I am not a cook.
I have never claimed to be a cook. I don’t think that I ever will. However, as an eater of food, I must figure out how to prepare my own sustenance.
My main skills for cooking food are cutting tomatoes, adding pre-sliced mozzarella, pouring balsamic over the two and then grinding salt and pepper onto it (this order is very important as to not mess up the ratio). Additionally, I’m getting very good at putting bread in the oven and not forgetting about it. Not to flex or anything.credit
This push to cook for myself has stemmed from living in an apartment and not a dorm or at home for the first time, dining hall free.
Now let’s be clear: I do not miss the dining hall. For one year of my life I ate sub sandwiches, quesadillas, and vegan tofu every. Day. Spare Monday’s – on Monday’s I would eat vegan Chinese. You could add all the salsa you want to a dining hall quesadilla but I promise you, it will only ever taste like “cheesy”, semi-spicy cardboard. And I can’t even begin to address the calorie intake. July 2018 me had the audacity to think that I wouldn’t gain the freshman 15. Secret time: everyone gains the Freshman 15, and “15” is really just a stand-in number. While all of these things were not ideal, I am very grateful for other people not only preparing my food for me, but also doing all of the dishes. I didn’t fully realize how nice this was until after the fact.
It’s sort of embarrassing, but I have never had to cook for myself before this year of college. I’ve prepared meals, but I’ve never done all of the grocery shopping, cooking, meal prep, etc., all on my own before. To say that there has been a learning curve would be an understatement.
Who I’m trying to be:credit
What I have been:
(I tried to make coffee) credit
I heard that burnt food can cause cancer? I really hope not.
My roommate and I made tacos on our first night.
They looked fantastic.
I thought I had everything under control.
But this only gave me false confidence.
Example: Pancakes? No problem, no problem I thought.
I was wrong.
I’m not even going to slap a filter on them to make them look better. These pancakes were one problem a filter could not fix. We added fruit to this mainly flour and water mixture to see if it could be salvaged, but alas, it could not.
I do not recommend a pancake recipe of flour, almond milk, egg, and baking powder. I don’t know what is missing but let me tell you this recipe does not make pancakes.
I also made rice. If anyone knows how on earth Chipotle makes their rice so good pls hmu. So far, my guess for their secret ingredient is cocaine.
I wanted this:
But instead I made this:
(It didn’t look too bad but…idk man. I just dk)
For the time being I will continue to eat food slightly on the crispy side while working to perfect my use of the built-in iphone timer.
These are some of my successful ventures:
Sauteed tofu, carrots, peppers, onions, chili sauce (vegan)
bruschetta (slightly burnt), tofu (on the tough side but not bad), broccolini (char adds flavor?)Panini sandwich (cooked perfectly), bean salad (made by my mom but I’m gonna count it)
While I have experienced many failures, I remain determined to feed myself.
Next on my list: Pasta. Until then, I will continue to eat yogurt and granola.
Bake on, her campus readers. Wish me luck.