dorm cooking

Intro to Cooking: Spanish Rice
Spanish rice is one of my absolute favorite quick meals — you can cram tons of veggies and whole grains into your diet with one spicy dish. It’s also super easy to add some chicken or tilapia for some extra protein. Either way, my recipe for Spanish rice will rapidly become one of your most-made dishes. I promise.
Our Yummiest Recipes from 2011
I really think my best moments during Intro to Cooking come when I’m trying to think up something to eat after getting home from work at 11 pm. Nothing inspires creativity quite like not going grocery shopping for two weeks and coming home to a house stocked with peanut butter, ramen noodles, and leftover chicken of questionable date. Let’s review some of Intro to Cooking’s best recipes — the ones I’m most proud of saying that I cooked!

The Best Of Intro To Cooking
If you haven’t been reading our Intro To Cooking series, you’ve seriously been missing out. Every Sunday, Intro To Cooking talks you through simple and delicious recipes that even the worst cook can master. You don’t need to resort to Easy Mac or Ramen anymore. Most of the recipes are healthy, and they’re all affordable. Why settle for subpar dining hall food when you can make something yummy and filling?
Intro to Cooking: Healthy Macaroni and Cheese
Healthy macaroni and cheese. I’m really not playing a mean trick on you. Macaroni and cheese is one of the perfect comfort foods: cheese, carbs, creamy-yet-crunchy. I grew up eating the Kraft out-of-the-box kind, only to realize one day last summer that I was basically eating plastic and carbs. It’s just as easy to make homemade macaroni and cheese with tons of veggies and great protein that tastes as decadently cheesy as the out-of-the-box variety. I promise. Really.
Intro to Cooking: Veggie Focaccia
The original recipe from the I Love Trader Joe’s College Cookbook only had tomatoes and olive tapenade. it’s a delicious recipe, which I highly recommend, but after I made it, I wondered what other items I could add to make it healthier, but also more delicious. I settled on the idea that if you pile a salad on top of something, you are allowed to call it healthy. Even if that thing is a deep-fried hamburger or something.
Intro to Cooking: Healthy Chicken Tacos
What’s more relaxing than spending a cozy evening with your boyfriend (or your best girlfriends) enjoying homemade Mexican food and your favorite movies? After a long week, sometimes it’s nice to spend a Friday night in. And you can enjoy tasty, comforting food without completely sabotaging your mission to eat healthy.
Intro to Cooking: Ravioli in Brown Butter Sauce
Ravioli is one of my favorite dishes, because it is comforting and warm. However, I’m not even going to pretend that this is a healthy recipe: several tablespoons of butter per serving, cheese stuffed inside delicious carbohydrates. That being said, this is a comforting, easy to make dish, so don’t discount it just because of the butter.

Intro to Cooking: Cheddar Biscuits
This recipe is one of my favorites. I like to make these biscuits for family gatherings or to give as gifts. They are flaky and completely decadent, the perfect addition to a family meal or even your favorite salad.
Intro to Cooking: The I Love Trader Joe’s College Cookbook Recipe Review
When I started college, I didn’t cook. I had never really had to. I was one of those lucky kids who always came home to a homeade family dinner every single night. I was also one of those kids who was shaken back into reality by college meal plans and the reality that food is kind of expensive.
Intro to Cooking: Chickpea Burgers
Making burgers out of beans certainly isn’t new. However, I’m proud that these chickpea burgers have minimal ingredients for the college girl. Plus, once they are made and cooked, they can be kept in the fridge for a quick snack – cut in half and rolled up in a tortilla with some tzatziki sauce, cut in pieces and tossed over a salad.
Intro to Cooking: Chicken and Gnocchi Soup
It sounds complicated, but I promise it’s not. Chicken and gnocchi soup is one of my favorites to make when I don’t have much time and I’m craving something that tastes homemade. Plus, this is a great soup to impress your friends with and it makes for great leftovers.
Intro to Cooking: Avocado Toast
Hello, my name is Michelle and I’m addicted to avocado. It started simply enough: guacamole. But it transformed, slowly, to an obsession with this fruit. I could eat it on anything: burgers, with french fries, grilled with a salad… It’s delicious. It’s green. It’s one of the best sources of protein and good fat out there.
Intro to Cooking: Fourth of July Grilled Chicken
Hot dogs and potato salad taste delicious, but that bloated feeling afterwards? Not so delicious, that’s for sure. Convince your crew to make some of this grilled chicken instead. Why? One serving of chicken, about the size of the palm of your hand, contains 22 grams of protein. One serving only has between 100 and 130 calories, with very, very few of those coming from fat.
Intro to Cooking: Yummy Yogurt Parfait
I have a secret: it took me forever to fall in love with parfaits. I know! I know! For whatever reason, for a long time, I felt really opposed to mixing food… I was that person who kept everything on the plate from touching. Needless to say, discovering the deliciousness of yogurt parfaits was a groundbreaking day for me.
Intro to Cooking: Taco Burgers
You read that title right. Taco burgers. These are a few of my favorite things: juicy beef patties, chips and salsa, avocado on anything, rice and beans. I asked myself the other evening: why not combined these things? It could be… healthy.
Intro to Cooking: Nutella and Banana Smoothie
Guys, normally I try to write really healthy recipes for this column. Really, I do. From incorporating super food sweet potatoes into your picnic recipes to forcing grilled fruit on your family’s barbecue, I believe it is important to try to eat yummy, healthy food as much as possible.