Cooking in a dorm

Fizban140

This just came out of nowhere, but now I have to cook all my own meals and I have no kitchen. I bought a foreman grill and I have a microwave what can I make with that? I assume I can boil water and make some pasta in the microwave so I bought a large glass bowl. Chicken and pasta is about as far as I have gone. What else can I make besides hotpockets and hotpockets?

Neaden

Do you have a fridge? If so there are plenty of meals you can make without cooking like salads, sandwiches, wraps, pita and hummus etc.

Casually Hardcore

I'm wondering about this myself. I recently applied for a dorm style studio (fuck paying for that overprice meal plan!) and I came to a sudden realization that I never been without a bloody stove and oven.

DragonPup

Neaden wrote: »

Do you have a fridge? If so there are plenty of meals you can make without cooking like salads, sandwiches, wraps, pita and hummus etc.

And with the Foreman, you can make a wide variety of grilled meats to go with them.

Neaden

Oh man, also rice cooker. I have one of these and I use it all the time. You just put in the rice and water, plug it in and turn it on, simple and easy and rice is cheap and healthy.

ihmmy

I love my rice cooker, so seconding that. You can also throw veggies in part way through the cooking cycle to get them all steamed and yummy-licious, and if you pick up something like frozen precooked shrimp toss those in too to defrost them and ta-dah you have starch, veggies and protein

blakfeld

with an electric kettle you can make pasta and stuff

KalTorak

Rice cookers are crazy-useful. Are you allowed to have a hotplate?

Zeromus

Fizban140 wrote: »

This just came out of nowhere, but now I have to cook all my own meals and I have no kitchen. I bought a foreman grill and I have a microwave what can I make with that? I assume I can boil water and make some pasta in the microwave so I bought a large glass bowl. Chicken and pasta is about as far as I have gone. What else can I make besides hotpockets and hotpockets?

Yuck, do not make pasta in the microwave.

Skeith

Perhaps a crock pot?

Fizban140

I can't make pasta in the microwave? Crap what do I need then? I am actually not allowed to have any grills or anything (might burn down the base) in my room but if they want me to cook then I am going to cook.

Rice cookers here were about $45, I saw a crock pot for like $12 is there a lot I can do with one?

Zeromus

I mean, you can cook pasta in a microwave, I've just found that that makes the noodles... not to my liking.

DirtyDirtyVagrant

You can get an electric kettle and use that to make pasta.

You can do tons of shit with a crock pot (including making amazing sauce for your pasta).

Also consider the electric skillet.

Zeromus

The crock pot is really an excellent idea.

Tag

It's out of season but corn on the cob is awesome on a foreman grill. You can also wrap almost anything in tinfoil and use the grill as a makeshift stove; works well with fish and such.

Shadowfire

Crock pots really are amazing. Some meat and veggies with a bit of water, wine, and spices makes some amazing (and stupidly easy) dishes.

Tag: corn cooks really well in the microwave. I never would have thought so, but put it on a plate wrapped in reynolds wrap with a bit of olive oil (or butter, if you're a caveman), salt, and pepper for about 2 minutes. I swear it comes out absolutely perfect.

PolloDiablo

Get an electric stir-fry thing. I cooked like crazy in one of those. They're amazing.

Improvolone

Crock pot a million times. You can even buy liners for them so you don't have to clean, because cooking in a dorm is a pain in the ass, but cleaning pots and pans is even worse.

cabsy

Crock pots and rice cookers are really useful. If you're not supposed to have the george foreman grill, make sure you clean it very well regularly, or you'll end up setting off the smoke alarm and at least in my dorms they would confiscate them until the year's end if they caught you with one.

phoxphyre

Using our George Foreman, we cook all sorts of vegetables (mushrooms, onions, zucchini ... Basically anything you can BBQ) It also bakes some mean potato wedges, and burger patties!

Raekreu

Foreman grill, microwave, and crockpot have all been touched on and are all good ideas. Rice cookers vs electric kettle are in the same boat as toaster vs toaster oven - the latter being a more utilitarian choice in both cases.


The only piece of advice I can give is to not cook anything that can stink up the place. This basically means fish, spicy dishes, and anything fried - including stir fry. Electric woks are awesome but will leave a fine coating of grease on everything in their immediate vicinity no matter how careful you are with your use of oil.

