How to Make Cooking in College Easy and Delicious

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By Maya Konings, AEIC

Over the summer while I was at home, I wrote two different articles about all of the fun, involved recipes I was cooking. Now that I’m busy with classes and extracurriculars and I’m living in a small apartment, I’ve definitely needed to simplify my meals. These days, the name of the game is finding things to cook that are quick, affordable, healthy, make a large enough batch for leftovers, and of course taste incredible. Below are two of my favorite meals that I’ve been making on repeat lately.

Cauliflower Gnocchi + Sauce

This is a super easy, cheap, and yummy template for a meal that I’ve been making at least once a week. It’s totally customizable so you can add whatever veggies, sauces, or additional proteins you like.

Start out by sautéing your veggies of choice in some olive oil. Here, I start with shallots and zucchini and then later throw in a big handful of kale. This is also a good time to throw in a protein like chickpeas or tofu. Once the veggies are mostly cooked through, add in a whole bag of Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocchi straight from the freezer. Continue cooking until the gnocchi is heated through, about 5-10 minutes. Take the pot off of the heat, add in your sauce of choice (I’m a big fan of the autumnal harvest pasta sauce from Trader Joe’s these days, but pesto is also a fav) and a handful of parmesan cheese. Serve it up and enjoy! It may not look the prettiest, but I promise it really hits the spot and takes your basic pasta + jar of sauce up a major notch.

Peanut Noodles

There’s nothing more comforting to me than a big, hot bowl of noodles, particularly in the winter. Peanut noodles are another easy dish that is easy to mix and match to your preferences.

Start by preparing your protein of choice. As a lifelong vegetarian, I like tofu. I like to bake my tofu to *crispy perfection* by pressing the tofu, cutting it into cubes, and then tossing it in salt, pepper, garlic powder, a splash of soy sauce, and about a tablespoon each of olive oil, and cornstarch (the secret to getting it extra crispy!) Bake at 425 for 20-30 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Now it’s time to make the peanut sauce! In a bowl, combine peanut butter, lime juice, soy sauce, rice vinegar (or just more lime juice), a drop or sesame oil, and sriracha to taste. I never measure anything, just add each of the ingredients until you like the flavor and consistency. In the meantime, start boiling rice noodles, and strain them once they’re done.

Next, sauté your veggies of choice. I was feeling really lazy so I just threw in a bag of stir fry veggies that I got at Trader Joes, but use whatever you like. Once the veggies are done, add the rice noodles, the tofu, the sauce, and some chopped herbs of choice back into the pot. Mix well and dive in!

This semester has certainly been stressful, but taking just a bit of time to cook a good meal for myself (and set future me up with leftovers) does wonders for my mental health. Comment below your favorite meals that you’ve been cooking since classes started, or leave any recipe requests for me to make!