It's amazing what you can actually do.

I must admit my freshman year when I was required to have a meal plan I didn't really know what to eat other than salad and fruit from the caf so I ended up losing 15 pounds within the first couple months...scary (I hadnt been that weight since I was like 13) But then I got a george foremen grill that I was allowed to use in the hall, and I started using my neighbors rice cookers. I realized I could gather more like ingrediants from the caf and mix them with stuff I bought from the store to make whole meals. Now that I don't have a meal plan, there is absolutley no problems (and I can assure you I gained back those 15 pounds) Something amazing has happened on my campus. Our school offered a vegetarian and vegan (or at least what they disquised to be vegan) menu (it was really more like a salad bar and one side or at one of the eateries they had a veggie sandwich a day). Veggies spoke up and at the end of the year they announced that in the fall (which will be my junior year) they will have an extensive veg menu for us!!!! To bad I don't do meal plans anymore, but anyway the point is speak up you can create change!

Thanks to everyone who has given such thoughtful advice!

When I was living in a college dorm, I used to eat soba or udon on weekends. (The cafeteria was serving all the leftover junk on weekends.) If you have a hot pot (a small pot that simply boils water which is only like $10), you can cook noodles or pasta in there. A bottle of "men tsuyu" (which can be used as soup base or dipping sauce) and dry noodles can last for a long time. You can try different kind of toppings like tofu, scallions, wakame, carrots, spinach, etc. Hope this helps. :)

if you ask me, the REAL challenge for dorm living is the combination of no kitchen AND no money! you could eat really well in NYC without having a kitchen, but it would be prohibitively expensive. make friends with easy to cook grains (like oatmeal, which microwave well) and use them as a base for savory dishes as well. i have a small microwave rice steamer that works great! i got it for about $5 in the international district. i wouldn't use it to cook brown rice, but white rice or millet soaked overnight isn't a problem. also, take advantage of the WHOLE foods that your dining hall provides and keep a stash of condiments and seasonings so you can spice them up healthfully. at my school, i would often ask for just brown rice at the "asian" station, pico de gallo & avocado at the "burrito stand" and then go to the salad bar to get lettuce and beans to make my own meal.

It doesn't really matter what is and isn't allowed in terms of equipment, the point is that in a dorm you don't really want to use it because then you'll have to clean it!

As a recent college grad myself (although from the plain ole Midwest, not the big city), i was pleasantly surprised by the cafeteria at my small liberal arts college. Although the hot entrees were usually awful, we had an excellent salad and fruit bar, bagels and breakfast fixings all day, and even a deli counter with a huge selection of breads, cheeses, meats, and veggies. There was also an international "station" that rotated mainly between Asian and Italian inspired dishes, but the chef who ran it really new what he was doing. I guess what I'm saying is that you might be surprised by what the caf has to offer-- give it a try! As far as my dorm room, we couldn't have anything except a fridge and an electric water kettle. There was a kitchen in tne basement with a stove/oven, larger fridge with a freezer, and a microwave. I usually kept fixings for PB&J, cereal and milk, granola bars, and as much fresh fruit as my half of the fridge could hold. If you keep healthy snack foods around, you'll be forced to EAT healthy snack foods. (Of course, that's not counting the "candy bag" my roommate and I stocked-- and emptied-- frequently.) Good luck!

One can black beans-rinsed & drained if possible, one avocado cubed, chopped fresh cilantro, chopped fresh tomato, chopped fresh onion, juice of one lemon, salt, pepper, cumin. With chips and cheese if you want. Yum - simple, no cook, packed with protein!

@ Liana. Don't worry, you definitely won't have to do without avocados or mangos! Almost every little greengrocer in new york carries a big variety of fruits and veggies, and cheaper than a grocery store will. The trick is to find one you're comfortable with... some of them are definite holes in the wall, and not in a good way. If you're not ready to go hunting around, there's also pricier farmers markets in places like Union Square... (hope you come back and see this. as a onetime NY college student myself, good luck!)

You must read Roger Ebert's ode to the rice cooker (aka "The Pot"). He really makes you think that just about anything that just about anything you'd ever want to make is possible with one -- a pot of beans, a pot of grains, soups, etc. http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/11/the_pot_and_how_to_use_it.html

AS someone who recently graduated and is a native new yorker, most of the dorms in ny have kitchens. If you are one of the unlucky few, you should inquire about how often the rooms are checked for "illegal" appliances. My freshmen year, my roommate had a george foreman grill and I had a rice cooker. I don't think either were really allowed but we managed to have some good meals. If you can you should consider one of the electric plug in woks. I knew some people who used those and kept dried shittake mushrooms around to make stir fries. Also friends who have kitchens are a wonderful thing :) good luck

Yep.... dorm food was pretty bad some days. I relied far too much on potatoes (often in a deep-fried form). I suggest asking cafeteria staff if they have frozen veggie burgers-- they often will try to accomodate you. I brought frozen leftovers from home when I could, and either smuggled them into the dining room or microwaved them in my room. Also, something fun to alleviate the boredom if you don't have much variety: Get a wrap, spread it with cream cheese, and wrap up your salad. Nevertheless, I was glad to move into an apartment!

I wish I'd had this book when I lived in college accommodation http://www.amazon.com/Classic-1000-Student-Recipes/dp/0572029810/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1248529896&sr=8-1 It has recipes divided by equipment, so if you only have a microwave and a toaster oven you can go to the section with recipes for those pieces of equipment. When I was in dorms, I lived off gourmet ready made soup from a local deli and instant ramen. Bad times.

Having just gone back to grad school in New York myself, I may now have a kitchen, but no time! In undergrad (Heidi- UCSD, too?), I had canning jars full of salad toppings (nuts, dried fruits, wonton noodles or croutons), a few canned things (tuna, mandarin oranges, olives), on my bookshelf and kept greens and a few precut veggies in the minifridge. You can even keep a bottle of olive oil and whatever vinegar for dressings or buy bottled. Although you won't live exclusively off the salads, it was nice to be able to whip up a fresh meal with just a fridge. Cafeteria salads were always so expensive on my plan, too. Good luck!