Dhalphir

toasted sandwiches.

best food ever.

Jawa

Dhalphir wrote: »

toasted sandwiches.

Seriously toasted sandwiches on the foreman are your best bet for delicious food.

WildEEP

Use the microwave for boiling water - use boiling water to make pasta. Small dish - elbow pasta.

Step 1: Boil water in microwave - I suggest a using a pyrex measuring cup.
Step 2: Pour boiling water over pasta and immeadiately cover pasta bowl and let sit for several minutes.
Step 3: Uncover pasta, strain out water, add sauce.

As long as you've got a good cover over that pasta and you're not trying to make too much, it should cook it pretty thoroughly.

Dhalphir

Jawa wrote: »

Dhalphir wrote: »

toasted sandwiches.

Seriously toasted sandwiches on the foreman are your best bet for delicious food.

you don't even have to put anything fancy in them

a toasted sandwich with just ham is fantastic by itself add some cheese and its brilliant.

Blake T

WildEEP wrote: »

Use the microwave for boiling water - use boiling water to make pasta. Small dish - elbow pasta.

Step 1: Boil water in microwave - I suggest a using a pyrex measuring cup.
Step 2: Pour boiling water over pasta and immeadiately cover pasta bowl and let sit for several minutes.
Step 3: Uncover pasta, strain out water, add sauce.

As long as you've got a good cover over that pasta and you're not trying to make too much, it should cook it pretty thoroughly.

Don't do this microwave water can explode.

Improvolone

Blaket wrote: »

WildEEP wrote: »

Use the microwave for boiling water - use boiling water to make pasta. Small dish - elbow pasta.

Step 1: Boil water in microwave - I suggest a using a pyrex measuring cup.
Step 2: Pour boiling water over pasta and immeadiately cover pasta bowl and let sit for several minutes.
Step 3: Uncover pasta, strain out water, add sauce.

As long as you've got a good cover over that pasta and you're not trying to make too much, it should cook it pretty thoroughly.

Don't do this microwave water can explode.

Alton Brown says you can do it if you put a chopstick in the water

Szechuanosaurus

You can get microwave cookbooks with all sorts of recipes you wouldn't expect possible. My sister and her family lived out of a microwave for a couple of months while their kitchen was being rebuilt and I was quite impressed by what she was able to make from scratch with it. They are also excellent fir steaming vegetables and fish. And ok at baking potatoes (although you don't get the nice crispy skin).

Re water exploding in microwaves: I was under the impression that this was basically a myth - any minute imperfection in the container or impurity in the water would prevent it from happening so it's basically impossible under domestic conditions unless you're really trying to make it happen?

TechBoy

Szechuanosaurus wrote: »

Re water exploding in microwaves: I was under the impression that this was basically a myth - any minute imperfection in the container or impurity in the water would prevent it from happening so it's basically impossible under domestic conditions unless you're really trying to make it happen?

It's actually quite do-able, but only if you use distilled water.

The risk comes from the way microwaves work: they make the water molecules spin rapidly, which causes heat via friction. If you microwave pure water, they will spin in place like a top. As soon as you jostle the water molecules - by say moving the container - all the molecules will slam into each other like battling tops and fly everywhere causing steam, explosions, etc.

But as long as there are imperfections in the water, like minerals from tap water or spaghetti or tea leaves or whatever, the water molecules will bang into these as it is being microwaved and not suddenly explode at the end.

Fubear

No one mentions quesadillas?

You use two flour tortillas (or one folded) and put shredded cheese (4-cheese is best) on it.

To make them in the microwave, just make a mini cone pyramid of cheese with the base covering 2/3 of the quesadilla's area. Microwave for 30 s to 1 min.

To make them in a grill, spread the cheese evenly in a thin fully covering layer that's not on the edge, but close.

I'd recommend Cholula Hot Sauce, but you have to open the quesadilla quickly after removing it from either the microwave or grill because the cheese tends to glue it shut after a while.

Casually Hardcore

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_OXM4mr_i0

Lord Jezo

If you go the rice cooker route this is THE cookbook for you:

http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Rice-Cooker-Cookbook-Porridges/dp/1558322035/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274195482&sr=8-1

It's amazing. I never had any idea I could do so much with my little device until that showed up in the mail.