Next to coping with tainted shower floors, late-night fire drills, and psychotic roommates, dorm hall adversity tops out at preparing meals in your 15×20 cell. While the campus dining hall and pizza joint provide sustenance 90 percent of the time, foul weather and dwindling funds inevitably strike, and just because your room looks like a bomb shelter doesn’t mean your meals have to match. Armed with just a bit of microwave know-how and some no-mess recipes, even the most cooking-impaired student can serve up a steaming plate of irradiated goodness.
Besides the microwave, fridge/freezer combo you paid way too much to rent from campus housing, you’ll need just a few tools to whip up dorm room delicacies:
While four minutes on high will “cook” just about anything, keeping your meal from reenacting that scene from Gremlins takes a bit more finesse. As a general rule, err on the side of cooking for a longer duration on a lower power setting (say, five minutes on 50 percent rather than three minutes on high power), especially when reheating foods with a dense or varied consistency like chicken or lasagna. Also, because a microwave cooks food from the inside out by exciting its water, fat, and sugar molecules, slapping a sheet of plastic wrap over it traps steam to help warm your snack evenly.
Easy Mac, Ramen noodles, and any can with Chef Boyardee’s smiling visage have become college staples for good reason, but you’ll regret burning out on these cheapies during the poverty-stricken months after graduation. Variety is the spice of life, after all—likely the only spice to be found in your bookshelf kitchen. Here are a few easy meals to get you started:
Scrambled eggs and bacon
First, place three strips of bacon on a plate with a paper towel beneath them to catch the grease. Cook on high for two minutes. While the bacon cools and becomes crispy, use a fork to whisk two eggs and cook them for 1 to 1½ minutes on high power. Mashing the eggs on a tortilla with crumbled bacon and some shredded cheese also makes a great breakfast burrito if you nuke it all together for another 20 seconds. True gourmets add leftover McDonald’s picante sauce to take it to the next level.
Chicken Salad
While it’s possible to microwave a raw chicken breast, the resulting flavorless white pulp won’t compare to a nice pouch of pre-grilled chicken that can be stored for long periods in your freezer. Just defrost one breast for about three minutes on 30-percent power. Once the chicken is pliable, slice it into strips, cover it with plastic wrap and cook it for two minutes on 60-percent power. Lay the strips over a bed of salad greens (available in premixed bags in the produce aisle), sprinkle with shredded cheese and slather with your favorite dressing. The salad sans chicken can also make a super-quick snack that’ll help you dodge that freshman fifteen.
Quesadillas and Nachos
Cover half a tortilla with shredded cheese, fold it over and cook for thirty seconds on high power. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can add chicken or bacon cooked the same way as the above recipes before folding the tortilla. Once the quesadilla cools a bit, slice it in half and spoon some salsa onto each triangle-shaped piece. For nachos, place chips on a plate, sprinkle with shredded cheese and microwave on high power for 1 to 1.5 minutes, until the cheese is melted. Spoon salsa onto the chips, or just dip straight from the jar.
— Steve Marzolf
idk
[1] Posted by: cortneyconley | April 6th, 2006 at 12:40 pmwooo hhooooo microwaves
Boarding School Food
[2] Posted by: sailor_girl | April 6th, 2006 at 11:01 pmHey does anyone who goes to boarding school (usually microwave and fridge-less) have any preferably healthy snacking ideas?
2 Minute noodles baby
[3] Posted by: BillyMithThorton | June 12th, 2006 at 1:09 am