Happy back to school season! For many second year students returning to campus, this will be their first time living in an apartment with their own kitchen. Being able to prepare your own meals can be much more gratifying than eating dining hall food every day. But if you’re not a great cook, like myself, or you’re constantly strapped for time, then you may feel a bit stressed over how you’re going to prepare multiple meals a day for seven days a week. So to help out every new kitchen owner, I thought I’d share some of my go-to quick and easy meals that I make weekly.
1. Pasta with meat sauce
Pasta is one of the best meals to make in college. I prefer linguini as my noodle of choice, but you can make this meal with any pasta shape you want. For my meat sauce, I cook ground beef in a pan with olive oil and season it with salt, pepper, garlic powder, adobo, and onion flakes. I then mix the cooked beef with vodka sauce. The sauce can also last several meals, which saves me a lot of time.
2. Fried egg sandwich
Many sandwiches take less than ten minutes to put together, as long as you have all of the ingredients. For my sandwich, I toast my bread and fry an egg over easy in butter, then add a deli meat (usually either ham or chicken), spinach, and sriracha for additional flavor. I love eating this sandwich with chips and iced tea for that American diner feel.
3. Potstickers
Pre-made frozen potstickers are super easy to cook, and you can buy them at College Convenience or any Asian supermarket. I prefer the pork filling, but there are many different filling options that you can choose from. The instructions to cook the potstickers are usually on the bag itself, and I like to eat mine with soy sauce.
4. Fried rice
Fried rice is probably the most time-consuming option on this list, but the end result is totally worth it. You can add as little or as many ingredients as you want, but I typically like to cook my fried rice with diced peppers, diced onions, corn, scrambled egg, and scallions. I always cook my vegetables first, then add about two cups of cooked rice which I fry in butter. I then create a hole in the center of the rice where I crack two eggs and scramble them with chopsticks. To season my rice, I use garlic powder, soy sauce, sesame oil, and most importantly oyster sauce.
5. Ramen
Finally, ramen or any brand of instant noodles is a classic go-to meal in college. You can make your ramen as simple or as fancy as you want, but I typically like to add a fried egg. Some of my favorite ramen and instant noodle brands are Nissin Roah, Indomie, and Samyang.